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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		When it comes to memory decline, age matters
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:03
	Publish Date:		2017-01-11 18:00:00
	Description:		Age matters when it comes to spotting the warning signs of memory decline and other thinking skills. Kristine Yaffe, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco, has been studying a group of young adults from 18 to 30 years old, until they've reached midlife. And in doing so, Yaffe observed some of their weakening brain activity. "If you just study people when they are in their eighties and nineties with dementia, that's very helpful in terms of trying to come up with better treatment and better care of patients, but it's not very helpful if you are trying to prevent or really try to intervene early. For that you have to back up the time, probably by decades and really get a better understanding of some of the early signs and the early risk factors." Yaffe found other factors, like alcohol use, depression and poverty, also contribute to mental decline. The good news is, it’s not too late – that changes in lifestyle may help these people prevent dementia later in life.
	Total Play:		0