Healthy heart can help prevent Alzheimer's disease

A new study has revealed that healthy heart can help prevent Alzheimer's disease.

According to new research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, poor heart function could be major risk for Alzheimer's disease.

Participants with decreased heart function, measured by cardiac index, were two to three times more likely to develop significant memory loss over the follow-up period.

The research used data from the Framingham Heart Study, an effort that began in 1948 to identify risk factors for heart disease. 1,039 participants from Framingham's Offspring Cohort were followed for up to 11 years to compare cardiac index to the development of dementia.

Over the study period, 32 participants developed dementia, including 26 cases of Alzheimer's disease. Compared to normal cardiac index, individuals with clinically low cardiac index had a higher relative risk of dementia.

The study is published in Circulation.