Addressing key lifestyle and health factors could prevent or delay up to 40% of dementia cases globally. Longevity-focused biotech company Zest recently teamed up with the Memory Lab at the University of Cambridge to launch the new PREMAZ app-based test to measure brain health and brain aging for those looking to take a proactive approach to tackling cognitive decline.
Julia Cooney, MD, founded Zest three years ago to help close the gap between healthspan and lifespan by increasing the number of healthy years people live and reducing the number of years spent in poor health.
“In the last 100 years, as humans, we’ve almost doubled our lifespans, but we actually haven’t really changed our healthspans, and that means we’re living more years in poor health than at any other time in human history,” Cooney said.
Outside of screening, she noted that there are five main categories that have been clinically proven to be really closely linked to dementia prevention, with healthy diet being number one.
“So the Mediterranean diet, omega-3 fatty acids can reduce dementia risk,” she said. “Physical activity, particularly aerobic exercise, cognitive training and social activity is really important.
“There’s also been some research into supplementing sulforaphane—so that’s sort of that broccoli derived supplement that’s making some waves in the longevity industry recently that has been linked to cognitive health, but omega -3 is definitely the main one.”
Cooney also discussed the growing trend of longevity, emphasizing the disconnect between social media hype and actual consumer knowledge. She underscored the impact of influencers on platforms like TikTok, noting that while some credible doctors do promote science-backed health content, the majority of influencers are often misleading.
“On the longevity side, we’re seeing trends, things like taping castor oil onto your belly button to detox or doing parasite cleanses or anything that’s removing toxins, I think you should always be wary of,” she said. “So I think obviously there’s some fantastic creators out there, but overall, I’m a little bit scared about what it’s doing to our global health literacy.”
Looking ahead, Cooney hopes to make PREMAZ available in the public health system so patients can be recommended the dementia screening test.
“We are looking at private sector licensing, s we work with some brain health supplement companies who would like to have a test to show that their supplements are working,” she said. “We’re very open to partnering with them and showing sort of before and after testing, after taking certain nootropic supplements, also working with private memory clinics as well as sort of other companies. That’s the end goal, but we’ve got a few steps to get there.”
To hear about how the PREMAZ test measures “memory precision” and more proactive health measures that can support healthy cognition, listen to the NutraCast.
If this topic is of interest, check out our upcoming Nutra Healthspan Summit coming this fall in London.
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