This isn’t strictly a stroke-prevention post. It’s a dementia-prevention post. But Stroke‑Proof is ultimately about protecting the brain—and looking after your hearing and eyesight may be a more important part of that than most people realise. The 2024 Lancet Commission estimated that addressing 14 modifiable risk factors could potentially prevent or delay around 45% of dementia cases. Two of those factors involve our senses: 👂 Hearing loss in midlife was estimated to account for around 7% of dementia cases at population level. 👁️ Untreated vision loss in later life was estimated to account for around 2%. Why might our senses affect the health of our brain? Think about how much stimulation reaches your brain through your eyes and ears. Every conversation you follow, face you recognise, book you read and environment you navigate activates complex networks of brain cells. When hearing or vision deteriorates, several things may happen: • The brain receives less sensory stimulation. • It has to work harder to interpret incomplete information. • People may withdraw from conversations and social activities. • Reading, exercise, travel and other cognitively stimulating activities can become more difficult. • Reduced input may contribute to changes in the brain regions that process sensory information. It may therefore be partly a case of maintaining the connections that keep our brain circuits active—continuing to stimulate the wiring rather than gradually allowing those pathways to become less active. In the ACHIEVE randomised trial, treating hearing loss did not significantly slow cognitive decline across the entire study population. However, among participants already at higher risk of cognitive decline, a hearing intervention slowed cognitive decline by 48% over three years. For vision, one study of more than 3,000 older adults with cataracts found that cataract surgery was associated with a 29% lower risk of subsequently developing dementia. That cannot prove that the surgery caused the reduction, but it strengthens the case for taking treatable vision loss seriously.

Hi everybody, we have our first Aintree hospital stroke prevention patient education session on Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. We've invited people who've had a stroke at the point of being discharged from hospital. This is our first attempt and we haven't had many responses so there are still a few slots in that meeting. If anybody here is interested in joining us either for their own learning or to help by giving us feedback on how we can improve the sessions, you'd be very welcome. Please let me know and we can give you further details.

I attended a Lifestyle Medicine Conference last week and came away with four important messages that I believe are highly relevant for our stroke prevention community. For those who may not be familiar with Lifestyle Medicine, it is an evidence-based approach that supports people to improve their health through sustainable changes in nutrition, physical activity, sleep, stress management, social connection, and the avoidance of harmful substances. It works alongside, not instead of, conventional medicine. 1. Small Changes Can Make a Meaningful Difference One of the clearest messages from the conference was that you do not need to transform your life overnight to improve your health. Research consistently shows that realistic changes to how we eat, move, sleep, manage stress, and avoid harmful substances can improve blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood glucose control. These changes can also improve how we feel day to day, helping us with energy levels, mood, and overall wellbeing. 2. Our Reason for Changing Matters Knowing that we need to lower our blood pressure or lose weight is not always enough to sustain long-term change. We are far more likely to maintain healthy habits when they are connected to something personally meaningful: remaining independent, spending quality time with family, watching our children or grandchildren grow up, travelling, gardening, or continuing to enjoy the activities we love. The number may be the clinical goal, but our "why" is often what helps us take the next step and keep going when motivation fades. 3. Sleep Is Powerful and Often Underestimated Sleep is not simply a period of rest. It influences what we eat, how active we feel, how we manage stress, how we connect with others, and even our relationship with smoking and alcohol. Poor sleep can make healthy choices feel harder and unhealthy choices feel more tempting. Rather than thinking of sleep as separate from the other pillars of health, it may be more helpful to see it as the foundation that supports them all.

Good evening. Please find attached below the home BP monitoring form that Maggie mentioned in our meeting in Sunday I have also attached it in the Classroom section in the Home Blood Pressure Monitoring section. I will also soon upload Prof Chatterjee's guide to blood glucose but am having a few issues with uploading the file today.