Remote indigenous Amazon tribe has lowest dementia rates in the world
By Rich Haridy
March 09, 2022
Researchers working with remote indigenous populations in the Bolivian Amazon have found the communities experience extraordinarily low rates of dementia. The new study follows on from prior findings reporting the same groups display almost no cases of age-related heart disease.
The Tsimane (pronounced chee-MAH-nay) are a unique population of around 17,000 people living in remote areas of Bolivia who have been the subject of much research over the past few decades due to their unusually good health in older age.
In 2017 researchers from The Tsimane Health and Life History Project reported finding surprisingly low levels of vascular aging in Tsimane adults. A striking 85 percent of Tsimane adults showed no risk of heart disease and a study in The Lancet estimated an average 80-year-old Tsimane adult displayed the same vascular age as an American 25 years their junior.
This new research on the remote Amazon community focused on brain health and the prevalence of dementia. The study recruited 435 Tsimane adults, all over the age of 60. Using a local team of carefully trained physicians and translators, the Tsimane participants completed a number of neurological assessments, including CT brain scans and cognitive tests.
More:
https://newatlas.com/tsimane-amazon-dementia-brain-health/
