While the most prominent risk factor for AD is increasing age, the disease develops as a result of several risk factors that converge. Environmental factors such as traumatic brain injury, ischemia, hypoxia, neurotoxins, infections, lifestyle, metabolic parameters, and comorbid cardiovascular disease also contribute to the development of dementia.
Read more about genetic and environmental risk factors in Alzheimer’s disease
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Social and physical exposome factors—like poverty, pollution, and inequality—accumulate over time, shaping biological aging and cognitive decline. Through inflammation and cellular stress, these exposures drive neurodegeneration, highlighting the need for longitudinal, integrative research.
The exposome reframes dementia as the product of cumulative physical and social exposures-like pollution, nutrition, and inequality-across life. These factors shape brain aging through inflammation and epigenetic change. Lifespan, global studies are key to equitable dementia prevention.
