Diabetes, high cholesterol, smoking may damage brainCrossword puzzles and memory games aren't enough to ward off Alzheimer's disease when some middle-aged couch potatoes get older. A new study finds that people in their early 40s who smoke or have diabetes and high cholesterol or have hypertension are at greater risk to develop Alzheimer's in their late 60s. But those risk factors can be mitigated through treatment and exercise, the study suggests. Alzheimer's can spring from heart and artery trouble, not just from neurological damage, said neurologist Rachel Whitmer, who led the study of 8,500 Kaiser Permanente patients. "Blood pressure, hypertension,...
