Vascular and neurodegenerative causes of cognitive impairment and dementia have long been thought of as separate entities with no linkage by way of mechanisms of causation. More recently, however, cardiovascular risks have been linked to neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer’s dementia (AD) and other neurodegenerative disorders. These new associations provide a potential treatment and prevention pathway for not only vascular disease and vascular forms of cognitive impairment, but also for AD. In this course we will explore:

• How the paradigm shift occurred to include cardiovascular risks as possible risks for both vascular dementia, and AD and other neurodegenerative forms of dementia;
• Mechanisms underlying the role of hypertension, diabetes and obesity in the causation of cognitive impairment and dementia; and
• Results of clinical trials designed to treat hypertension, diabetes and obesity to protect the brain and as forerunners to what the provider in practice may do at the individual patient level to prevent cognitive impairment and dementia in later life.