New research published by the American Heart Association has identified 10 factors that may be linked to an increased risk of cognitive decline

Experts have identified 10 factors that could heighten your risk of developing dementia. A newly published report has shed light on some of the elements that can impact brain health.

It is estimated that nearly one million people across the UK are currently living with dementia. Most prevalent in those aged over 65, it can present itself through symptoms including memory loss, changes in behaviour, and difficulties with speech, amongst others.

While the precise cause of dementia remains unknown, research has demonstrated that certain lifestyle choices and medical conditions can elevate your risk of cognitive decline. A new report has now pinpointed 10 such contributing factors.

Published by the American Heart Association (AHA), the statement outlined 10 factors that can negatively affect the health of a person’s brain. These are:

• Early life infections
• Adverse childhood experiences
• Socioeconomic factors
• Chronic medical conditions
• Stress
• Anxiety and depression
• Pollution and environmental exposures
• Chronic inflammation
• Disruption of the gut microbiome (dysbiosis)
• Poor sleep quality

As reported by Medical News Today, these factors can impact the body in numerous ways, which in turn affects brain health. In light of the findings, researchers are urging governments to introduce policies aimed at tackling some of these issues. This encompasses tackling air pollution and enhancing air quality, as well as championing routine vaccination programmes to help individuals steer clear of infections that can harm brain health. Experts not involved in the research shared their thoughts on the significance of the findings.

Speaking to Medical News Today, Dung Trinh from MemorialCare Medical Group and Chief Medical Officer of the Healthy Brain Clinic, said: “The main takeaway is that brain health is not determined only by age or genetics.

“It is shaped across the entire lifespan by a combination of physical health, mental health, sleep, lifestyle, social support, environment, and access to care. The American Heart Association statement is important because it reframes brain health as something we can influence much earlier and more broadly than we used to think.”

Melinda Patterson, an assistant professor of neurology with the University of Rochester Medicine, added: “Many of the habits we think of as ‘heart healthy’ turn out to be ‘brain healthy’ too. This statement reinforces that idea, while also highlighting factors that do not always get enough attention in research or in everyday clinical care.

“One of the most important messages is that brain health is shaped across our entire lives and not just in old age. Experiences and choices made early in life can have a real impact decades later. That also means there is good news: no matter what stage of life you are in, there are steps you can take to lower your risk of stroke and cognitive decline.”

Supporting research

These findings are backed up by a landmark report published by The Lancet in 2024. The study revealed that approximately 45 per cent of all dementia cases could be prevented through certain lifestyle changes.

It also identified 14 risk factors for dementia. These were:

• Less education
• Hearing loss
• Hypertension (high blood pressure)
• Smoking
• Obesity
• Depression
• Physical inactivity
• Diabetes
• Excessive alcohol consumption
• Traumatic brain injury
• Air pollution
• Social isolation
• Untreated vision loss
• High cholesterol

If you or someone you know is showing signs of dementia, you should consult a GP.

This year’s local polls in Oldham saw 20 council seats up for grabs, with one in each ward.

The turnout stood at 46.67 per cent, over ten per cent higher than the 35.58 per cent recorded in 2024.

However, no overall control of the council was reached, meaning days of decision-making are ahead to reach an agreement as to the council’s leadership.

Werneth:

Mohammed Imran Ali (Irish Imy) (Ind) 864​

Fida Hussain (Lab & Co-op) 1748​

Stuart Illingworth (Reform) 247​

Rangzib Nazir (Oldham Group) 1602​

Rangzib Pendlebury (Lib Dem) 102​

Mycul Trelore (Green) 364​

Turnout- 51.28 per cent

Labour held the seat.

ELECTION COVERAGE

Reform’s wins have shaken the already rocky foundations of the Labour administration, which currently runs the council. The group lost their overall majority at the 2024 elections in large part due to a collapse of the Pro-Palestine Muslim vote in Labour strongholds around the town centre. 

They have since run the council with the support of four independents. But after losing a further nine councillors to Reform, independents, and the Oldham Group during the election this year, their tenure in leadership could be at an end.

During the count, one member described the group’s general demeanour as “like the walking dead with red rosettes”. 

A mum who says the UK is ‘becoming racist’ has vowed to ditch Britain for Bali by the end of the year.

Beth Ware, 28, said she doesn’t want her children to grow up in an ‘environment that promotes so much hatred’.

Her comments come as this year’s local election results are announced, showing early signs of promise for Reform UK – something Ware blames for an ‘increase in hostility’ she claims to have noticed gripping the country.

Beth, who lives in Kent, said: ‘The UK is becoming racist.

‘I know that racism has been around for a very long time in the UK, and I feel so sorry for people who have experienced it more under the radar, but now it’s a lot more out in the open and people are feeling ok to make these kinds of comments.

‘I regularly see posts in my area of people warning about ‘mixing of breeding’, ‘mixing ethnicities’ and how white British people soon won’t be white.’

The mum-of-two, whose children are mixed race, finds this change particularly concerning.

‘As a mother of mixed children, that language is so frightening, and it’s just not something I would expect to hear in 2026 whatsoever,’ she added.

Ware, a mindset coach, says she ‘knows she can’t bubble wrap her children’ and that ‘racism exists everywhere’. ‘But I really want to get out before it could possibly become like the USA.’

She has now begun liquidating her assets and has started reaching out to hotels and resorts on the Indonesian island in search of work.

Ware’s decision to leave the country comes as votes in the local, Scottish and Welsh elections are counted.

With Labour looking set to suffer catastrophic losses, Nigel Farage’s Party is expected to be the main beneficiary in the largest test for Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership since the entire country went to the polls back in 2024.

Beth is concerned not only about Reform’s immigration policies, but also comments made by former Reform candidate Matt Goodwin in favour of a ‘negative child benefit tax’ on adults who do not have children.

Though not reflective of official Reform policy, Goodwin’s comments proved controversial during his ultimately unsuccessful by-election campaign in Gorton and Denton earlier this year.

The Party has also outlined plans to scrap the Equality Act and reimpose the two-child benefit cap.

‘One thing is the racism that Reform is promoting, but the other thing is that they are looking to start teaching girls at a young age the importance of having children early,’ Ware added.

‘That’s so scary to me, that’s giving The Handmaid’s Tale, the fact that they are looking at taxing women more who don’t have children.’

She added: ‘I’m very proud to be British. I have generations and generations of very noble British men, British women, but the problem is I feel the flag is being used as a weapon.’

Reform UK has been contacted for comment.

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MORE: Starmer says ‘tough’ election results won’t weaken his resolve to stay on as PM

Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr is a new constituency for this Senedd election. It is one of 16 constituencies made up by pairing the 32 Westminster constituencies.

This constituency pairs up the Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare and Pontypridd constituencies, and therefore includes places like Abercynon, Aberdare, Llantrisant, Merthyr Tydfil and Pontypridd.

Each of the 16 constituencies will elect six politicians and people will be asked to vote for a party, not a person, and the result is being calculated via a method of proportional representation called the D’Hondt method.

Here, Labour incumbent Vikki Howells hopes to be elected, as does Plaid Cymru’s Heledd Fychan, who was a regional member in the last Senedd. Former Labour MP Beth Winter is standing as an independent here, having left the party.

The result in this constituency is estimated to be around 4pm, but this is approximate. We will update this page with the result as soon as it is available.

LIVE: Updates, reaction and quotes as the votes are counted across Wales

RESULTS: Wales’ Senedd Election results in full as it happens

Vote totals in Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr

To be updated when the votes are counted

Senedd Members elected in Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr

To be updated when the votes are counted

Turnout in Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr

47.28%

Results

Constituency map of Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr

The full list of candidates in Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr

Conservatives

1. Adam Robinson
2. David Jones
3. Roxanne Rees
4. Lee Davies
5. Oliver Morgan
6. Jayne McKenna

Green Party

1. Angela Karadog
2. James Bennett
3. John Dane
4. Georgina Budd
5. Zara Siddique
6. Jeff Baxter

Gwlad

Stefan Morgan

Heritage Party

Julie Lloyd

Independents

Anthony Biddulph

Dai Williams

Beth Winter

Labour

1. Vikki Howells
2. Lloyd John Watkins
3. Chris Binding
4. Mitch Theaker
5. Mustapha Maohoub
6. Anna Williams-Price
7. Jane Allison Gebbie

Liberal Democrats

1. Neil Feist
2. David Seale
3. Alec Dauncey
4. Nick Beckett
5. Chris Passmore
6. Hayden Lewis

Plaid Cymru

1. Heledd Fychan
2. Lis McLean
3. Sara Crowley
4. Ian Gwynne
5. Farrell Perks
6. Ioan Bellin

Reform UK

1. Jason O’Connell
2. David Hughes
3. Mark Lawrence
4. Martin Roberts
5. John Ball
6. Jamie Loftus

The Ebor Inn at Bishopthorpe will open on Wednesday May 13, the same day as York Racecourse stars racing for its Dante Festival.

The Sam Smith’s pub will be managed by Sally Watkins, whose father Gordon Watkins ran the pub to much acclaim for nearly 40 years until his sad dead from Covid in 2021, aged 71.

RECOMMENDED READING:
Sally Watkins to re-open Ebor Inn in Bishopthorpe in days

For several years the pub remained closed, and after short period of being open, closed again last year.

During the latest closure the brewery then carried out renovations to the premises, which date back to the mid-1700s, including removing white rendering to expose the original brick, giving it a whole new look.

When she announced her plans to take on the pub, Sally Watkins added on social media that she planned to re-open in time for start of the racing.

Sally posted on the pub’s Facebook page last night: “SIX sleeps and COUNTING until we OPEN.”

He served a prison sentence for stalking

The public have been urged to not approach a 28-year-old man who is wanted on recall to prison. Jordan Affleck, 28, was recently released from prison after serving a sentence for stalking and was yesterday (May 6) reported to be behaving “aggressively and threateningly”, according to Cambridgeshire Police.

Police are now appealing for the public’s help to locate Affleck but have urged the public not to approach him. Affleck is known to frequent Abbotsley and Wyboston, near St Neots, but could also be in the surrounding areas. He is described by police as white, 5’8 with short dark brown hair and dark facial hair.

Anyone who believes they have seen Affleck or know his whereabouts is asked to call police on 101 quoting reference CC-29042026-0052 or report online. Alternatively, you can contact Crimestoppers, anonymously, by calling 0800 555111 or report online.

There were 20 of town hall’s 60 seats up for grabs with Reform UK winning the most on the night with nine.

The Greens won three while the Conservatives also won three, with Labour winning two, the Horwich and Blackrod First Independents two and the Liberal Democrats one.

Overall this left Labour with the most seats with 20, but 10 off what they need for a majority.

The Conservatives were left in second place with 11 seats and Reform UK on third with 10 and the five Liberal Democrat with five.

When counting was done there were also four Greens, four Horwich and Blackrod First Independents, three Farnworth and Kearsley First Councillors and three independents.

Westhoughton North and Hunger Hill

David Lewis – Reform UK – 1781

Neil Maher – Liberal Democrats – 1071

Paul Leslie Saunders – Labour Party – 403

Martin Tighe – Conservative Party – 964

Louise Warburton – Green Party – 439

The 44-year-old suffered fatal injuries when he was slashed and stabbed while trapped in his VW Passat after it was rammed by a 4×4 containing the defendants.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Morgan Caldwell, Daniel Simpson, Dominic Hall and a 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, hunted down Mr Dickons and his friend Stephen Law when a drug deal went wrong.

John Elvidge KC, prosecuting, said the defendants armed themselves with machetes and a BB gun before driving around Middlesbrough searching for Mr Law after they accused him of ripping them off.

Throughout the trial, the jury has watched harrowing CCTV footage which captured the orchestrated and brutal attack on the 44-year-old in the car park of Orme Court, North Ormesby, Middlesbrough.

Simpson, 32, of Coledale Road, Berwick Hills, 24-year-old Hall, of Greencroft Walk, 26-year-old Caldwell, of Cannock Road and the teenager, all of Middlesbrough, deny the murder of Mr Dickons.

They also deny a charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm against Mr Law on November 6 last year.

The trial continues.

There were 20 of town hall’s 60 seats up for grabs with Reform UK winning the most on the night with nine.

The Greens won three while the Conservatives also won three, with Labour winning two, the Horwich and Blackrod First Independents two and the Liberal Democrats one.

Overall this left Labour with the most seats with 20, but 10 off what they need for a majority.

The Conservatives were left in second place with 11 seats and Reform UK on third with 10 and the five Liberal Democrat with five.

When counting was done there were also four Greens, four Horwich and Blackrod First Independents, three Farnworth and Kearsley First Councillors and three independents.

Westhoughton South

Richard Adam Bates – Independent – 57

Glen Clarke – Reform UK – 1644

Colin Higson – Conservative Party – 276

Simon Penhallow – Green Party – 306

Christina Ruth Saunders – Labour Party – 455

Jack Speight – Westhoughton First Independents – 100

David Arthur Wilkinson – Liberal Democrats – 1550