Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Associate Professor Sana Suri explains how heart and vascular health across life shapes dementia risk and what early prevention can achieve.
At the Longevity Forum Science Summit, Dr. Sana Suri, leader of the Heart and Brain Group at the University of Oxford, explores how our hearts, blood vessels, and overall health influence dementia and Alzheimer’s risk.
Drawing on large studies such as the Whitehall Imaging Study and UK Biobank, she shows how midlife risk factors—like high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, and aortic stiffness—leave early “signatures” in the brain, affecting blood flow, white matter connectivity, and hippocampal structure.
Dr. Suri introduces a simple UKB Dementia Risk Score based on lifestyle and health measures, explains how clusters of diseases across life—from cardiovascular to mental health conditions—combine to drive dementia risk, and emphasizes why prevention starting in the 40s is critical. She also highlights that dementia is not only a biological disease but a social one, shaped by poverty, inequality, stigma, and barriers to care, particularly in underserved groups such as South Asian communities. The talk calls for inclusive prevention strategies, public brain-health awareness, and policies addressing both medical and social drivers of brain ageing.
Associate Professor Sana Suri explains how heart and vascular health across life shapes dementia risk and what early prevention can achieve.
At the Longevity Forum Science Summit, Dr. Sana Suri, leader of the Heart and Brain Group at the University of Oxford, explores how our hearts, blood vessels, and overall health influence dementia and Alzheimer’s risk.
Drawing on large studies such as the Whitehall Imaging Study and UK Biobank, she shows how midlife risk factors—like high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, and aortic stiffness—leave early “signatures” in the brain, affecting blood flow, white matter connectivity, and hippocampal structure.
Dr. Suri introduces a simple UKB Dementia Risk Score based on lifestyle and health measures, explains how clusters of diseases across life—from cardiovascular to mental health conditions—combine to drive dementia risk, and emphasizes why prevention starting in the 40s is critical. She also highlights that dementia is not only a biological disease but a social one, shaped by poverty, inequality, stigma, and barriers to care, particularly in underserved groups such as South Asian communities. The talk calls for inclusive prevention strategies, public brain-health awareness, and policies addressing both medical and social drivers of brain ageing.
