Pre-reading questions:
- Is your lifestyle healthy? Why or why not?
- Do you think a healthy lifestyle can prevent diseases? Why or why not?
Vocabulary:
- risk /risk/
- variation /vair-ee-EY-shuhn/
- capacity /kuh-PAS-i-tee/
- involve /in-VOLV/
- prevent /pri-VENT/
[noun] the possibility of something bad happening
Unusual toddler’s mannerisms should be considered as a risk in brain development.
[noun] a change in amount or level
The theater play won a technical award because it had the best variations of lights and sounds.
[noun] the ability to do a particular thing
One of the grounds in adapting is the capacity of a foster parent to provide good education.
[verb] to include someone or something in an activity
The proposal involves a total reorganization of the company.
[verb] to stop something from happening or someone from doing something
Big chunks of rocks were put at the mountainside to prevent the landslide.
The University of Exeter Medical School’s analysts in England proved that a healthy lifestyle can lower risks of having Alzheimer’s and/or other forms of dementia. They studied about 200,000 people who are 60 years old and above and without any signs of dementia. Their gene variations are categorized by high, intermediate, and low genetic risk. Also, these people were classified based on lifestyle. The outcome showed that 1.8 percent of participants who have high genetic risk and an unhealthy lifestyle developed dementia. On the other hand, 0.6 percent of participants with low genetic risk and have healthy lives did not trigger any symptoms of dementia.
Dementia is a form of brain disease that worsens memory capacity of an individual, one example of these is the Alzheimer’s disease which genetically involves memory loss from the middle to old age. According to John Haaga of US National Institute on Aging, people can escape from getting such disease by having a healthy lifestyle. Despite the genetic threat, a person’s lifestyle like ample exercise with proper diet and avoiding alcohol and smoking can make a difference to prevent dementia.
Dementia is a form of brain disease that worsens memory capacity of an individual, one example of these is the Alzheimer’s disease which genetically involves memory loss from the middle to old age. According to John Haaga of US National Institute on Aging, people can escape from getting such disease by having a healthy lifestyle. Despite the genetic threat, a person’s lifestyle like ample exercise with proper diet and avoiding alcohol and smoking can make a difference to prevent dementia.
Comprehension Questions:
- Who is John Haaga?
- What is Alzheimer’s disease?
- Where did the analysts conduct the experiment?
- In the article, how can people prevent dementia?
- Based on the result, which participants developed dementia?
Discussion Questions:
- In your own opinion, how do healthy habits affect life?
- What do you think are the unhealthy habits that a person must stop?
- Do you think memory loss affects people of all ages? Why or why not?
- Aside from healthy lifestyle, what other activities might help a person to prevent brain diseases?
- In your opinion, what are the other causes of brain diseases?