Keeping your heart healthy may do more than protect against heart disease; it could also help preserve your memory.
According to new research presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2025, adults with Type 2 diabetes who maintained strong cardiovascular health were less likely to develop mild cognitive impairment or dementia, even if they carried genes linked to a higher risk for cognitive decline.
“There are multiple factors associated with Type 2 diabetes that contribute to an increased risk of cognitive decline and dementia. People with Type 2 diabetes tend to have more obesity, higher blood pressure and insulin resistance. Controlling all those factors is also good for improving cardiovascular health,” said Yilin Yoshida, Ph.D., M.P.H., FAHA, assistant professor of medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans. “Our study found that following steps to improve cardiovascular health can also reduce the risk for cognitive impairment among people with Type 2 diabetes.”
The findings come from a review of health and genetic data from more than 40,000 adults with Type 2 diabetes in the UK Biobank, a large biomedical database that tracks participants over time. Researchers assessed cardiovascular health using the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8, a score that includes diet, physical activity, sleep, weight, blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol and smoking status.
Over 13 years, participants with moderate or high cardiovascular health had a 15% lower risk of developing mild cognitive impairment and dementia than those with poor cardiovascular health. Even among people with a high genetic risk for dementia, those who scored higher on heart health had a 27% lower risk of mild cognitive impairment and a 23% lower risk of dementia.
“Genes are not destiny,” said Xiu Wu, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow of medicine at Tulane University. “Maintaining optimal cardiovascular health can protect brain health even for people with Type 2 diabetes who carry the highest genetic risk for dementia. That means, if you have a family history of Alzheimer’s or cognitive impairment, you can make the modifiable lifestyle changes that may help protect yourself.”
Researchers also found that better heart health scores were linked to greater brain volume, a sign of slower brain aging. An additional analysis of more than 20,000 adults from the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Hub showed similar results in a representative U.S. population.
“There has been previous research showing the benefits of following Life’s Essential 8 to reduce cognitive impairment in other populations, so it is interesting to observe these study results supporting similar findings among people with Type 2 diabetes,” said Hugo Aparicio, M.D., M.P.H., FAHA, volunteer chair of the American Heart Association’s Stroke Council Brain Health Committee, who was not involved in the study. “It’s another great example of what’s good for the heart is good for the brain, even when your genes may be stacked against you.”
While the research is observational and cannot prove cause and effect, it reinforces the growing evidence that everyday habits, including eating well, moving more, managing blood sugar and getting enough sleep, can support both heart and brain health.
“In the past, we focused on the message: live healthy, live long,” Yoshida said. “However, it’s not just living long, it’s living long and maintaining our cognitive function and capacity for longer independence and better quality of life. Our study’s findings support that you can do both.”