Keep in mind that risk factors are traits or behaviors that may make you statistically more likely than others in the general population to have a certain condition. They are not necessarily "causes" of the condition. Some research evidence points to the following items as Alzheimer's risk factors, but they remain controversial:

Keep in mind that risk factors are traits or behaviors that may make you statistically more likely than others in the general population to have a certain condition. They are not necessarily "causes" of the condition. Considerable research evidence strongly suggests that the following factors increase Alzheimer's risk, but experts do not yet consider them well-established:

Keep in mind that risk factors are traits or behaviors that may make you statistically more likely than others in the general population to have a certain condition. They are not necessarily "causes" of the condition.

German neurologist Alois Alzheimer had no idea what caused the abnormal clumps and irregular knots of brain cells that he discovered in a 1906 autopsy of a woman who died after years of progressive dementia. He assumed they had caused the woman's mental deterioration, but they might also have been an effect of it.