ABSTRACT
There seems to be a general belief that all older adults are the same. That, for some reason, with age, we homogenize. The truth is that the complete opposite is the case: the older we are, the more heterogeneous we become. Later in this chapter, we shall look at risk factors associated with dementia. Risk factors are also essential to consider when looking at ageing in general. With age, we experience more things. We are exposed to internal and external situations that determine our mental and physical well-being. We are each an amalgamation of our interactions as biological entities with the environment. Yes, we may have certain genetic predispositions to a host of conditions. Still, it is only if we are exposed to the right (perhaps that should be wrong?) factor (or factors) that these conditions manifest in most cases. In this chapter, we will explore in some detail the main risk factors linked to dementia diagnoses of varying types; these include age, gender, and ethnicity, among others. We will also look at the role of education and lifestyle in these conditions. First, we will tackle a question on many minds: is dementia inevitable once we reach a certain age?
