A recent study by the Global Nutrition Report 2017 shows that eating beans bred to contain more iron boosts memory and attention in college-going women in Rwanda. The specially biofortified beans could prove significant in a continent where iron deficiency (ID) affects both adults and children, with dire consequences. Lenny Ruvaga reports for VOA from Kigali, Rwanda.
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Day: December 20, 2017
Laurie Metcalf has won three Emmys and a Tony Award in her nearly 40-year year career, but the veteran stage and screen actress still feels uncomfortable in front of a camera.
She says even after all her years on “Roseanne,” she still finds that a camera recording her makes her feel inhibited.
Metcalf is also feeling out of her element as a serious Academy Award contender for her role in the film “Lady Bird,” in which she plays the mother to a 17-year-old daughter who is going through a selfish phase.
The 62-year-old actress has already gotten supporting actress nominations from the Screen Actors Guild, the Golden Globe Awards and the Independent Spirit Awards. She says she’s flattered by the attention, which she also calls surreal. And on January 23, she might add the coveted Oscar nomination to her resume too.
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Scientists warn a campaign to eradicate polio in central Africa is falling short because of upheaval in the Lake Chad Basin area, where the Boko Haram militant group remains active. On the positive side, on country – Gabon – has been declared polio-free.
Professor Rose Leke, who heads the Africa Regional Certification Commission for polio eradication, says Central Africa has seen no cases of polio in the past 15 months. But, she adds, scientists cannot be sure the polio virus has been eradicated in the region.
Leke says medical teams find it difficult getting access to conflict zones in Mali, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and parts of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria affected by the Boko Haram insurgency.
“DRC has circulating polio viruses, so many of them. We are worried about the country and so we have specific recommendations also for DRC and for all the others. We are still very concerned about the Lake Chad basin area, the Borno [state in Nigeria] area where we do not know what is happening there. I think that is a concern for the entire world,” she said.
Leke says polio cases have decreased by more than 99 percent in the past 30 years, from an estimated 350,000 per year to just 37 reported cases in 2016.
She says as a result of the global effort to eradicate the disease, more than 16 million people have been saved from paralysis.
According to the United Nations, once a case of polio is recorded, it takes three years of no other case to declare the zone polio-free. Gabon recently reached that goal.
Gabon’s neighbor Cameroon has attained the status of “non-polio exporting country,” but is still considered a high-risk nation like other African states with an influx of refugees from conflict zones that health care workers mostly avoid.
But Alim Hayatou, Cameroon’s secretary of state in the ministry of health, says the country is also on track to be polio-free.
He says they have prepared an ambitious plan to make sure Cameroon eliminates polio by 2019.
Central African states have organized numerous inoculation campaigns, but more than 15 percent of children in the region remain unvaccinated due to cultural resistance, conflicts and illiteracy.
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While most musicians seek to avoid a frosty reception at concerts, for Norwegian composer and performer Terje Isungset a chilly feeling is nothing to fear: he performs with instruments he makes himself out of ice.
A recent performance at London’s Royal Festival Hall featured a set including ice horns, ice drums and an “iceofone” — an ice xylophone — accompanied by the vocal stylings of singer Maria Skranes.
He sees his work as being about more than making music, since he also aims to display the beauty and fragility of ice.
“I see it as a part of something bigger. It’s not me and my project and my ego — it’s the elements,” he told Reuters.
The Norwegian, equipped with a background in traditional Scandinavian music and jazz, makes his instruments using chainsaws and pick axes.
Founder of an ice music festival in Norway, Isungset plays at about 50 festivals and concerts a year, many in the cold conditions of Norway, Canada or Russia.
At concerts in warmer climes, however, hotter temperatures can pose difficulties, as spending any more than 50 minutes at room temperature could damage the instruments.
All of the instruments for the London show were made in Norway and shipped over in special containers, highlighting the fact that, when it comes to making ice instruments, not any old water will do.
“If ice is from polluted water it doesn’t sound that good. If it’s from tap water it doesn’t work because there’s some chemicals in it,” he said. The best ice, he said, was from 2003 in the north of Sweden, adding “I’m very interested in that ice.”
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The Associated Press recently caught up with a few celebrities and asked them about their favorite holiday cards from fellow notables.
Hugh Jackman of The Greatest Showman wouldn’t name any names, but he said some cards are remarkable. He even rates them. Liam Neeson, who stars in The Commuter, really appreciates a certain sender every Christmas season: Steven Spielberg. Neeson said Spielberg has never forgotten his birthday or Christmas since the two did Schindler’s List together.
Rebecca Ferguson wasn’t shy about a little name dropping: Tom Cruise. Of her Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation co-star, she says he has a signature cake he sends for birthdays that he claims is healthy but really isn’t.
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A judge on Tuesday dismissed the lawsuit brought by a choreographer who alleged Michael Jackson molested him as a child, resolving one of the last major claims against the late singer’s holdings.
Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff’s summary judgment ruling against the now-35-year-old Wade Robson found that the two Jackson-owned corporations, which were the remaining defendants in the case, were not liable for Robson’s exposure to Jackson. He did not rule on the credibility of Robson’s allegations themselves.
Robson’s attorney, Vince Finaldi, said he strongly disagrees and plans to appeal.
Robson, a native of Australia who has worked with Britney Spears and NSYNC, met Jackson when he was 5 years old.
He testified in Jackson’s defense at the singer’s 2005 criminal trial, saying he had spent the night at Jackson’s Neverland Ranch more than 20 times and usually slept in Jackson’s room, but Jackson never molested him. Jackson was acquitted in that trial.
Then in 2013 about four years after the singer’s death, Robson sued the Jackson estate for what his attorneys described as molestation that spanned a seven-year period.
A court ruled in 2015 that Robson had filed his lawsuit too late to get any of Jackson’s estate. That left two remaining defendants, both corporate entities owned by Jackson in his lifetime: MJJ Productions, Inc., and MJJ Ventures, Inc.
The judge ruled Tuesday that those two corporate defendants could not be held responsible for Robson’s exposure to Jackson, the way a school or the Boy Scouts can be found liable for bringing together an abusive adult and a child victim.
Finaldi said the reasoning sets a dangerous precedent.
“What the judge is saying is that you if own a corporation or a company, you can hire people, use these people to facilitate your sexual abuse, use them to facilitate victims,” Finaldi told The Associated Press by phone. “So long as you’re the sole owner of that corporation, the corporation can’t be held liable.”
Jackson estate attorney Howard Weitzman said in a statement that he “believes the court made the correct decision in dismissing Wade Robson’s claim against it. “In my opinion Mr. Robson’s allegations, made 20 plus years after they supposedly occurred and years after Mr. Robson testified twice under oath — including in front of a jury — that Michael Jackson had never done anything wrong to him was always about the money rather than a search for the truth.”
Finaldi replied that the Jackson camp’s interest in the truth was “hollow.”
“If someone’s trying to search for the truth, why not let the lawsuit proceed?” Finaldi said. “Why not exonerate him and let a jury decide.”
During the criminal trial, Robson bristled at testimony by other witnesses that they had seen Jackson molest him.
“I’m telling you nothing happened,” Robson testified at the time when a prosecutor challenged him.
Another Robson attorney said when his lawsuit was filed that stress and sexual trauma led Robson to finally accept that he had been molested by Jackson.
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We’re thawing out the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart, for the week ending Dec. 23, 2017.
It’s a festive time of year for many of us, so here’s something to celebrate: a new number one single!
Number 5: Imagine Dragons “Thunder”
Imagine Dragons remains your fifth-place act with “Thunder.” We’re only about six weeks away from the Super Bowl … and this band will take part in the festivities.
On Feb. 1, 2018, Imagine Dragons will give a headlining performance in Minneapolis, Minnesota — site of Super Bowl LII on February 4. Machine Gun Kelly and Mura Masa will be the opening acts.
Number 4: Lil Pump “Gucci Gang”
Lil Pump spends another week in fourth place with “Gucci Gang.” Why did he throw a microphone at a fan?
Earlier in December, the 17-year-old rapper prematurely ended a show in Wallingford, Connecticut, after a spectator threw a water bottle at him. Pump chucked his microphone into the crowd and left the stage. He later went on Twitter to apologize … but not to the person who threw the water bottle.
Number 3: Camila Cabello Featuring Young Thug “Havana”
Camila Cabello and Young Thug step back a slot to third place with “Havana.” Speaking with DJ Zane Lowe, Camila says her upcoming solo album will drop on January 12. She says the album reflects her desire to move on from a heartbreak, and the name change enabled her to take charge of the situation. The album originally bore the title “The Hurting, The Healing, The Loving.”
Number 2: Post Malone Featuring 21 Savage “Rockstar”
After eight weeks at the top, Post Malone and 21 Savage lose the Hot 100 championship with “Rockstar.”
On December 15, Post dropped the Latin remix featuring Nicky Jam and Ozuna. You can hear it on our Twitter page, RayOnTheHits, and our Facebook page, VOA1TheHits.
Number 1: Ed Sheeran Duet with Beyonce “Perfect”
Remixes are all the rage right now … in fact, that’s what we get at No. 1.
Ed Sheeran scores his second career Hot 100 victory with the remix of “Perfect” featuring Beyonce. She’s an old hand at topping the hit list: This is Beyonce’s sixth solo title, along with four more with Destiny’s Child. It’s also her first championship since “Single Ladies” reigned for four weeks in December 2008.
Can they last two weeks at the top? We’ll find out in seven days!
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A survey by the U.N. refugee agency reveals heightened worries by the Rohingya refugee population in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh over their health and safety.
It has been nearly four months since the mass exodus of Rohingya refugees began from Myanmar into Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. More than 645,000 Rohingya who escaped violence and persecution in Myanmar are living in squalid, overcrowded settlements.
A survey by the U.N. refugee agency and 13 other organizations finds the refugees have developed strong support networks to help them cope with their difficulties.
UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic says the refugees have many worries. They express concern about their safety, considering their weak shelter accommodations and poor lighting at night.
“Access to sanitation is still insufficient, leading sometimes to long queues for latrines,” said Mahecic. “Women and girls are anxious about the shortage of private bathing spaces, forcing some to wash outside their shelters in early morning hours.”
The survey finds some children have to walk long distances to fetch water and firewood, a situation that can put them at risk. Mahecic says both parents and children want access to education and more safe places for children to play. He says health services also are a major concern.
“Increased mental health support for those who have witnessed the killings or suffered torture or rape remains crucially needed,” said Mahecic. “Refugees cite continued feelings of depression and rejection, especially among the elderly and disabled. Many young people are worried about their uncertain future.”
Mahecic says the UNHCR will use the survey findings to improve its protection and assistance programs for the Rohingya in the coming year. He says the agency already has begun providing alternatives to firewood to address child labor and environmental concerns.
He says efforts also are under way to improve the hygiene and sanitary conditions for women and girls and to provide more child-friendly spaces where boys and girls can play in safety. Children account for more than half of the refugee population.
Health officials say the refugees are extremely vulnerable to diseases as they have low vaccination coverage and are living in congested, unsanitary settlements that are breeding grounds for infectious diseases.
The European Court of Justice ruled Wednesday that ride-hailing company Uber should be regulated like a taxi service instead of a technology firm, a decision that limits its business operations in Europe.
The decision was handed down in response to a complaint from a Barcelona taxi drivers association, which tried to prevent Uber from expanding into the Spanish city. The drivers maintained that Uber drivers should be subject to authorizations and license requirements and accused the company of engaging in unfair competition.
The San Francisco-based Uber contends it should be regulated as an information services provider because it is based on a mobile application that links passengers to drivers.
The European Union’s highest court said services provided by Uber and similar companies are “inherently linked to a transport service” and therefore must be classified as “a service in the field of transport” under EU law.
The decision will impact ride-hailing companies in the 28-nation EU, where national governments can now regulate them as transportation services.
Uber attempted to downplay the decision, saying it only affects its operations in four countries and that it will move forward with plans to expand in Europe. But the company was previously forced to abandon its peer-to-peer service in several EU countries that connect freelance drivers with riders.
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The World Meteorological Organization reports 2017 is on track to be among the three hottest years on record, just behind the two preceding years.
While 2017 may only emerge as the third warmest year on record, scientists predict it will beat out the competition for warmest year without a warming El Nino. These record setting years concern those who see this as a sure sign that climate change is happening at a quickened pace.
The WMO says the overall long-term warming trend since the late 1970s is worrying and cannot be ignored. The United Nations agency says rising temperatures are ushering in more extreme weather with huge socioeconomic impact.
WMO spokeswoman Claire Nullis says the warming conditions prevailing over both the Arctic and the Antarctic are very alarming. She says the Arctic is warming at about twice the rate of the global temperature increase.
“We are very, very concerned about the rate of warming in the Arctic,” she said. “There was an Arctic Report Card released last week. It said while 2017 saw fewer records shattered than in 2016, the Arctic shows no sign of returning to the reliably frozen region it was decades ago.”
The Arctic Report Card is a peer-reviewed report that brings together the work of 85 scientists from 12 nations.
WMO notes warmer than average temperatures dominated across much of the world’s land and ocean surfaces during November. It says the most notable temperature rises were across the Northern Hemisphere.
For example, it reports temperatures in northern Canada and northwestern Alaska were two degrees centigrade above the average, indicating a very pronounced warming at the Arctic.
The Environmental Protection Agency says an internal task force appointed to revamp how the nation’s most polluted sites are cleaned up generated no record of its deliberations.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt in May announced the creation of a Superfund Task Force that he said would reprioritize and streamline procedures for remediating more than 1,300 sites. Pruitt, the former attorney general of Oklahoma, appointed a political supporter from his home state with no experience in pollution cleanups to lead the group.
The task force in June issued a nearly three-dozen page report containing 42 detailed recommendations, all of which Pruitt immediately adopted. The advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, known as PEER, quickly filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking a long list of documents related to the development of Pruitt’s plan.
After EPA didn’t immediately release any records, PEER sued.
Now, nearly six months after the task force released its report, a lawyer for EPA has written PEER to say that the task force had no agenda for its meetings, kept no minutes and used no reference materials.
Further, there was no written criteria for selecting the 107 EPA employees the agency says served on the task force or background materials distributed to them during the deliberative process for creating the recommendations.
According to EPA, the task force also created no work product other than its final report.
“Pruitt’s plan for cleaning up toxic sites was apparently immaculately conceived, without the usual trappings of human parentage,” said Jeff Ruch, the executive direction of PEER. “It stretches credulity that 107 EPA staff members with no agenda or reference materials somehow wrote an intricate plan in 30 days.”
The task force was led by Albert “Kell” Kelly, whom Pruitt hired at EPA as a senior adviser. Kelly was previously the chairman of Tulsa-based SpiritBank, where he worked as an executive for 34 years.
The Associated Press reported in August that Kelly was barred by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from working for any U.S. financial institution after officials determined he violated laws or regulations, leading to a financial loss for his bank. The FDIC’s order didn’t detail what Kelly is alleged to have done. Without admitting wrongdoing, he agreed to pay a $125,000 penalty.
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The traditional Ukrainian Bell Carol has become an essential part of the American Christmas tradition. “Carol of the Bells” is a popular Christmas carol composed by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych in 1914 with lyrics by Peter J. Wilhousky. The song is based on a Ukrainian folk chant called “Shchedryk.”
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In the universe, particularly in our galaxy, there are a great number of multiple-stellar systems where two or more stars rotate around each other. In many of these systems, the stars collide – a phenomenon that has been familiar to astronomers for a long time. But scientists say a collision that happened almost two thousand years ago will soon be able to be seen with the naked eye. VOA’s Aram Vanetsyan has more.
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This remote town in Peru’s southern Andes was supposed to serve as a model for how companies can help communities uprooted by mining.
Named Nueva Fuerabamba, it was built to house around 1,600 people who gave up their village and farmland to make room for a massive, open-pit copper mine.
The new hamlet boasts paved streets and tidy houses with electricity and indoor plumbing, once luxuries to the indigenous Quechua-speaking people who now call this place home.
The mine’s operator, MMG Ltd, the Melbourne-based unit of state-owned China Minmetals Corp, threw in jobs and enough cash so that some villagers no longer work.
But the high-profile deal has not brought the harmony sought by villagers or MMG, a testament to the difficulty in averting mining disputes in this mineral-rich nation.
Resource battles are common in Latin America, but tensions are particularly high in Peru, the world’s No. 2 producer of copper, zinc and silver. Peasant farmers have revolted against an industry that many see as damaging their land and livelihoods while denying them a fair share of the wealth.
Peru is home to 167 social conflicts, most related to mining, according to the national ombudsman’s office, whose mission includes defusing hostilities.
Nueva Fuerabamba was the centerpiece of one of the most generous mining settlements ever negotiated in Peru. But three years after moving in, many transplants are struggling amid their suburban-style conveniences, Reuters interviews with two dozen residents showed.
Many miss their old lives growing potatoes and raising livestock. Some have squandered their cash settlements. Idleness and isolation have dulled the spirits of a people whose ancestors were feared cattle rustlers.
“It is like we are trapped in a jail, in a cage where little animals are kept,” said Cipriano Lima, 43, a former farmer.
Meanwhile, the mine, known as Las Bambas, has remained a magnet for discontent. Clashes between demonstrators and authorities in 2015 and 2016 left four area men dead.
Nueva Fuerabamba residents have blocked copper transport roads to press for more financial help from MMG.
The company acknowledged the transition has been difficult for some villagers, but said most have benefited from improved housing, healthcare and education.
“Nueva Fuerabamba has experienced significant positive change,” Troy Hey, MMG’s executive general manager of stakeholder relations, said in an email to Reuters. MMG said it spent “hundreds of millions” on the relocation effort.
Mining is the driver of Peru’s economy, which has averaged 5.5 percent annual growth over the past decade. Still, pitched conflicts have derailed billions of dollars worth of investment in recent years, including projects by Newmont Mining and Southern Copper.
To defuse opposition, President Pablo Kuczynski has vowed to boost social services in rural highland areas, where nearly half of residents live in poverty.
But moving from conflict to cooperation is not easy after centuries of mistrust. Relocations are particularly fraught, according to Camilo Leon, a mining resettlement specialist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.
Subsistence farmers have struggled to adapt to the loss of their traditions and the “very urban, very organized” layout of planned towns, Leon said.
“It is generally a shock for rural communities,” Leon said.
At least six proposed mines have required relocations in Peru in the past decade, Leon said. Later this month, Peru will tender a $2-billion copper project, Michiquillay, which would require moving yet another village.
‘Everything is Money’
MMG inherited the Nueva Fuerabamba project when it bought Las Bambas from Switzerland’s Glencore Plc in 2014 for $7 billion.
Under terms of a deal struck in 2009 and reviewed by Reuters, villagers voted to trade their existing homes and farmland for houses in a new community. Heads of each household, about 500 in all, were promised mining jobs. University scholarships would be given to their children. Residents were to receive new land for farming and grazing, albeit in a parcel four hours away by car.
Cash was an added sweetener. Villagers say each household got 400,000 soles ($120,000), which amounts to a lifetime’s earnings for a minimum-wage worker in Peru.
MMG declined to confirm the payments, saying its agreements are confidential.
Built into a hillside 15 miles from the Las Bambas mine, Nueva Fuerabamba was the product of extensive community input, MMG said. Amenities include a hospital, soccer fields and a cement bull ring for festivals.
But some residents say the deal has not been the windfall they hoped. Their new two-and-three story houses, made of drywall, are drafty and appear flimsy compared to their old thatched-roof adobe cottages heated by wood-fired stoves, some said.
Many no longer plant crops or tend livestock because their replacement plots are too far away. Jobs provided by MMG mostly involve maintaining the town because most residents lack the skills to work in a modern mine.
Many villagers spent their settlements unwisely, said community president Alfonso Vargas. “Some invested in businesses but others did not. They went drinking,” he said.
Now basics like water, food and fuel – once wrested from the land – must be paid for.
“Everything is money,” Margot Portilla, 20, said as she cooked rice on a gas stove in her sister-in-law’s bright-yellow home. “Before we could make a fire for cooking with cow dung. Now we have to buy gas.”
Ghost Town
Some residents said they have benefited from the move.
The new town is cleaner than the old village, said Betsabe Mendoza, 25. She invested her settlement in a metalworking business in a bigger town.
Portilla, the young mom, says her younger sisters are getting a better education than she did.
Still, the streets of Nueva Fuerabamba were virtually deserted on a recent weekday. Vargas, the community leader, said many residents have returned to the countryside or sought work elsewhere.
Alcoholism, fueled by idle time and settlement money, is on the rise, he said.
Some villagers have committed suicide. Over the 12 months through July, four residents killed themselves by taking farming chemicals, according to the provincial district attorney’s office. It could not provide data on suicides in the old village of Fuerabamba.
MMG, citing an “independent” study done prior to the relocation, said the community previously suffered from high rates of domestic violence, alcoholism, illiteracy and poverty.
While the company considers the new town a success, it acknowledged the transition has not been easy for all.
“Connection to land, livelihood restoration and simple adaptation to new living conditions remain a challenge,” MMG said.
Nueva Fuerabamba residents continue pressuring the company for additional assistance. Demands include more jobs and deeds to their houses, which have yet to be delivered because of bureaucratic delays, said Godofredo Huamani, the community’s lawyer.
MMG said it stays apace of community needs through town hall meetings and has representatives on hand to field complaints.
While villagers fret about the future, many cling to the past. Flora Huamani, 39, a mother of four girls, recalled how women used to get together to weave wool from their own sheep into the embroidered black dresses they wear.
“Those were our traditions,” said Huamani from a bench in her walled front yard. “Now our tradition is meeting after meeting after meeting” to discuss the community’s problems.
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Brushstroke by brushstroke, muralist Robert Vargas is telling the story of this changing metropolis, using the facade of a 14-story downtown apartment building as his canvas.
Vargas suggests the massive painting, an homage to his hometown, was inevitable.
He grew up in East Los Angeles “on a street called City View, and from my stoop, I had a clear sight line to the downtown L.A. skyline. So I think I was always destined to dream big and to paint big,” Vargas said. “I’m fulfilling my destiny.”
Vargas, of Mexican and Native American descent, began painting as a child. He studied at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, as well as New York’s Pratt Institute. His art has taken him from doing portraits on local streets to crafting scenes abroad — in Australia, Japan and, most recently, the United Arab Emirates. He showcases his work on an Instagram account that identifies him as “Artist based in Downtown Los Angeles, but for the world!”
The scale of Vargas’ painting has grown over time.
His current mural stretches more than 5,500 square meters (6,600 square yards) — painted freehand, without a preliminary grid or stencils. He works from the kind of adjustable platform used by window washers.
Vargas started painting the mural this summer and expects to finish it in early 2018. He’s touting it, in numerous media interviews, as the largest done by a single artist. Guinness World Records has “received an application on Robert’s behalf, but we have not received any further evidence for the claim,” a spokeswoman told VOA in an emailed response.
Hope, inclusion
Vargas’ mural depicts a multicultural metropolis.
“I want to convey a message of hope and inclusion, celebrating the diversity of Los Angeles,” the painter said.
His mural is ripe with symbolism, such as the image of a Native American girl.
“It’s really anchored by this Tongva girl — the original natives to inhabit the L.A. Basin,” Vargas said. Another figure will depict lightweight boxer Oscar De La Hoya, “foreshadowing the Olympics that are going to be here in 2028.”
De La Hoya won an Olympic gold medal in 1992 and served on the committee that landed the future Summer Games for Los Angeles. Vargas will paint the boxer holding an Olympic torch.
The crowning figures for the mural, called “Angeles,” will be three angels. Vargas described the inspiration for two of them: One “happens to be a homeless woman that I selected from the streets,” he said, explaining that he wanted to recognize residents who are losing ground in a gentrifying area.
Another has a more intimate connection: “One of the angels is actually [representing] my mother, who introduced me to downtown Los Angeles as a kid.”
“I’m just really excited about painting something this big,” Vargas said, “in the heart of the city where I grew up.”
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A new study has dashed hopes that people may be able to protect themselves from dementia through medicine, diet or exercise.
“To put it simply, all evidence indicates that there is no magic bullet,” Dr. Eric Larson wrote in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The study outlined in the medical journal looked at four types of intervention to try to prevent dementia — prescription drugs, exercise, cognitive training, and nonprescription vitamins and supplements.
Researchers found none worked.
The Lancet, a British medical journal, reported earlier this year that about one-third of dementia cases could be linked to such conditions as cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, obesity, a lack of exercise and depression.
While Larson said there was no simple answer to the prevention of dementia, he highly recommended a commonsense, healthful lifestyle that may help delay the disease. It would involve exercising regularly, refraining from smoking, eating a healthful diet and taking part in activities that stimulate the brain.
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