While former professional soccer players have less risk for heart disease and cancer than the general population, they are five times more likely to die with a neurodegenerative disease in old age.
Quite independently of what it does to Aβ or tau, ApoE4 stokes α-synuclein pathology in mouse models. People with Lewy body dementia who carry ApoE4 had more phosphorylated synuclein in their brains, and their cognition declined faster.
Centenarians who scored high on the MMSE stayed cognitively and physically active over the next two years, even if they carried genetic risk factors for Alzheimer’s. What protects these lucky few?