People who have a parent or sibling with dementia are about 72 percent more likely to develop dementia themselves than are those who do not have a family connection to the disorder, according to data detailed at an American Heart Association conference and published in the journal Circulation. But adopting healthy lifestyle behaviors seems to reduce that risk considerably, the study found. For nearly a decade, the researchers tracked 302,239 older adults (ages 50 to 73, and without dementia at the start), specifically monitoring six behaviors: eating a healthy diet (more fruits and vegetables, less processed meat and refined grains), doing at least 150 minutes a week of moderate to vigorous physical activity, sleeping six to nine hours a night, consuming only moderate amounts of alcohol, not smoking and maintaining a healthy weight.