Did you know that having heart disease increases your risk of dementia by 27%, and that one-third of Alzheimer's disease-related dementias can be attributed to modifiable coronary risk factors such as high blood pressure?

Add to that the fact that the highway from the heart to brain — called the heart-brain axis — transports shared metabolic processes (elevated glucose, inflammatory proteins) and troublemakers (amyloids that accumulate in the blood and brain), and you can see how important it is to protect your cardiovascular system and your brain together.

New guidelines published in CMAJ (the Canadian Medical Association Journal) recognize this powerful relationship and present a set of recommendations for how to keep tabs on the health of both your heart and brain.

These guidelines give you an increased chance to roll back risk factors and improve the health of both systems:

1. If you have AFib, get screened for cognition problems.

2. If you have coronary artery disease, get screened for depression — and vice versa.

3. Aggressive blood pressure control is essential to reduce the risk of dementia as well as stroke and heart attack.

4. Make sure to get your influenza, pneumococcus, and shingles vaccines, especially if you're 65 or older, to help prevent stroke, heart attack, and vascular cognitive impairment.

As the developers of the guidelines say, "These recommendations recognize the intricate relationship between heart and brain disease and the importance of screening and treatment of the whole person."