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Socially
active and not easily stressed? You may not
develop Dementia
Newswise — A new study shows that people who
are socially active and not easily stressed
may be less likely to develop dementia. The
research is published in the January 20,
2009, print issue of Neurology®, the medical
journal of the American Academy of
Neurology.
The study involves 506 older people who did
not have dementia when first examined. The
group was given questionnaires about their
personality traits and lifestyle.
The personality questions identified people
with different degrees of neuroticism, a
term meaning easily distressed. The
questions also measured extraversion, or
openness to talking to people.
Those who were not easily distressed were
calm and self-satisfied, whereas people who
were easily distressed were emotionally
unstable, negative and nervous.
Outgoing people scored high on the
extraversion scale and were socially active
and optimistic compared to people with low
extraversion who were reserved and
introspective.
The lifestyle questionnaire determined how
often each person regularly participated in
leisure or organizational activities and the
richness of their social network.
Participants were followed for six years.
During that time, 144 developed dementia.
The study found that people who were not
socially active but calm and relaxed had a
50 percent lower risk of developing dementia
compared with people who were isolated and
prone to distress.
The dementia risk was also 50 percent lower
for people who were outgoing and calm
compared to those who were outgoing and
prone to distress.
“In the past, studies have shown that
chronic distress can affect parts of the
brain, such as the hippocampus, possibly
leading to dementia, but our findings
suggest that having a calm and outgoing
personality in combination with a socially
active lifestyle may decrease the risk of
developing dementia even further,” says
study author Hui-Xin Wang, PhD, with the
Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
“The good news is, lifestyle factors can be
modified as opposed to genetic factors which
cannot be controlled.
"But
these are early results, so how exactly
mental attitude influences risk for dementia
is not clear,” said Wang.
It is estimated that one in seven Americans
aged 71 and older has some form of dementia.
The number of Americans nearing that age is
expected to double by the year 2030.
The study was supported by the Swedish
Council for Working Life and Social
Research, the Alzheimer Foundation Sweden,
the Swedish Brain Power, Swedish Research
Council, Gamla Tjänarinnor Foundation,
Fredrik and Ingrid Thurings Foundation, the
Foundation for Geriatric Diseases and Loo
and Hans Osterman Foundation for Geriatric
Research at Karolinska Institute, and the
Center for Health Care Science at Karolinska
Institute.
The American Academy of Neurology, an
association of more than 21,000 neurologists
and neuroscience professionals, is dedicated
to promoting the highest quality
patient-centered neurologic care.
A neurologist is a doctor with specialized
training in diagnosing, treating and
managing disorders of the brain and nervous
system such as Parkinson’s disease, ALS (Lou
Gehrig’s disease), dementia, West Nile
virus, and ataxia.
For more information about the American
Academy of Neurology, visit
www.aan.com.
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