Socially active and not easily stressed? You may not develop dementia

January 19, 2009

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. T

hose 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.

Source: American Academy of Neurology

4.7 /5 (3 votes)  

Filter


Move the slider to adjust rank threshold, so that you can hide some of the comments.


Display comments: newest first

runninglate
Jan 19, 2009

Rank: not rated yet
The title may be a bit misleading, being calm and relaxed is negatively corrlated with dementia, whether socially active or not... see Paragraph 5
Rank 4.7 /5 (3 votes)
Related Stories
Relevant PhysicsForums posts

More news stories

Seeing colors in music, tasting flavors in shapes may happen in life's early months

Famed violinist Itzhak Perlman sees a deep forest green whenever he plays a B-flat on his Stradivarius' G string. The A on the E string is red.

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created 12 minutes ago | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Study suggests girls can 'rewire' brains to ward off depression

(Medical Xpress) -- What if you could teach your brain to respond differently to things that make you feel sad, down or stressed out? What if doing that helped ward off depression?

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created 39 minutes ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

UNC investigator issues call to action for schizophrenia research

(Medical Xpress) -- Much of medical research is aimed at figuring out what role a single gene or molecule plays in the development of disease.

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created 34 minutes ago | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

What does love look like?

What does love look like? A dozen roses delivered on an ordinary weekday? Breakfast in bed? Or just a knowing glance between lovers?

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created 33 minutes ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Numeracy: The educational gift that keeps on giving?

(Medical Xpress) -- Cancer risks. Investment alternatives. Calories. Numbers are everywhere in daily life, and they figure into all sorts of decisions. A new article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, examin ...

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created 26 minutes ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast


New error-correcting codes guarantee the fastest possible rate of data transmission

Error-correcting codes are one of the triumphs of the digital age. They’re a way of encoding information so that it can be transmitted across a communication channel — such as an optical fiber o ...

A frank discussion of the power law and linking correlation to causation

(PhysOrg.com) -- Michael Stumpf a mathematics professor at Imperial College in London, and Mason Porter a lecturer at Oxford have teamed together to write and publish a perspective piece in Science regarding the in ...

Mars Science Laboratory computer issue resolved

(PhysOrg.com) -- Engineers have found the root cause of a computer reset that occurred two months ago on NASA's Mars Science Laboratory and have determined how to correct it.

Advanced power-grid model finds low-cost, low-carbon future in West

(PhysOrg.com) -- The least expensive way for the Western U.S. to reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to help prevent the worst consequences of global warming is to replace coal with renewable and other ...

Small modular reactor design could be a 'SUPERSTAR'

(PhysOrg.com) -- Though most of today's nuclear reactors are cooled by water, we've long known that there are alternatives; in fact, the world's first nuclear-powered electricity in 1951 came from a reactor ...

Clam fields found at deep, low-temperature Mariana vents

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have marveled at the unusual life forms thriving at high temperature hydrothermal vents of the deep ocean.