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Your Emotions Can Put You At-Risk For Alzheimer's |
By:
Susan Dunn, MA, certified EQ Coach |
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Still don’t believe anger kills, and stress ages you? In a
recent study re: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) the psychological
assessment included these questions: “I am not a worrier,” “I
often feel tense and jittery,” and “I often get angry at the way
people treat me.”
The study included 797 individuals with an average age of 75.
Research has proven that chronic stress is associated with
changes in the hippocampus (an area of the brain), as does
chronic depression, and problems with learning and memory.
Researchers therefore suspected that people who frequently
experience psychological distress might be at increased risk for
AD. Their suspicions were confirmed.
Participants were also tested on episodic memory, as impaired
episodic memory is a symptom of the disease.
According to the study, reported in PsychiatryMatters.MD, “over
an average 4.9 year follow-up, 140 individuals were diagnosed
with AD. In addition, those classified as being highly prone to
stress (90th percentile) were shown to have twice the risk of
developing the disorder as those in the lower stress catefory
(10th percentile).”
Further, there was a greater than 10-fold increase in episodic
memory decline. Episodic memory is the recall and recognition of
events, where as non-episodic memory is factual memory and
implicit memory (things you “just know”).
“The results suggest that chronic psychological distress is a
risk factor for AD and that this association probably reflects
neurobiologic mechanisms other than the pathologic hallmarks of
AD,” said lead researcher, R.S. Wilson, in the journal Neurology.
More evidence for the need for emotional intelligence, stress
management and resilience. Source Neurology 2003; 61: 1479-1485
http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/61/11/1479
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Article Source: http://www.PopularArticles.com/article6752.html |
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