I came across an article this week that was titled "Divorce
& Other Life Stressors Linked with Dementia."
The University of Gothenburg followed 800 women for 38 years,
documenting the effects of various 'stressors' on the body. Participants were
asked about particular psychosocial stressors, addictions, and medical history.
The results showed that 153 women (20%) developed dementia and 104 of those
women developed Alzheimer's Disease. They did note, however, that the link
between these stressors could not be fully correlated with the onset of
Dementia, suggesting that "biological factors that change in response to
experiencing stressor" might have been a factor.
The findings of this study were a little shocking to me. Has
anyone heard about stress causing dementia? More testings is needed for this study, although certain inflammatory responses have already been linked to psychological stressors. I have heard that stress can affect
the body in many ways but this was the first I had heard about dementia and
Alzheimer's disease. Studies like these make me stress about how stress can
affect me later on in life!
Here's the article if you want to take a look!
Here's the article if you want to take a look!
I feel like stress is the cause for everything! I'm not sure why, maybe as your blog mentions there could be some biological factors that change in response to stressors. I read an article in the New York Times that discusses the link between stress and many diseases. Here it is if you're interested:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/magazine/29wwlnlede-t.html?_r=0
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't doubt that stress can lead to some type of disease. It seems like every time I get stressed my body responds slower than usual, and if someone was under constant stress that would probably have some type of long time damage to the body.
ReplyDeleteStress is correlated with many diseases. I am not surprised to hear that. What I know is that stress lower the immune efficiency to respond. I am not sure if that's scientifically proved though! It is also known that stress could lower the performance (if that's too much) .I used to be the one who stresses a lot about anything. Now, People say I grew careless, but i would say it's self control. so never stress! Science can teach us many life lessons!
ReplyDeletethe efficiency of the immune response* (sorry about that)
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time I heard about stressors causing dementia but I am more shocked we haven't heard more about it. Stress has a tendency of causing a variety of changes in the body such as hair loss, weight fluctuates and skin problems and it is commonly studied in women. One thing I always wondered about is how the researchers differentiate between causation and correlation. Likewise how could you really measure stress when some people tend to hold it in, able to find quick and easy ways to avoid stress or as Mustapha mentioned have a better immune response to stress?
ReplyDeleteI think that is a good point. It seems like one of the biggest challenges in testing the effects of stress is the relationship between causation and correlation of side effects. Even though this study evaluated medical records, activities, and a defined number of 'stressors,' it was still difficult to conclude that certain side effects were caused by the stress they were experiencing. I think part of the issue is time. We need time to collect and gather information through more research, but there is still so much we don't know about stress.
DeleteThis is interesting. I do not see how stress or constantly worrying about something, can cause the brain to lose function thus dementia or Alzheimer's disease. I understand drugs that directly damage the brain and can cause holes, but not stressors. Wow. Once the link is discovered, I would love to know how it is done.
ReplyDelete