London - Endless worrying won’t just give you sleepless nights – it could also raise your risk of Alzheimer’s.
Women who are anxious and moody in middle age are twice as likely to suffer from the disease as they get older than their calmer counterparts, a study found.
Researchers asked 800 women questions about their personality, including levels of neuroticism and tracked their lives over 38 years. By the end of the study, 153 of the women had developed dementia.
Those who were most neurotic in middle age were particularly prone, but only if they had been under long-term stress, the journal of Neurology reports.
Lena Johansson, author of the study at the University of Gothenburg said: “Most Alzheimer’s research has been devoted to factors such as education, heart and blood risk factors, head trauma, family history and genetics.
“Personality may influence the individual’s risk for dementia through its effect on behaviour, lifestyle or reactions to stress.”
More than 800 000 people in the UK are affected by Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia. David Cameron has described it as “the key health challenge of this generation”.
Dr Clare Walton, of the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “We all have moments when we feel stressed or worried, but stressed women reading this shouldn’t take this research to mean they’re necessarily at higher risk of dementia.”
It did not show that neuroticism alone increases the risk of Alzheimer’s, but rather that the personality trait is linked to the experience of long-term stress.- Daily Mail