• May 1, 2024

Women who face many stressors on a daily basis in middle age may have a slightly higher risk of developing Alzheimer's later in life, a new study suggests.

The findings, published in the journal BMJ Open , do not show that your job or your family increases your risk of dementia. But experts said they add to the evidence that chronic stress can contribute to Alzheimer's in some people.

No one is sure why, but there are theories, according to Robert Wilson, professor of neurological sciences and psychology in the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago .

It is possible that chronic stress, through the effect on certain hormones, may reduce the effectiveness of people's "brain circuits," explained Wilson, who was not involved in the study. And that could make some people more vulnerable to the impact of brain changes related to Alzheimer's later in life.

Each stressor increases the risk by 17%!

But previous studies have generally focused on the possible effects of stress from more serious trauma. The new study looked at "common" stressors, explained research leader Lena Johansson of the Sahlgrenska Academy of Health. University of Gothenburg, in Sweden .

His team studied the data of 800 Swedish women who were followed up for almost four decades. At the beginning, the women were between 40 and little over 50 years of age. They underwent periodic psychiatric examinations and answered questions about daily stressors, such as divorce, stress at work and family health problems.

For 37 years, 19% of women reported dementia, in most cases, Alzheimer's; the risk increased along with the number of vital stressors that women had reported four decades earlier. For each stressor, the risk of Alzheimer's increased by 17%.

That does not show that a stressful life is to blame, said the doctor Marc Gordon, chief neurologist at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, New York.

However, he said, the researchers did offer some other explanations for the link, such as, for example, whether women had hypertension or diabetes, overweight or low income.

Video Medicine: How stress affects your body - Sharon Horesh Bergquist (May 2024).