Anxiety is a risk factor for dementia, according to the results of a study published in the medical journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia. It would increase by 50% the probability of being affected by this type of neurodegenerative disease.
Researchers at the University of Southern California (USA) carried out a large-scale study for 28 years. They studied the medical data of 1,082 participants, monozygotic twins, from the Swedish Adoption Twin Study of Aging cohort.
The findings of this study showed that theanxiety is a risk factor for dementia, independent of the symptoms of depression.
The researchers observed that among the twins, the one who develops dementia has a history or even a history of anxiety compared to the one who is not affected by a neurodegenerative disease.
They managed to estimate that high levels of anxiety are associated with a 50% increase in the risk of dementia. According to the researchers, the management of anxiety should be implemented early in the elderly.
The cortisol involved
Researchers explain the link between anxiety and dementia by the production of a hormone from the stress, cortisol. “High anxiety is associated with higher levels of stress hormones, including cortisol. However, a chronic elevation of cortisol leads to damage in certain areas of the brain such as the hippocampus, involved in memory, and the frontal cortex, involved in thought and complex functions”.
Alzheimer’s disease in numbers
In France, according to the latest figures from the National Institute for Health and Medical Research (Inserm), 860,000 people suffer from Alzheimer’s disease and the number of patients is expected to reach two million in 2020. Alzheimer’s disease and related diseases are the leading cause of age-related loss of intellectual functions.
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