There are some known risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease: regular intake of sleeping pillsa vitamin D deficiency and even membership a specific blood group.
But a new study by researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, shows that certain character traits, such as jealousy, anger or anxiety, can also double the risk of suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
In an article published in the professional journal NeurologyDr. Ingmar Skoog, professor of psychiatry and director of the Center for Health and Aging Research at the University of Gothenburg, explains that the way we look at the world can affect our risk of developing the neurodegenerative disease.
“Alzheimer’s disease is the result of a lot of different brain damage and different things that are happening or have happened in the brain,” he explains.
For their study, Dr Skoog and his colleagues tapped into a Swedish health database involving 800 women who were between the ages of 38 and 54 in 1968, when they filled out personality questionnaires and agreed to come in periodically to assess their cognitive functions.
Among the women who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or a form of dementia today are those who reacted the most emotionally to events and experiences, the most worried and those who were most likely to express jealousy, guilt and anger.
According to Dr. Skoog, stress is likely what links these personality traits to the development of Alzheimer’s disease.
