Stress in middle age may increase women’s risk of dementia, say experts

Researchers say that if stress hormone levels increase and remain high, it isn’t good for the brain’s hippocampus, the seat of memory. © Shutterstock It is a known fact that stress is bad for health. Now a new research says that if a woman experiences stressful life events during middle age, it can negatively affect her memory. It may also increase her risk of dementia later in life. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University followed 337 men and 572 women between 1982 and 2004 from the long-running National Institute of Mental Health study. All the participants of the study had an average age of 47 years. They are asked to undergo several check-ups and interviews in this time period. In the final check-up, participants had to reveal if they had experienced a traumatic event in the past year like combat, rape, a mugging, any other type of physical attack, watching someone else attacked or killed, receiving a threat, or living through a natural disaster. They also had to say if they had experienced any stressful life experiences like marriage, divorce, death of a loved one, job loss, severe injury or sickness, a child moving out, retirement, or birth of a child. All participants had to complete a learning and memory test at the third and fourth visits. Researchers measured any decreases in performance on the tests. STRESS AFFECTS MEMORY MORE THAN TRAUMA: EXPERTS The findings, published in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry , showed that for women, more stressful life experiences over the last year in midlife was linked to a greater decline in the memory test. The more stressful life experiences the women had, the more difficulty they had with the test. But they did not see the same association in women who experienced traumatic events. This could […]

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