How to Prevent Stress From Triggering Alzheimer’s

“Our study provides strong evidence that perceived stress increases the likelihood that an older person will develop aMCI”, senior author and vice chair of neurology at Einstein and Montefiore Richard Lipton said in a press release. In the study conducted by a partnership of Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System, participants living in a highly stressed environment are more twice more likely to become mildly impaired compared to those who are in low-stress environments.

A new study suggests that stress could be a contributor to mild cognitive impairment that may potentially preclude Alzheimer’s disease in older individuals. This study looked at the connection between chronic stress and “amnestic mild cognitive impairment” (aMCI), the most common type of MCI, which is primarily characterized by memory loss.

The researchers noted that the way people perceive potentially stressful events in their lives seems to play a role in their risk of developing memory problems. Such intervention for stress relief and reduction include cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness-based meditation, yoga and biofeedback, Lipton recommended. Through these interventions, it may be possible to prevent or, at least, postpone cognitive decline in people. It’s concerning news for those who go through a lot of stress at work, but it’s also a good thing in a way: it is easily modified by changing one’s lifestyle, behavior, and outlook. Analyzing the direct correlation between stress level and MCI, the scientists have been able to determine that high stress levels increase the MCI risk with nearly 30 percent.

“We can not say for certain what the explanation behind this is”, Berntsen told Reuters Health by email.

In the United States, almost 470,000 new cases of Alzheimer’s disease are diagnosed every year. But here’s data showing that stress may put us at risk for developing diseases like Alzheimer’s. Researchers used standardized stress tests to measure the stress level of participants.

Study participants were monitored for 3.6 years, and their stress levels were constantly measured and given scores between zero and 56.

Seventy-one of the 507 participants were diagnosed with aMCI during the study. 71 participants in the study were diagnosed with aMCI, and the researchers controlled for factors including gender, depression, and education levels.

The study included 321 people in Denmark with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Managing stress helps Dr. Mindy Katz is a senior associate of neurology at the Einstein College and lead the study and issued a statement on the results. But the level of objective stress wasn’t really as relevant as the level of the perceived stress, proving once again the power of our minds over our bodies.

After isolating stress as a facilitator to the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, researchers have determined that managing emotional strain can help delay or avert the degenerative disorder.

The researchers also assessed whether depression had any influence on the results, but found that it did not significantly affect the relationship between stress and the onset of aMCI.