Stress No More or You Risk Getting Alzheimer

Stress no more or you risk getting Alzheimer, the disease with which approximately 470,000 Americans are diagnosed every year. Because more and more people are getting Alzheimer’s disease, a study has been conducted in order to see if it can be prevented.

The study shows that factors such as anxiety and stress have a big impact on the functions of the brain, memory included. Genetics are also important, previous cases of Alzheimer in the family show higher risks of getting the disease.

507 people with ages over 70 years volunteered for the 3,6 year study, with 71 elders diagnosed with MCI.  During the 3 and a half years the researchers measured people’s stress levels periodically.The persons with bigger stress levels were at higher risk of getting MCI, the chances being almost double.

MCI or mild cognitive impairment is a disease that can proceed dementia or Alzheimer, but it doesn’t necessarily trigger one of them. The symptoms of MCI include problems in taking decisions, in managing life circumstances and memory losses.

The conductor of the study, a doctor named Richard Lipton says that he recommends therapy, yoga and meditation to highly stressed people. According to him the best thing we can do to destress is to simply sleep. Sleep decreases stress and elevates brain’s number of nerve cells .

The study has showed that it is more important the way in which we perceive situations than the actual situations in which we are put in. This is good to know because now we have a really good reason to change the our pessimistic view for an optimistic one.

So stress no more. Getting Alzheimer isn’t worth it.

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