Alzheimer's through grief and stress?

Mental stress seems to favor Alzheimer's

13/06/2012

Alzheimer's is favored by grief and stress. Argentine researchers reported on their studies on possible links between Alzheimer's and mental stress at the European Neurological Congress in Prague.

The neurologists come to the conclusion that stress and grief promote the onset of Alzheimer's and therefore should pay particular attention to the health of old age to health, the news agency reported „dpa“. How emotional pressure favors the development of Alzheimer's disease remains unclear.

Many Alzheimer's patients previously suffer from grief and stress
In their study, the researchers studied 107 Alzheimer's patients averaging age 72 years. The affected patients had an average of two and a half years between the onset of the first Alzheimer's symptoms and the corresponding medical diagnosis. By way of comparison, a control group structured equally with regard to the number of study participants, age, sex and educational level was used.

The subjects as well as their relatives and caregivers were asked by the researchers to what extent special events took place in their life during the three years prior to the start of their studies. The scientists found that of the Alzheimer's patients 73 percent were severely burdened by a dramatic experience emotional. Triggers of grief and emotional stress were, for example, the death of the partner or the death of a child, but also experiences of violence such as physical attacks. Car accidents, which did not cause any serious physical damage, but weigh on the soul of those affected, were also mentioned here more frequently. While nearly three-quarters of Alzheimer's patients were struggling with similar experiences, the proportion of those affected in the control group was only 24 percent according to the researchers.

Risk factors for dementia
Accordingly, it is suspected that grief and stress favor the development of dementia or Alzheimer's (the most common form of dementia). Although stress alone can not trigger dementia, the neurologists report at the 22nd European Neurological Congress, hosted by the European Neurological Society. However, mental stress in the brain promotes degradation processes, which, in combination with the already known risk factors, lead to typical dementia symptoms. According to the scientists, high blood pressure, diabetes, mental or physical inactivity and old age generally qualify as dementia. The extent to which psychological stress as environmental factors promote the development of Alzheimer's disease, however, remains to be explored, explained the Argentine researchers. However, there are some arguments in favor of assessing emotional stress as another risk factor for Alzheimer's. (Fp)

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Picture: Slydgo