So obviously the point is to stop your negative thoughts about the complete failure of your doctor to get you 100% recovered. I guess you need to forgive and forget. Instead have positive thoughts about the 25% chance they will get to experience stroke and its aftermath. Schadenfreude is a bitch.
Repetitive negative thinking linked to dementia risk
MedicalXpress Breaking News-and-Events|June 8, 2020
Persistently engaging in negative thinking patterns may raise the risk of Alzheimer disease, finds a new UCL-led study.
In the study of people aged over 55, published in Alzheimer's & Dementia,
researchers found 'repetitive negative thinking' (RNT) is linked to
subsequent cognitive decline as well as the deposition of harmful brain
proteins linked to Alzheimer.
The researchers
say RNT should now be further investigated as a potential risk factor
for dementia, and psychological tools, such as mindfulness or
meditation, should be studied to see if these could reduce dementia risk.
Lead author Dr. Natalie Marchant (UCL Psychiatry) said: "Depression and anxiety in mid-life and old age are already known to be risk factors
for dementia. Here, we found that certain thinking patterns implicated
in depression and anxiety could be an underlying reason why people with
those disorders are more likely to develop dementia.
"Taken
alongside other studies, which link depression and anxiety with
dementia risk, we expect that chronic negative thinking patterns over a
long period of time could increase the risk of dementia. We do not think
the evidence suggests that short-term setbacks would increase one's
risk of dementia.
"We hope that our findings
could be used to develop strategies to lower people's risk of dementia
by helping them to reduce their negative thinking patterns."
For
the Alzheimer's Society-supported study, the research team from UCL,
INSERM and McGill University studied 292 people over the age of 55 who
were part of the PREVENT-AD cohort study, and a further 68 people from
the IMAP+ cohort.
Over a period of 2 years, the study participants responded to questions about how they typically think about negative experiences,
focusing on RNT patterns like rumination about the past and worry about
the future. The participants also completed measures of depression and
anxiety symptoms.
Their cognitive function was
assessed, measuring memory, attention, spatial cognition, and language.
Some (113) of the participants also underwent PET brain scans,
measuring deposits of tau and amyloid, two proteins which cause the most
common type of dementia, Alzheimer disease, when they build up in the
brain.
The
researchers found that people who exhibited higher RNT patterns
experienced more cognitive decline over a 4-year period, and declines in
memory (which is among the earlier signs of Alzheimer disease), and
they were more likely to have amyloid and tau deposits in their brain.
Depression
and anxiety were associated with subsequent cognitive decline but not
with either amyloid or tau deposition, suggesting that RNT could be the
main reason why depression and anxiety contribute to Alzheimer disease
risk.
"We propose that repetitive negative
thinking may be a new risk factor for dementia as it could contribute to
dementia in a unique way," said Dr. Marchant.
The
researchers suggest that RNT may contribute to Alzheimer risk via its
impact on indicators of stress such as high blood pressure, as other
studies have found that physiological stress can contribute to amyloid
and tau deposition.
Co-author Dr. Gael
Chételat (INSERM and Université de Caen-Normandie) commented: "Our
thoughts can have a biological impact on our physical health,
which might be positive or negative. Mental training practices such as
meditation might help promoting positive- while down-regulating
negative-associated mental schemes.
"Looking
after your mental health is important, and it should be a major public
health priority, as it's not only important for people's health and
well-being in the short term, but it could also impact your eventual
risk of dementia."
The researchers hope to
find out if reducing RNT, possibly through mindfulness training or
targeted talk therapy, could in turn reduce the risk of dementia. Dr.
Marchant and Dr. Chételat and other European researchers are currently
working on a large project to see if interventions such as meditation
may help reduce dementia risk by supporting mental health in old age.
Fiona
Carragher, Director of Research and Influencing at Alzheimer's Society,
said: "Understanding the factors that can increase the risk of dementia
is vital in helping us improve our knowledge of this devastating
condition and, where possible, developing prevention strategies. The
link shown between repeated negative thinking patterns and both
cognitive decline and harmful deposits is interesting although we need
further investigation to understand this better. Most of the people in
the study were already identified as being at higher risk of Alzheimer
disease, so we would need to see if these results are echoed within the
general population and if repeated negative thinking increases the risk
of Alzheimer disease itself.
"During these
unstable times, we are hearing from people every day on our Alzheimer's
Society Dementia Connect line who are feeling scared, confused, or
struggling with their mental health.
So it's important to point out that this isn't saying a short-term
period of negative thinking will cause Alzheimer's disease. Mental
health could be a vital cog in the prevention and treatment of dementia; more research will tell us to what extent."
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