17 Modifiable Risk Factors for Dementia, Stroke and Late-Life Depression
Behaviors and conditions to keep an eye on, and maybe try to avoid
Welcome back to your weekly dose of wisdom and wellness, written by Wise & Well’s editor, Robert Roy Britt. Below you’ll find several informative and actionable stories by our team of journalists, topical experts and practicing professionals. First this week, a health new brief:
Researchers have developed countless lists of modifiable behaviors that affect our health—habits and choices that are at least somewhat in our control to change. The latest such list, based on a review of existing research, was published recently in Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry. The researchers say modifying any one of 17 risk factors can reduce your risk of a trio of ills: dementia, stroke and late-life depression. From a statement associated with the study:
The researchers identified 17 risk factors shared by at least two of the diseases, including blood pressure, kidney disease, fasting plasma glucose, total cholesterol, alcohol use, diet, hearing loss, pain, physical activity, purpose in life, sleep, smoking, social engagement, and stress. Of these, high blood pressure and severe kidney disease had the biggest impact on the incidence and burden of stroke, dementia, and late-life depression. In contrast, physical activity and engagement in leisure activities with a cognitive aspect (e.g., puzzles) were associated with a lower risk of disease, though the researchers suspect that these associations may be symptomatic rather than causal, since individuals with brain disease may be less capable of engaging in physical and cognitive leisure activities.
“Dementia, stroke, and late-life depression are connected and intertwined, so if you develop one of them, there’s a substantial chance you may develop another one in the future,” said the study’s first author Jasper Senff, MD, a post-doctoral fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital. “And because they share these overlapping risk factors, preventive efforts could lead to a reduction in the incidence of more than one of these diseases, which provides an opportunity to simultaneously reduce the burden of age-related brain diseases.”
The analysis was done without any outside funding sources.
None of us can completely control everything, but perhaps it’s helpful to know there are any number of changes that can help us live longer and healthier.
Now here are this week’s Wise & Well feature stories:
What Bedside Confessions of the Dying Reveal
This Mayo Clinic physician specializes in hospice and palliative care, so he spends a lot of time with people who are dying. Oh, the stories they tell, often because he’s the person who is there. He’s learned of the “power of presence,” and has advice for the rest of us about the importance of showing up and how to have the conversations that dying people want to have. By Dr. Edward T. Creagan
The Challenge of Recognizing Neurodiversity vs. Trauma
The symptoms of ADHD, autism and trauma can feel so similar and intertwined that a person may not know which condition is behind the challenges they face. This writer discovered her neurodiversity well into adulthood, which helped her realize that childhood trauma was not the only reason she struggled with work, relationships and everyday life. Her personal reveal can help others figure out what’s going on in their own lives. By Morgana Clementine
How Herbal Tea Landed Me on Blood Pressure Meds
As with many supplements, herbal tea is pitched as good for health. Sometimes it is, but “herbal” does not inherently mean healthy. There are herbs and other so-called natural ingredients that come with all manner of side effects, up to and including death. This writer thought she was doing a healthy thing, consuming a lot of the popular Egyptian licorice tea. Nope. By Annie Foley
A User’s Guide to Your Powerful, Fragile Prefrontal Cortex
What makes you you? Your personality, your overall psychological makeup, resides largely in the prefrontal cortex. It’s where emotions, memories and most of your heavy thinking happens. But since it leads the way, literally packed up against your forehead, it’s vulnerable to damage in any head injury. The psychiatrist/neuroscientists explains why protecting it and giving it sufficient rest time are so important. By John Kruse MD, PhD
Mope, Cope, Hope: The Three Stages of Chronic Pain
You might’ve heard of the five stages of grief. This writer, who deals with chronic pain and multiple operations over time that have confronted him with sources of new or worsened pain, explains the emotional stages he cycles through with each additional challenge. Turns out it’s a survival mechanism. By Randall H. Duckett
Why the Ideal Sleep Temperature is So Elusive
Experts advise a wide range of ambient temperatures for good sleep. Problem is, each of us runs at different internal temperatures, and depending on body size, we have more or less surface area than average, so we shed heat at different rates, which makes us get hot or cold more or less easily. In this story, I bust some hot myths and explain why it’s common to want to stick your hand or feet outside the blankets. By Robert Roy Britt
Formaldehyde Causes Cancer. So Why is it Still Everywhere?
Why in the world is a systemic poison and known carcinogen still used in everything building materials to beauty products? The practical answer is because it works. Oh, and industry groups have powerful lobbies that have long worked to keep it legal. Now, a Trump official in charge of regulating chemicals at the EPA once lobbied for reducing formaldehyde regulations. Here’s what you really need to know about this ubiquitous toxic chemical. By Sam Westreich, PhD
The Paradox of Effort: When and Why Hard Work Feels Worth Doing
Whether we value what we do depends, in part, on whether we’ve done it. Sounds kinda nutty, but this paradox explains how we evaluate a challenging task based on the prospective payoff, and what might seem not worth doing before we do it can then seem worthwhile afterward. What? Let’s let these two psychologists unravel it all. By Piotr Winkielman and Przemysław Marcowski
The Myth of Unbiased Media
The journalist Megyn Kelly wears her bias in politics on her sleeve, unlike most people — in journalism, media more broadly, and life in general — who fail to acknowledge their own. The psychology of bias, actual science, reveals why we all, as consumers of information or purveyors of it, would be wise to admit that everyone is bias, and then understand how best to filter ourselves to improve communication. By Robert Roy Britt
I hope we’ve helped make your tomorrow a little better than today.
Cheers,
Rob