Dementia

Image: Getty ImagesPsychological stress in middle age could lead to the development of dementia later in life, especially Alzheimer’s disease, reveals research from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Based on data from a study which followed women for 35 years, this is the first research in Sweden to indicate a link between stress and dementia.

The research, published in prestigious scientific journal Brain, is based on a major population study of women from Gothenburg. A representative sample of women were examined for the first time in 1968 when aged between 38 and 60, and then re-examined in 1974, 1980, 1992 and 2000.

A question about psychological stress was included in the 1968, 1974 and 1980 surveys and was answered by 1,415 women. [continue reading…]

depressed old man

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A new study shows that having depression may nearly double your risk of developing dementia later in life. The research will be published in the July 6, 2010, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. [continue reading…]

Education helps against dementia

Photo Credit: Vince Alongi

Researchers have discovered that education not only delays the early symptoms of dementia, but can also slow down the development of the disease – a finding that could result in faster diagnosis and treatment of dementia, reveals a thesis from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Previous studies have shown that education offers some degree of protection against the symptoms of disorders of the brain.
“This mechanism has previously been observed at a late stage of the disease, primarily in cases of Alzheimer’s, which is a type of dementia,” says Sindre Rolstad, researcher at the University of Gothenburg. “We wanted to investigate how education affected the disease in the early stages of dementia, known as mild cognitive impairment.” [continue reading…]