Today’s Stress Is Tomorrow’s Health Disaster

Carl Lowe | Nov 08, 2013
You’re stressed out by an afternoon traffic jam. You toss and turn in bed worried about your bank account. A close friend is suffering from cancer. Those might seem like common emotional stresses you can eventually put behind you. But Swedish researchers find that those types of dark moments can affect your brain health — 30 years from now.

So if you feel like life is battering you down, don’t passively accept it. Using meditation, exercise or some other stress-relieving technique isn’t a mere luxury. It’s a necessity for your long-term health.

In the 40 year Swedish study, the scientists tracked the mental and physical well-being of 800 women who took part in the Prospective Population Study of Women in Gothenburg, Sweden, that started in 1968.

The researchers discovered that the women with the highest number of stressful problems had a 21 percent heightened risk of eventually suffering Alzheimer’s disease.

The women, born in 1914, 1918, 1922 and 1930, were given a variety of neuropsychiatric tests and exams in 1968, when they were in their late 30s, mid 40s and 50s. They took another round of tests in 1974, 1980, 1992, 2000 and 2005.

Their quizzes included questions about life events like illnesses of children, divorce, being widowed, alcoholism in family members, family unemployment and social support. They were also asked about their distress, irritability, fear and sleep disturbances.

During the study, 425 of the women died. Between 1968 and 2006, about one in five developed dementia; 104 of the women with dementia descended into Alzheimer’s disease.

The researchers warn: “… stress may cause a number of physiological reactions in the central nervous, endocrine, immune and cardiovascular systems.”

http://easyhealthoptions.com/alternative-medicine/todays-stress-is-tomorrows-health-disaster/