As if people with anxiety don’t have enough to worry about, a new study is adding to that list — suggesting the disorder may nearly triple the risk of developing dementia years later.

“We have known for a long time that stress increases risk for Alzheimer’s disease,” said Dr. Rudolph Tanzi, director of the McCance Center for Brain Health at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who wasn’t involved in the study, via email. “This study agrees with earlier studies that therapy aimed at alleviating anxiety can help reduce risk for (Alzheimer’s disease). But, it’s the size of this study that is particularly compelling.”

  • the post of tom joad@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    Statistics being what they are, 3 times more sounds like a lot than it is because your baseline chance (not accounting for genetica) to get Alzheimer’s is like 1.6%.

    So you can triple that and still be sittin pretty at less than 5%. Alzheimer’s seems to be related in part to diet, smoking, and exercise too, so you can mitigate your chance (or pump those numbers in my case lol).

    So relax my fellow anxiety sufferers! Something completely different will kill you

    • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      Long story short, alzheimer’s is predicted by inflammation levels, which are all affected by those things