by who According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 55 million people worldwide currently live with dementia, a general term for mental illnesses that affect memory and cognition, typically towards the end of life.
For decades, finding what people diagnosed with the disease have in common – or don’t – has baffled medical professionals.
Dementia is complex and its causes are multifaceted, but new research points to a surprising commonality: Who you are and how you see the world may be the missing piece of the puzzle.
In other words, experts believe personality is an important risk factor that most people are unaware of.
The researchers analyzed data from multiple studies involving a total of 44,000 participants and recently published their findings in the journal Neurology. Alzheimer’s and Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s AssociationWhat they found was a strong association not only between people’s personality traits and their risk of dementia, but also their resilience to the symptoms of the disease.
Honesty is key
To find out whether personality is associated with dementia risk, the researchers looked at what are known as the “Big Five” personality traits. These are:
- Openness to experience
- Conscientiousness (being hardworking and goal-oriented).
- Extroversion
- Cooperativeness
- Neurosis
They also assessed people’s subjective well-being, life satisfaction, and how frequently they experienced positive and negative emotions.
Multiple surveys are usually used to get an accurate picture of participants’ personalities.
The team found that high scores on negative personality traits (negative affectivity and neuroticism) and low scores on positive personality traits (extraversion, conscientiousness and positive affectivity) were associated with a higher risk of being diagnosed with dementia, while the opposite was true in terms of lowering risk.
What’s more, these weren’t small changes: “For example, a 10 percent increase in conscientiousness scores was associated with about a 15-fold decrease in the odds of developing dementia. That’s a pretty substantial difference.” Dr. Emory Beck“We found that people who were not aware of the effects of alcohol were more likely to develop depression than those who were not aware of the effects of alcohol,” said UC Davis assistant professor of psychology and lead author of the study. BBC Science Focus.
These results were somewhat expected: positive personality traits are typically associated with well-known mediators of dementia risk, such as healthier lifestyles, being more educated, and feeling less lonely and stressed.
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But hidden in the data was a surprise: When the subjects’ brains were autopsied, the hallmark signs of dementia (usually seen as “plaques” in brain cells) had no association with personality traits.
In other words, personality seems to be able to protect against the onset of dementia symptoms even if there is brain pathology, so nurturing these positive traits may make the brain more resistant to the disease.
Why can two people with seemingly the same brain injury, but with different personalities, show completely different symptoms?
Researchers don’t know exactly — Beck calls it “a mystery that we’re currently trying to solve in other studies” — but it highlights why dementia has been such a difficult problem to understand and treat.
Reasons for personality change
If right now you are feeling nervous about the fact that you are being sensitive or aware of the fact that you are not being sincere, don’t worry.
“For a long time, people thought that personality was static, that our personalities were fixed from the moment we were born, but that’s a pretty outdated way of thinking,” Beck explains.
First, she points out that personality changes over time. As people get older, they tend to become less neurotic and more conscientious. This makes sense, right? You have a chaotic, rule-breaking youthful period, and then, as life settles down, things gradually become more settled and orderly.
Still, some people carry negative traits into middle age, and we all experience negative emotions from time to time. After all, life is unpredictable.
Beck says that in order to become more conscientious and positive, you need to develop good habits and routines. Surrounding yourself with people who have positive personalities can also help. For example, the studyThis suggests that having a faithful partner can have a positive impact on your health and may even extend your lifespan, even if you yourself are not very faithful.
“And when it comes to neuroticism, there’s really good evidence that simply receiving psychotherapy can significantly reduce those behaviors,” Beck said.
“My suggestion is always to start small. Start with one thing, like taking a 10-minute walk when you have your morning coffee. This is a big change you can make to start building a more conscientious life,” she concludes.
Want to know the Big Five personality traits? You can take the test online.
Emory D. Beck She is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Davis. Her research focuses on questions of what personality is, how personality changes, and how it affects health. Her research has been published in journals such as: Psychological Science, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Handbook of personality dynamics and processes.
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Source: www.sciencefocus.com
