There’s no shortage of research on the physical dynamics of dementia — right down to what happens (or doesn’t happen) at the cellular level.
But can there also be a behavioral aspect?
Can certain personality types be more prone, or less prone, to developing dementia? New research suggests the answer may be “Yes!”
As reported here, researchers at Northwestern University, in Chicago, have reported that certain positive personality traits, like life satisfaction, being outgoing and being conscientious, “appear to lower a person’s odds for dementia diagnosis.” Conversely, being neurotic and more negative in outlook “was tied to a higher risk for mental decline.”
To arrive at this conclusion, the research team, led by Eileen Graham, an associate professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern, analyzed data from eight studies that included more than 44,000 people, of whom 1,703 went on to develop dementia.
Those who scored high for negative traits like neuroticism and negative emotional states, while scoring low for positive attributes like extraversion, conscientiousness and a positive attitude to life, were more likely to develop dementia. The opposite was true for positive personalities.
“These trends held even after researchers factored out other influences, such as age, gender and level of education. There was also no evidence that physical damage to the brain played a role in the findings.”
The researchers theorized that “positive personality traits may, over a lifetime, give people resilience to illnesses such as Alzheimer’s and other dementia — even if they aren’t aware of this. So even if brain changes are taking place, an upbeat personality might be countering the effect and allowing people to better cope.”
People with positive personalities are also more likely to be looking after their health. “People with neuroticism are more prone to anxiousness, moodiness and worry,” Graham said in a news release, “whereas conscientious people are more likely to exercise, make and go to preventive health appointment and drink less. So maybe that’s where an intervention might be useful to improve someone’s health behaviors for better health outcomes.”
In our book, SuperAging: Getting Older Without Getting Old, we identified Attitude as the first of the “7A’s” that power the SuperAging strategy. Positive people live longer, live healthier — and now, it seems, are at less risk for dementia. Can you create a positive personality for yourself if you don’t already have one? It can be done –our book helps show you how.