Category: Persuasion

The damage done by this risk factor was particularly striking for early-onset dementia: that which occurs before 65-years-old.

Alcohol is the biggest avoidable risk factor for dementia, according to research.

The conclusions come from over 1 million people diagnosed with dementia in France.

The damage done by alcohol was particularly striking for early-onset dementia: that which occurs before 65-years-old.

Of the 57,000 cases of early-onset dementia in the sample, 57% were related to chronic heavy drinking.

Heavy drinkers are defined as those consuming an average of 4-5 standard US drinks per day for a man, or 3 standard US drinks for a woman.

This is like drinking close to a bottle of wine per day for a man or over half a bottle per day for a woman.

While this study only looked at heavy drinking, others have suggested moderate alcohol intake also carries risk for the brain.

Dr Jürgen Rehm, study co-author, said:

“The findings indicate that heavy drinking and alcohol use disorders are the most important risk factors for dementia, and especially important for those types of dementia which start before age 65, and which lead to premature deaths.

Alcohol-induced brain damage and dementia are preventable, and known-effective preventive and policy measures can make a dent into premature dementia deaths.”

Alcohol use disorders are thought to shorten life by an average of 20 years.

The link between heavy drinking and alcohol may be even stronger than this study reveals as only the most severe cases were included in this study.

Dr Bruce Pollock, study co-author, said:

“As a geriatric psychiatrist, I frequently see the effects of alcohol use disorder on dementia, when unfortunately alcohol treatment interventions may be too late to improve cognition.

Screening for and reduction of problem drinking, and treatment for alcohol use disorders need to start much earlier in primary care.”

The study was published in the journal The Lancet Public Health (Schwarzinger et al., 2018).

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The personality trait is linked to healthier and more stable relationships.

Having a conscientious partner is best for one’s health, research finds.

A conscientious partner also tends to have more stable relationships.

That is quite apart from the benefit of living with someone who can hold down a job and who puts the bins out.

Professor Brent Roberts, the study’s first author, said:

“Highly conscientious people are more organized and responsible and tend to follow through with their obligations, to be more impulse controlled and to follow rules.”

Conscientious people are also more likely to exercise, less likely to smoke or take drugs or dangerous risks.

However, not much research has looked at how personality affects people’s relationships.

Professor Roberts said:

“There’s been kind of an individualistic bias in personality research.

But human beings are not islands.

We are an incredibly interdependent species.”

The study asked 2,000 couples over 50-years-old in the US about their health and personality.

The results showed that conscientious people had better health.

But this study is the first to show that partners of people who are conscientious also have better health.

The benefit was even there for people who were highly conscientious themselves.

Professor Roberts said:

“It appears that even if you are really highly conscientious, you can still benefit from a spouse’s conscientiousness.

It makes sense that regardless of what your attributes are, if you have people in your social network that have resources, such as conscientiousness, that can always help.”

Women also saw an added health benefit if their man was both conscientious and neurotic.

But the effect was only small, Professor Roberts said:

“The effect here is not much larger than the effect of aspirin on cardiovascular health, which is a well-known small effect.”

The study was published in the journal Psychological Science (Roberts et al., 2009).

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Around 16 million people in the US are thought to suffer an episode of depression each year.

Most people diagnosed with depression get no treatment at all, research finds.

Only 35.7 percent of people start some kind of treatment for their depression, an analysis of 240,000 US patients has revealed.

Of the third who do start treatment, most (80 percent) take antidepressants rather than choosing psychotherapy.

Even among people with severe depression, only half start on some form of treatment.

Older people were less likely to choose psychotherapy.

They are also less likely to start any kind of treatment than those under 44-years-old.

Dr Beth Waitzfelder, the study’s first author, said:

“Our study, which was much larger than previous studies, provides important new evidence about the current scope of the problem among leading health care systems across the country that are striving to improve depression care in primary care settings.

Screening for depression in primary care is a positive step toward improving detection, treatment and outcome for depression, but disparities persist.

We need a better understanding of the patient and other factors that influence treatment initiation.”

The conclusions come from an analysis of over 240,000 people who received depression diagnoses between 2010 and 2013.

Around 16 million people in the US are thought to suffer an episode of depression each year.

Dr Waitzfelder said:

“Over the last decade, there has been a growing effort to raise awareness about mental health and to integrate mental health care into primary care.

This is a positive development, since most people receive care from primary care providers.

However, our study shows there is a lot more work to do to understand why many depressed patients do not begin treatment.”

The study was published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine (Waitzfelder et al., 2018).

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People with high IQ are generally healthier, but they have one or two bad habits.

People with high IQs drink more alcohol, although they are unlikely to be heavy drinkers, research finds.

In other words, they drink more, on average, but spread it out, and are unlikely to be alcoholics.

The results fit with the fact that highly intelligent people are also more likely to use drugs.

It could be because the intelligent tend to be easily bored.

Study of IQ and alcoholism

The conclusions come from a large study of the links between IQ and health habits.

Higher IQs are generally linked to healthier habits.

People with higher IQs are likely to be fitter, as they do more exercise and strength training.

Higher intelligence was also linked to better oral hygiene, consuming fewer sugary drinks and reading the nutritional information on food labels.

The study included 5,347 American men and women.

They were first surveyed in their early 20s and followed up in middle-age.

The results provide an interesting picture of the way healthy and unhealthy habits are linked to intelligence.

The intelligent were found to be more likely to skip meals and snack in between.

Do smart people drink?

Drinking and smoking both have an unusual relationship because both high intelligence and low intelligence are linked to drinking more and smoking fewer cigarettes.

People of average intelligence tend to drink less or possibly be teetotal — however, they are likely to smoke more cigarettes.

The study’s authors conclude that they have…

“…found evidence of links between higher IQ and a number of more favourable health related habits (i.e. engaging in physical activity, nutritional literacy, and oral hygiene habits, as well as not smoking, binge dinking, or consuming sugary drinks),

[…]

These findings, support the notion that certain health behaviours may lie on a pathway that links intelligence in early life with various health outcomes in adulthood.”

The study was published in the journal Intelligence (Wraw et al., 2018).

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These relationships can help us stave off loneliness.

People who value their friendships are healthier and happier, research finds.

As we get older, relationships with friends can become more important for health and happiness than relationships with family members.

With age, friends can play a stronger role in predicting how long we will live than our families.

It may be partly because we choose our friends and not our families (well, not most of them, anyway).

Friends who have stood the test of time are particularly valuable.

Dr William Chopik, the study’s author, said:

“Friendships become even more important as we age.

Keeping a few really good friends around can make a world of difference for our health and well-being.

So it’s smart to invest in the friendships that make you happiest.”

A first study surveyed 271,053 from almost 100 countries.

This found both friends and family were linked to people’s happiness and health.

However, the benefits of friendship became stronger with age.

Dr Chopik said:

“There are now a few studies starting to show just how important friendships can be for older adults.

Summaries of these studies show that friendships predict day-to-day happiness more and ultimately how long we’ll live, more so than spousal and family relationships.”

A second study of 7,481 older adults found friendships could be both a significant source of strain as well as happiness.

However, friends may help to fight against loneliness, Dr Chopik said:

“Friendships help us stave off loneliness but are often harder to maintain across the lifespan.

If a friendship has survived the test of time, you know it must be a good one – a person you turn to for help and advice often and a person you wanted in your life.”

The study was published in the journal Personal Relationships (Chopik, 2017).

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These weight loss drugs have been found to increase the risk of pancreatitis and other serious digestive disorders.

Semaglutide (Wegovy, Ozempic, and Rybelsu) and liraglutide (Victoza and Saxenda) are GLP-1 agonists drugs which have been lauded for their weight loss effect.

However, a study has revealed that these popular antidiabetic drugs increase the risk of severe gastrointestinal disorders.

Semaglutide and liraglutide belong to a class of medications that copy the glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) hormone in order to control blood sugar levels and reduce hunger in people with diabetes.

Despite their anti-obesity effects, increased risk of gastrointestinal problems such as bowel obstruction, stomach paralysis, and pancreatitis is concerning.

Mr Mohit Sodhi, the study’s first author, said:

“Given the wide use of these drugs, these adverse events, although rare, must be considered by patients thinking about using them for weight loss.

The risk calculus will differ depending on whether a patient is using these drugs for diabetes, obesity or just general weight loss. People who are otherwise healthy may be less willing to accept these potentially serious adverse events.”

Unaware of side-effects

GLP-1 drugs are designed to help treat type-2 diabetes, but in the United States there were 40 million prescriptions for weight loss in 2022.

The clinical trials focused only on the drug’s effectiveness for weight loss and so many are not aware of the gastrointestinal side-effects.

Dr. Mahyar Etminan, the study’s senior author, said:

“There have been anecdotal reports of some patients using these drugs for weight loss and then presenting with repeated episodes of nausea and vomiting secondary to a condition referred to as gastroparesis.

But until now, there hasn’t been any data from large epidemiologic studies.”

The study used the records of 16 million American patients, comparing the incidence of gastrointestinal adverse events in liraglutide or semaglutide users with those using bupropion-naltrexone (a weight loss medication sold under brand name Contrave).

The data analyses showed that for the GLP-1 drugs:

• the risk of pancreatitis was 9.09 times higher compared to bupropion-naltrexone,
• the risk of bowel obstruction was 4.22 times higher,
• and the risk of gastroparesis or stomach paralysis was 3.67 times higher.

Severe abdominal pain

Pancreatitis is inflammation of the pancreas followed by severe abdominal pain: sometimes hospital admission and surgery is required.

Bowel obstruction is a disorder in which food can’t pass through the small or large intestine, causing symptoms such as vomiting, nausea, bloating, and cramping.

Gastroparesis, or stomach paralysis, is a disorder in which the movement of food slows down from the stomach to the small intestine causing symptoms such as abdominal pain, vomiting, and nausea.

Despite the rarity of side-effects (since millions are taking the medications), hundreds of thousands of people could still experience these issues.

Mr Sodhi said:

“These drugs are becoming increasingly accessible, and it is concerning that, in some cases, people can simply go online and order these kinds of medications when they may not have a full understanding of what could potentially happen.

This goes directly against the mantra of informed consent.”

Related

• Semaglutide could be an effective weight loss medication.
• Ozempic lowers blood sugar and increases weight loss.
• GLP-1 agonists that treats obesity may also help…

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Verbal IQ refers to being able to use language to achieve goals.

People who are anxious have a higher verbal IQ, on average, research finds.

In particular, people with high IQs are more likely to ruminate.

Rumination is the term psychologists give to the turning over of depressing thoughts in the head.

Rumination is a common symptom of depression.

While worrying is not normally considered beneficial, it may be that people who worry tend to keep out of danger — so passing on their genes.

The benefit may be that intelligence allows people to better imagine what might go wrong.

As a result, anxiety and verbal intelligence may have evolved together.

Verbal IQ refers to being able to use language to achieve goals.

Higher levels and anxiety and IQ are also linked to superior abstract thinking, problem-solving and critical thinking.

The study involved 126 people given tests of anxiety, depression and IQ.

The results showed that people with higher verbal IQ ruminate more.

The study’s authors write:

“It is possible that more verbally intelligent individuals are able to consider past and future events in greater detail, leading to more intense rumination and worry.

Individuals with high non-verbal intelligence may be stronger at processing the non-verbal signals they interact with in the moment, leading to a decreased need to re-process past social encounters.”

The study took into account that anxious people often perform worse on tests — including intelligence tests.

The authors write:

“…symptoms of acute depression might decrease an individual’s ability to perform optimally on an intelligence test,
and that the individual may not have lower intelligence.”

Previous research has shown that people who are low in intelligence are also prone to worry — possibly because they achieve less in life.

Average intelligence show less of a link with anxiety.

The study was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences (Penney et al., 2015).

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Lifestyle factors that signal how long we live.

The main lifestyle factors that increase your life expectancy are reducing stress and avoiding smoking, heavy drinking and type 2 diabetes, a study reveals.

Type 2 diabetes can be prevented naturally by doing regular physical activity, healthy eating, and getting enough sleep.

A person’s quality of life, such as poor sleep and lifestyle risk factors such as obesity will all influence longevity.

Researchers found that diabetes and smoking are the leading causes of life shortening for both men and women.

Smoking lowers life expectancy by 6.6 years and diabetes by 6.5 years and heavy stress by 2.8 years for a man aged 30.

Smoking cause a 5.5 years fewer years, diabetes 5.3 years, and heavy stress 2.3 years decline in life expectancy for a 30-year-old woman.

Exercise is another lifestyle risk factor: men with a lack of physical activity had 2.4 years shorter life.

In contrast, improving quality of life and positive changes in lifestyle, such as eating lots of fruits and vegetables can boost longevity.

Eating vegetables makes people live longer by 0.9 years and fruits by 1.4 years.

For older persons, the factors that affect longevity were similar to younger people, except for the outcomes which were smaller.

People who live with moderation seem to have the best outcomes as well as living longer.

Psychological risk factors also affect life expectancy, for example, having some stress — as long as at a similar level to what is usual for others — did not reduce lifespan.

However, higher levels of stress took a few years off their life time.

The analysed data are from 38,549 Finish people aged between 25 and 74 with a follow-up period of 16 years.

Dr Tommi Härkänen, the study’s first author, said:

“Before, life expectancy has usually been assessed based on only a few sociodemographic background factor groups, such as age, sex, and education.

In this study, we wanted to assess the impact of several different factors to a person’s life expectancy, so we could compare their effects.”

The life expectancy differences between women and men appear to be related to some modifiable risk factors.

Professor Seppo Koskinen, study co-author, explains:

“What was interesting about the study was how small the difference in the life expectancy of 30-year men and women was based on the same risk factor values – only 1.6 years.

According to the statistics from Statistics Finland, the difference between the sexes has been over five years for all 30-year-olds, which comes down to women having healthier lifestyles than men.”

Education in this study appeared to have only a small impact on life expectancy if other risk factor levels were similar.

The study was published in the British Medical Journal (Härkänen et al., 2020).

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Study of more than 10,000 people reveals how the grumpiest people can be more happy today.

The key to being more happy is simply to move around a little more.

A little extra physical movement makes people appreciably happier, research finds.

Activities that can’t even be classified as exercise, but do involve moving around a little are enough to provide a boost.

Getting up from the desk to walk around a little is one good example.

Dr Jason Rentfrow, one of the paper’s authors, said:

“Our data show that happy people are more active in general.

However, our analyses also indicated that periods of physical activity led to increased positive mood, regardless of individuals’ baseline happiness.

There have been many studies about the positive psychological effects of exercise, but what we’ve found is that in order to be happier, you don’t have to go out and run a marathon – all you’ve really got to do is periodically engage in slight physical activity throughout the day.”

The results come from a study in which data from over 10,000 people’s smartphones was analysed.

People who moved about more were happier and people were happier in those moments when they moved about more.

Dr Gillian Sandstrom, a study co-author, said:

“Most of us don’t keep track of all of our movements during the day.

A person might track whether they went for a walk or went to the gym, but when asked, most of them probably wouldn’t remember walking from the desk to the photocopier, or from the car to the office door.”

Professor Cecilia Mascolo, another study co-author, added:

“This study shows how mobile and wearable technology really can allow social psychologists to perform large longitudinal studies as well as open a direct and permanent connection with the users for advice and intervention.”

The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE (Lathia et al., 2016).

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Memory problems are one of the key symptoms of dementia.

A folate deficiency is linked to a tripling in the chance of developing dementia in older people, research finds.

Folates include vitamin B9, folacin and folic acid.

Healthy adults should get around 400mcg per day to prevent a deficiency.

Foods that are high in folates include leafy greens, beets, citrus fruits, broccoli, eggs and asparagus.

Folates are also usually contained in multivitamin supplements.

Low levels of vitamin B12 and folate have both been linked to a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease by multiple studies.

This link has been observed by researchers for more than three decades.

A deficiency in B12 or folate can cause higher levels of the amino acid homocysteine in the body.

Homocysteine has a neurotoxic effect and could lead to neurological conditions, such as Alzheimer’s.

For the current study, 518 people over the age of 65 were tracked for two years.

They were given blood tests for levels of folate, vitamin B12 and the protein homosysteine, along with cognitive tests.

The results showed that 45 people had developed dementia by the end of the study.

People who were deficient in folates were 3.5 times more likely to develop dementia, the researchers found.

Dementia was also more likely in people whose folate levels dropped over the two years of the study.

The study’s authors write:

“In this prospective study of a community population, lower
folate concentrations predicted incident dementia and AD over
a 2.4 year follow-up period…

Over the follow-up period, dementia occurred more commonly in those with a relative decline in folate and vitamin B12 concentrations or a relative increase in homocysteine concentrations.”

A good diet is repeatedly linked by research to a reduced risk of dementia.

One study has found that people who eat more nuts, fish, poultry and certain fruits and vegetables have a lower risk of Alzheimer’s, research finds.

Set against this, those who eat more red meats, organ meats, butter and high-fat dairy products have a higher risk of Alzheimer’s.

The study was published in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry (Kim et al., 2019).

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