Married people who worry face lower risk of dementia

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

CHICAGO — Middle-aged married people who worry a lot have at least one thing to look forward to: Their risk of eventually developing Alzheimer’s disease may be significantly less than carefree people of the same age who remain single.

That’s the take-home message from two studies presented jointly Wednesday in Chicago at the International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease.

One study followed 1,449 men and women in Finland for an average of 21 years. It found that those who had a partner in midlife were about 50 percent less likely to develop dementia in late life — ages 65 to 79 — than those who lived alone.

The second study involved 2,604 middle-aged men in Israel who were followed for as long as three decades.

Surprisingly, those who usually ruminated about work or family matters were significantly less likely to develop dementia when they were older than those who usually were able to forget about their difficulties.

For instance, about 21 percent of those who typically were able to forget about family problems eventually developed dementia, compared with 14 percent of those who usually ruminated about family issues. Similar rates were found with rumination over work issues.

Researchers are not sure why a tendency to ruminate would reduce the risk of developing dementia, although one possibility is that those people are constantly planning for their problems which, in turn, gives them more brain power later in life, said lead author Ramit Ravona-Springer, a physician with the Sheba Medical Center in Israel.

Though the idea of rumination’s being good for brain health might seem counterintuitive, it might have a plausible explanation, said Diana Kerwin, a geriatrician and assistant professor of medicine who practices at Froedtert Hospital.

“These people who continually use their brain in problem solving or whatever are going to have more neuronal connections,” said Kerwin, who was not a part of that study.

Being married or having a partner in midlife might improve brain health by intensifying social and intellectual stimulation that later helps the brain stave off dementia.