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Are you a jealous, moody and anxious wife? Bad news!

By on December 4, 2014

A 40-year Swedish research has identified that women who are,  have a high risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease later in life.

A previous research centered on levels of education, cardiovascular, head injuries, and family history points to a correlation between more education in women and reduced risk of developing dementia. 
Lena Johannsson, a researcher at the University of Gothenburg issued a statement. “Personality can affect an individual’s risk of dementia through the effect it has on behavior, lifestyle or reaction to stress.”

The study followed the behavior of 800 women around 46 years old for a period of 38 years. They were given personality tests that reveal how neurotic they behaved and if they fall under etrovert or introvert type along with memory tests.

Of the 800 women, 160 have developed dementia. Dementia is a general term for a decline in mental ability severe enough to interfere with daily life.

Signs of Neurosis

Neurotic traits involve getting upset easily, depression, anxiety, accompanied by jealousy and mood swings.

People who are neurotic are more inclined to express anger, guilt, jealousy, anxiety or depression as reactions to stress. Introversion in the study is defined as the state of being shy and reserved. Prolonged stress according to the study doubles the risk.

Stress
The women were also asked whether they had experienced any periods of stress which lasted a month or longer in connection with work, health or their family situation.

Stress was defined in the context of feeling irritable, tense, nervous, fearful, anxious and inability to sleep which results in depression.

The women were also asked whether they had stressful situations lasting a month or longer related to their jobs, health or family.
The study found that women who scored highest on tests of neurotic traits have risks twice as high of developing dementia compared to those who scored the lowest. But this depended on how long the stressful situation lasted.

Who’s at risk?
Being introverted or extroverted alone was not an indicator of risk. But women who both were easily upset and was introverted had the highest risk of Alzheimer’s in the study.

16 women in total who were easily distressed and simultaneously introverted also developed Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s is considered the early stages of dementia. However, those who were easily upset but were extroverts and outgoing were only 8.

Source:  http://forskning.no/2014/10/sjalu-og-bekymrede-kvinner-mer-utsatt-alzheimers

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