By MidLyfe Editor: A new study published in the Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association (source) says that being persistently lonely during midlife appears to make people more likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease later in life.
These findings seem to confirm something else – the opposite. The MidLyfe Project has published recent study results that confirm increased fitness and activity protects the brain in later life.
Fortunately, this latest study, also indicated that people who recover from loneliness appear to be less likely to suffer from dementia. There now appears to be at least one causal link with these findings.
However, loneliness is a subjective feeling resulting from a perceived discrepancy between desired and actual social relationships.
Part of the problem is that loneliness itself is not a clinical disease, but it is associated with a range of negative health outcomes, including sleep disturbances, depressive symptoms, cognitive impairment, and stroke.
For the study, the team examined data involving cognitively normal adults. Specifically, they investigated whether persistent loneliness more strongly predicted the future development of dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease than transient loneliness.
They also wanted to see whether this relationship was independent of depression and established genetic risk factors for Dimentia and Alzheimer’s Disease, such as the Apolipoprotein e4 (APOE e4) allele.
These results add yet more weight to the argument that further investigation of the factors that make individuals more or less resilient against adverse life events should be looked at. The research team said that tailored interventions to the right person at the right time to avert the persistence of loneliness could promote brain health and prevent Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease. However, this requires a coherent social care strategy. The National Audit Office has confirmed that England’s social care crisis continues as repeated governments’ have failed to come up with one (source).
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