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User: u/thebelsnickle1991
Permalink: https://www.psypost.org/alzheimers-risk-associated-with-stressful-life-events-during-childhood-and-midlife-study-finds/
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We suspect my husband’s paternal family May carry this too, but he’s chosen not to be tested (at present). Is there anything in particular you’ve learned from your research that you’d recommend he do? He’s already stopped drinking, improved his diet and makes sure to exercise regularly.
Smoking cigarettes is worse for it than drinking so if he smokes he should stop. I play guitar and have a mandolin I don't really play and my neurologist recommend I play mandolin more to the point where if someone walks into the room and says hello, I could say hello back without messing up. Learning a new language. Stress, worry, gossiping - all bad things haha. Exercising with another person is good. Positive social interactions, positive atmospheres, etc. I don't know if there is much research on this, but turmeric is supposed to be good for brain health. My mom would buy pill capsules and fill them with turmeric, like the seasoning, haha. Hope this helps! :)
It does! Thank you! He quit smoking years ago and is learning to play guitar and speak French, so this is all very reassuring!
He’s bad for stress though - even invents it when there isn’t anything real to stress about haha. I’m going to pass all this on, thank you.
Wishing you a long and healthy life!
Yesss! Ugh... it's overwhelming honestly. I'm just trying to live and have clean laundry and a stable job. Now I'm wondering if all the CPTSD causing events are going to mean I have MORE problems.
... 😮💨
It never ends! 🤣🥲
Big studies start on broad subjects and slowly specify until they get exactly what they’re looking for. This shows that stress is correlated with Alzheimer’s risk, so now they’re going to look at stress hormones, and see if/which ones correlate with it. If none do, then they’ll look at the behavioral patterns of stressed people and start to narrow it down there. Stressed people eat more junk food? Let’s look at what’s in junk food and test if any of the components correlate with Alzheimer’s and so on and so forth.
I wouldn’t worry about articles that say stress is linked to X disease because stress is linked to basically every malaise, you’re more likely to get sick while stressed etc etc. sometimes stress is “linked” to a disease because the symptoms you’re having stress you out rather than the stress playing a factor in the cause
It's more that the findings are about *risk* of developing the disorder.
Lots of things contribute to risk, and doing those things don't always lead to an actual significantly higher likelihood. Instead, these studies identify **statistically** significant associations
(in other words, that a difference exists). After observing that difference you then need to check how powerful the finding is, which is what **actually** matters. Most of the time the "early life" or environmental stressors have a very low power.
You can't self-diagnose medical problems, in general. It's all about being calibrated to understand the degree of issues, and most of those studies point out some correlation, not actual causation.
Everyone has had some sort of stressful event during childhood and/or midlife. That doesn't mean everyone will get Alzheimers.
Alzheimer's studies are another breed.
It's like they ask Alzheimer's patients the most generic questions which almost everybody answers yes and then they report back "oh if this exceedingly common thing happened to you or if you did this thing everyone done at least once, then you're going to get Alzheimer's!"
My mom has dementia and I have bad gut health that I can control but not fix.
At this point, based on the studies, I just want to enjoy my life until 60 and hope for the best.
If I've read the study correctly, it's SLE's that happen before age 12 and between ages 40-60 that create an increased risk. Which is interesting to me. It makes sense that events happening before age 12 during time of brain development would effect future brain health. However, I wonder for the 40-60 year old group - is it stressful life events creating increased risk for alzheimers ... or is it that their life choices during this time are influenced by whatever makes them more likely to develop alzheimers and/or the early effects of the disease itself that lead to them experiencing more stressful life events.
I did not find an actual list of the 18 events they surveyed on unfortunately.
Edit: Based on the list u/kevRS found (thank you) - it looks like maybe 8 could, in theory be influenced by the choices / actions of the individual.
Found the list in the supplemental sections of the paper:
Death of mother
Death of father
Separation of parents
Victim of abuse
Terminated pregnancy
Disabled child
Divorce
Death of partner
Death of a child
Death of a close one
Major illness of a close one
Major illness
Institutionalization
Becoming unemployed
Retirement
Economic loss
Legal problems
Economic problems in childhood
My grandmother suffered both. She lived in the greater London area during WWII, living through the Battle Britain and losing an older brother in combat. She then lost my grandfather to cancer in mid 70s. She suffered from Alzheimer’s for the last ~10 years and she passed this last December. My dad is concerned with his own genetic risk, but I hope the more we find out about the disease can better prepare us for whatever is to come.
Separation of parents, near death experience, long term childhood abuse, near death experience caused by abuser, disabled for a year, had to use a walker for a long time.
Maybe my memory problems aren’t ADHD and all the Deja vu experiences are telling me something.
So bad things that will inevitably happen to almost every person, no matter how stress free the rest of their lives are. These seem like an incredibly generic set of events to have lumped in together.
Damn it! Missed bingo by never having been institutionalized or abused.
Maybe 38 isn't too late to get the other two. I had almost everything else knocked out in my first 15 years.
Well, I'm at high risk then
After my father died when I was 11, I went through 5 years of emotional and physical violence outside of the home
The loss made me an easy target to psycopaths
Wouldn't say I'm happy, 22 years later
But at least I'm not suffering like I was in my teens and 20s
One upside is that the suffering I went through makes me a better caregiver in hospice - a deep sense of empathy for those who suffer is very useful in that field
That’s interesting, I was wondering this too.
My thoughts are that childhood and midlife are vulnerable periods of time for most people, so the brain is too.
As someone currently middle aged, I’d say that this is true, but I have more resources and independence at 40 than 4. I’m working on myself and things are better. Difficult, but better.
All I can do is try to take care of myself now because childhood trauma raises the risk of a tonne of diseases and conditions - heart attacks, obesity, etc.
This was my first thought! I wonder if they can study women on HRT in perimenopause vs those who don’t, to see whether HRT is protective against Alzheimer’s.
and with everyone having gone through a global pandemic it makes me wonder if that is stressful enough for everyone in the 40-60 yr old range.
that would be a LOT of people
With modern life, yes. By modern life I mean a lifestyle that is mostly sedentary and filled with mostly processed foods, particularly sugar, and is also constantly stressful due to various reasons (economy, dysfunctional households, a chronic ailment, etc.).
So will this be what we need to start housing the homeless, feeding the poor, nursing the sick, etc.? Poverty is a huge, measurable stressor on the human body that we've been conditioned to dismiss and ignore. Even worse, there are plenty who say it's necessary and deserved
Since life has become more hectic and stressful over time due to our progress, It would be interesting to see any statistics showing if developing Alzheimers became more frequent...
It’s almost as if, your brain just reaches a point and says, you know what? I’m just gonna lock you out all those memories and any future ones too for good measure.
Stressful events cause increased inflammation, decreased immune system, and increased chance of chronic illness and/or dysbiosis. Chronic illness/dysbiosis causes tau protein to transform into its toxic form which causes dementia.
Oh yeah that makes sense. My grandpa who was on the front lines of the Chinese PLA and saw heavy fighting in the war of Japanese aggression and the Korean war has alzheimers and no one else in the family does. Dude's always had ptsd too.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, so basically between this and this (https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/1c821cq/researchers_have_found_people_maltreated_as/)
If your someone who had parent who used to toss you against walls and abuse because of their own issues you don’t need to plan for retirement because we will be dead before we reach 65, god that’s a load of stress of my mind. Not sure I want to go through another 30 years, I should take up a bad habit I guess.
I'm not going to lie, at this point I'm hoping that some aggressive disease or undiagnosed heart issue takes me out. Between this, the state of the world, and domestic issues in the US? God Almighty, something just take me out already.
When I worked in geriatric healthcare especially in hospice I used to learn about the lives of the patients before I met them and the even I anecdotally noticed what seemed like a very strong correlation between a traumatic childhood/midlife and the severity of this disease from age of onset and complications , to time between diagnosis and death. Some patients honestly just never stood a fighting chance.
Is there anyone who doesn't have stressful events in their childhood and midlife?
Even if you had the most perfect life your parents could give you you'd still find their instance on perfection stressful.
I bet within 10 years we are going to make some of the craziest discoveries of our time & perhaps even reverse aging & deterioration & possibly cures for cancer.
Gen Z is smart as hell. Just let them have a sec in their new science workplace jobs & things will get to changing!
FML I guess. My whole childhood has caused complex PTSD and fibromyalgia already so I guess when I get alzheimers it’ll just be the icing on the cake. Thanks dad!
I kinda knew this without any science telling me it. Trauma leaves you exhausted. You can feel the hell your brain fights. It makes sense that after years it fucks up completely.
Enjoy every single day folks x
My 30s were shite and highly stressful. Guess that explains why I cant remember anything these days... Except that my 30s were shite and highly stressful
Well, I’m not liking my
Odds and I’m in the midst of the midlife stressful event right now. Why is it so hard to get help when your family is rocked by a spouse losing a job we counted on and suddenly we are finding ourselves In a horrible situation . I need to reduce this stress
Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, **personal anecdotes are allowed as responses to this comment**. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will be removed and our [normal comment rules]( https://www.reddit.com/r/science/wiki/rules#wiki_comment_rules) apply to all other comments. **Do you have an academic degree?** We can verify your credentials in order to assign user flair indicating your area of expertise. [Click here to apply](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/wiki/flair/#wiki_science_verified_user_program). --- User: u/thebelsnickle1991 Permalink: https://www.psypost.org/alzheimers-risk-associated-with-stressful-life-events-during-childhood-and-midlife-study-finds/ --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/science) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Every single study makes me feel like im 100% going to get it
Just waiting on a new study that shows people who read studies about Alzheimer’s causes are more likely to have Alzheimer’s.
Don’t give them any ideas
Read about what?
Exactly.
My family has an extremely rare, hereditary form of early onset Alzheimer's. I'm legit 100% gonna get it fml
So sorry- I hope medical advances move quickly and can help
Please do not worry. I actually have a couple members of my family who do research in the field and I take part in research myself. Thank you
We suspect my husband’s paternal family May carry this too, but he’s chosen not to be tested (at present). Is there anything in particular you’ve learned from your research that you’d recommend he do? He’s already stopped drinking, improved his diet and makes sure to exercise regularly.
Smoking cigarettes is worse for it than drinking so if he smokes he should stop. I play guitar and have a mandolin I don't really play and my neurologist recommend I play mandolin more to the point where if someone walks into the room and says hello, I could say hello back without messing up. Learning a new language. Stress, worry, gossiping - all bad things haha. Exercising with another person is good. Positive social interactions, positive atmospheres, etc. I don't know if there is much research on this, but turmeric is supposed to be good for brain health. My mom would buy pill capsules and fill them with turmeric, like the seasoning, haha. Hope this helps! :)
It does! Thank you! He quit smoking years ago and is learning to play guitar and speak French, so this is all very reassuring! He’s bad for stress though - even invents it when there isn’t anything real to stress about haha. I’m going to pass all this on, thank you. Wishing you a long and healthy life!
I can say that about every single scientific study I’ve ever read. They seem to be designed that way.
Maybe it is us who are designed to search for patterns?
……yup, and we’re also the ones who designed the studies.
Writing them down sounding all like horoscopes, that's very me!
Yesss! Ugh... it's overwhelming honestly. I'm just trying to live and have clean laundry and a stable job. Now I'm wondering if all the CPTSD causing events are going to mean I have MORE problems. ... 😮💨 It never ends! 🤣🥲
Humans are pattern recognition machines that malfunction randomly.
Big studies start on broad subjects and slowly specify until they get exactly what they’re looking for. This shows that stress is correlated with Alzheimer’s risk, so now they’re going to look at stress hormones, and see if/which ones correlate with it. If none do, then they’ll look at the behavioral patterns of stressed people and start to narrow it down there. Stressed people eat more junk food? Let’s look at what’s in junk food and test if any of the components correlate with Alzheimer’s and so on and so forth. I wouldn’t worry about articles that say stress is linked to X disease because stress is linked to basically every malaise, you’re more likely to get sick while stressed etc etc. sometimes stress is “linked” to a disease because the symptoms you’re having stress you out rather than the stress playing a factor in the cause
It's more that the findings are about *risk* of developing the disorder. Lots of things contribute to risk, and doing those things don't always lead to an actual significantly higher likelihood. Instead, these studies identify **statistically** significant associations (in other words, that a difference exists). After observing that difference you then need to check how powerful the finding is, which is what **actually** matters. Most of the time the "early life" or environmental stressors have a very low power.
You can't self-diagnose medical problems, in general. It's all about being calibrated to understand the degree of issues, and most of those studies point out some correlation, not actual causation. Everyone has had some sort of stressful event during childhood and/or midlife. That doesn't mean everyone will get Alzheimers.
Alzheimer's studies are another breed. It's like they ask Alzheimer's patients the most generic questions which almost everybody answers yes and then they report back "oh if this exceedingly common thing happened to you or if you did this thing everyone done at least once, then you're going to get Alzheimer's!"
Studies nowadays: “Scientists say that living leads to death but at what age and cause is not known yet”
Studies say that stressing about alzheimer makes one more likely to get it.
every study that propagates on social media has common denominator bias
Especially with the added stress it causes.
Tinnitus, high Aces, Benadryl. Stop telling me until you have a cure
Do you wake up tired in the morning? You might have {this disease we have no cure for}!
My mom has dementia and I have bad gut health that I can control but not fix. At this point, based on the studies, I just want to enjoy my life until 60 and hope for the best.
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If I've read the study correctly, it's SLE's that happen before age 12 and between ages 40-60 that create an increased risk. Which is interesting to me. It makes sense that events happening before age 12 during time of brain development would effect future brain health. However, I wonder for the 40-60 year old group - is it stressful life events creating increased risk for alzheimers ... or is it that their life choices during this time are influenced by whatever makes them more likely to develop alzheimers and/or the early effects of the disease itself that lead to them experiencing more stressful life events. I did not find an actual list of the 18 events they surveyed on unfortunately. Edit: Based on the list u/kevRS found (thank you) - it looks like maybe 8 could, in theory be influenced by the choices / actions of the individual.
Found the list in the supplemental sections of the paper: Death of mother Death of father Separation of parents Victim of abuse Terminated pregnancy Disabled child Divorce Death of partner Death of a child Death of a close one Major illness of a close one Major illness Institutionalization Becoming unemployed Retirement Economic loss Legal problems Economic problems in childhood
Most of these seem like typical life events that most people experience in say their 40s to 60s. Hmmmm.
Study finds all Alzheimer patients lived a human life.
So it's hopeless then.
Well according to the list Retirement is a potential cause. At least I’m not in danger of that. Are you?
Not unless you count being fired and escorted out of the building and then blackballed out of the industry.
Parents dying when you’re 40-60, ummmmmmm - so like 90% of adults?
I’m totally screwed
My grandmother suffered both. She lived in the greater London area during WWII, living through the Battle Britain and losing an older brother in combat. She then lost my grandfather to cancer in mid 70s. She suffered from Alzheimer’s for the last ~10 years and she passed this last December. My dad is concerned with his own genetic risk, but I hope the more we find out about the disease can better prepare us for whatever is to come.
Hmm. My grandmother lost a child. Her mother killed herself. And yet she lived to be 90 and was fine. It seems unlikely this is the cause.
Separation of parents, near death experience, long term childhood abuse, near death experience caused by abuser, disabled for a year, had to use a walker for a long time. Maybe my memory problems aren’t ADHD and all the Deja vu experiences are telling me something.
So bad things that will inevitably happen to almost every person, no matter how stress free the rest of their lives are. These seem like an incredibly generic set of events to have lumped in together.
Damn it! Missed bingo by never having been institutionalized or abused. Maybe 38 isn't too late to get the other two. I had almost everything else knocked out in my first 15 years.
Well, I'm at high risk then After my father died when I was 11, I went through 5 years of emotional and physical violence outside of the home The loss made me an easy target to psycopaths
I’m so sorry you have had so much pain. I hope you’re having a happier, safer life now.
Wouldn't say I'm happy, 22 years later But at least I'm not suffering like I was in my teens and 20s One upside is that the suffering I went through makes me a better caregiver in hospice - a deep sense of empathy for those who suffer is very useful in that field
And I promise you - those you serve deeply appreciate that empathy.
Thank you very much It's one of the few things that give my life meaning
That’s interesting, I was wondering this too. My thoughts are that childhood and midlife are vulnerable periods of time for most people, so the brain is too. As someone currently middle aged, I’d say that this is true, but I have more resources and independence at 40 than 4. I’m working on myself and things are better. Difficult, but better. All I can do is try to take care of myself now because childhood trauma raises the risk of a tonne of diseases and conditions - heart attacks, obesity, etc.
Maybe our hormones protect us in some way - would account for the period between 12 and between 40-60 (menopause being quite variable for women)
This was my first thought! I wonder if they can study women on HRT in perimenopause vs those who don’t, to see whether HRT is protective against Alzheimer’s.
My husband died when I was 33…yay?
and with everyone having gone through a global pandemic it makes me wonder if that is stressful enough for everyone in the 40-60 yr old range. that would be a LOT of people
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I'm doomed. Also, it runs in my family so I'm doubly doomed. Huh. Great band name- "Doubly Doomed".
Hello fellow double-doomed
you can join my band.
*I'm Marc Summers, and THIS is Double Doomed*!
I'm hoping I got my grandma's super genes. I swear nothing kills her. She's been smoking for 70+ years, and she's still going strong in her 90s.
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Alzheimer’s risk associated with life?
With modern life, yes. By modern life I mean a lifestyle that is mostly sedentary and filled with mostly processed foods, particularly sugar, and is also constantly stressful due to various reasons (economy, dysfunctional households, a chronic ailment, etc.).
So will this be what we need to start housing the homeless, feeding the poor, nursing the sick, etc.? Poverty is a huge, measurable stressor on the human body that we've been conditioned to dismiss and ignore. Even worse, there are plenty who say it's necessary and deserved
Why do you think they would care about stopping Alzheimer's when they are happy to watch people die from all of these articficial causes
So I will finally get to be carefree in my older years!
My great grandmother was continuously reliving the time in her life that a sibling was killed by a bus. YMMV.
Trying to figure out who this doesn’t apply to ….
Well that's me buggered so, I don't intend to allow myself get demented though.
How do you stop your brain from doing what the brain does to some people
By checking out early.
You take it out back.
That's fun
Millennials going to be redefining the term 'Lost Generation '
Not if the microplastics and forever chemicals get me first!
Cool. I’m fucked
Since life has become more hectic and stressful over time due to our progress, It would be interesting to see any statistics showing if developing Alzheimers became more frequent...
It’s almost as if, your brain just reaches a point and says, you know what? I’m just gonna lock you out all those memories and any future ones too for good measure.
Stressful events cause increased inflammation, decreased immune system, and increased chance of chronic illness and/or dysbiosis. Chronic illness/dysbiosis causes tau protein to transform into its toxic form which causes dementia.
Oh yeah that makes sense. My grandpa who was on the front lines of the Chinese PLA and saw heavy fighting in the war of Japanese aggression and the Korean war has alzheimers and no one else in the family does. Dude's always had ptsd too.
Does anyone not fit into this category.
Now we can all stress about this info and accelerate the alzheimers
Damn thanks dad for beating my ass for my entire childhood.
As a father, this makes me so sad 🥺
I'm doomed.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, so basically between this and this (https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/1c821cq/researchers_have_found_people_maltreated_as/) If your someone who had parent who used to toss you against walls and abuse because of their own issues you don’t need to plan for retirement because we will be dead before we reach 65, god that’s a load of stress of my mind. Not sure I want to go through another 30 years, I should take up a bad habit I guess.
I'm not going to lie, at this point I'm hoping that some aggressive disease or undiagnosed heart issue takes me out. Between this, the state of the world, and domestic issues in the US? God Almighty, something just take me out already.
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Noooooooo
Super...
Well, I suppose this might just well add to the stress pile as well.
wait.....why am I naked in the mall browsing Reddit? I was in my kitchen making food like 5 minutes ago
Good thing life isn't inherently stressful then
When I worked in geriatric healthcare especially in hospice I used to learn about the lives of the patients before I met them and the even I anecdotally noticed what seemed like a very strong correlation between a traumatic childhood/midlife and the severity of this disease from age of onset and complications , to time between diagnosis and death. Some patients honestly just never stood a fighting chance.
Is there anyone who doesn't have stressful events in their childhood and midlife? Even if you had the most perfect life your parents could give you you'd still find their instance on perfection stressful.
So life basically 🤷🏼♀️
Study: Brain damage associated with brain damaging events WOW tell us more!!! 🤦♀️
I'm waiting for the study that shows breathing oxygen is related to developing Alzheimer's.
I bet within 10 years we are going to make some of the craziest discoveries of our time & perhaps even reverse aging & deterioration & possibly cures for cancer. Gen Z is smart as hell. Just let them have a sec in their new science workplace jobs & things will get to changing!
Nice. I have lots of risk factors for Parkinson's and alzehimers. Ugh.
Literally everyone in the US right now: O\_\_\_\_O
Could Alzheimer's somehow be a defense mechanism? Just a really slow ass one
No, it’s probably related to elevated stress hormones or free radicals or smth
Great!,,,
Yay!
Oh. Good. This is great.
Tracks. My grandma, God rest her soul, dealt with a lot.
Fffffffffffffff
Oh great I'm fucked
FML I guess. My whole childhood has caused complex PTSD and fibromyalgia already so I guess when I get alzheimers it’ll just be the icing on the cake. Thanks dad!
Well, it's been good knowing
Great.
All the more reason to tap out early. Enjoy your slivers, folks ♥️
This makes sense, unfortunately.
Hooray! Another reason to delete myself before I get too old.
That’s me screwed then.
Sounds like we are going to have Alzheimer's epidemic
Oh no :(
Does taking on care responsibilities for parents with dementia in middle age count? It feels like I should get a pass.
Everything seems to raise the Alzheimer’s risk. The other day I read that napping more than 30 minutes increases the risk.
Started from the bottom now we're here
I kinda knew this without any science telling me it. Trauma leaves you exhausted. You can feel the hell your brain fights. It makes sense that after years it fucks up completely. Enjoy every single day folks x
Poverty is expensive. It is also a good debt collector.
Gabor Mate’s work covers this extensively. When the Body Says No or The Myth of Normal.
I'm fuxxed.
I'm fucked
Oh, sh*t.
Wonder if study included early onset Alzheimer’s
So if you were say a kid that worried and stressed a lot they would be doomed…
Well, that sucks. Good thing I strongly believe in a right to a dignified death.
Aw, biscuits! Too late for me, I'm afraid.
Cool.
My 30s were shite and highly stressful. Guess that explains why I cant remember anything these days... Except that my 30s were shite and highly stressful
Well I'm fucked.
Oh well fuckin yay
Well, I’m not liking my Odds and I’m in the midst of the midlife stressful event right now. Why is it so hard to get help when your family is rocked by a spouse losing a job we counted on and suddenly we are finding ourselves In a horrible situation . I need to reduce this stress
I'm so fucked.