{"id":5201,"date":"2018-11-13T09:00:07","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T14:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.silvercentury.org\/?p=5201"},"modified":"2018-11-17T17:21:41","modified_gmt":"2018-11-17T22:21:41","slug":"less-ageism-less-dementia-its-that-clear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/2018\/11\/less-ageism-less-dementia-its-that-clear\/","title":{"rendered":"Less Ageism = Less Dementia. It\u2019s That Clear"},"content":{"rendered":"

What affliction do Americans fear most? Alzheimer\u2019s disease. I\u2019m one of them, but facts comfort me. Abundant new data shows that our fears are way out of proportion to the threat\u2014and that those fears themselves<\/em> put us at risk.<\/p>\n

Fact #1: Dementia rates are falling.<\/strong> As I reported last April, the likelihood of you or me developing dementia has dropped<\/a>\u2014significantly\u2014and people are getting diagnosed at later ages. That\u2019s despite a surge in diabetes among older Americans, which significantly increases the risk. Numbers remain high\u2014an estimated four million to five million Americans currently have dementia\u2014but those numbers pale in comparison to all the people who are worried about getting it and about aging in general. Why is that important?<\/p>\n

Fact #2: Worrying about dementia\u2014and about getting older\u2014is itself a health risk.<\/strong> We\u2019ve known for some time that attitudes towards aging affect how the mind and body function at the cellular level. New research, published on February 7, 2018, in the prestigious PLOS ONE<\/em> journal, confirms that finding, reporting that people who associate old age with becoming useless or incompetent are more likely to develop dementia<\/em><\/a> than people with a more positive outlook.<\/p>\n

Scientists consider a variant of a gene called APOE to be the primary genetic risk factor in late-onset Alzheimer\u2019s disease, yet many who carry it never develop dementia. How come? Could environmental\u2014and therefore modifiable\u2014factors play a role? The new study, led by Yale psychologist Becca Levy, PhD, worked with a group of 4,765 people 60 or older who were dementia-free at the start, more than a quarter of whom carried the gene. Levy and her team interviewed them regularly over the course of up to four years, asking them to rank their feelings to prompts such as, \u201cThe older I get the more useful I feel.\u201d They found that people with more negative attitudes were twice as likely to develop dementia. In other words, positive age beliefs confer protection against cognitive decline\u2014even among people who are genetically predisposed to the disease.<\/em><\/p>\n

Both experimental and longitudinal research show that stress, which links to dementia, may be the mechanism by which dementia develops. Levy\u2019s team found that positive attitudes about aging can reduce stress and help us cope with ageist messages that bombard us from the media and popular culture.<\/p>\n

People assimilate cultural beliefs from early childhood on, and as these stereotypes become more relevant over time, we tend to act as though they were accurate, creating self-fulfilling prophecies. (More here<\/a> about Levy\u2019s theory of stereotype embodiment.) Positive beliefs (e.g., late life is inherently valuable, old age is a time of growth and development, olders contribute to society) help keep us healthy by buffering stress and prejudice: the effects of ageism. Negative beliefs (e.g., it\u2019s sad to be old, old people are ugly, aging means becoming a burden) make us vulnerable to disease and decline.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time for an anti-ageism public health campaign.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re stuck with our genes, but not with our behaviors or attitudes. Interventions work. Last year, New York Times<\/em> science reporter Gina Kolata described the decline in dementia rates as \u201cwhat seems to be a long-term trend, despite researchers\u2019 failure to find any effective way for individuals to protect themselves from Alzheimer\u2019s, the most common form of dementia.\u201d That is no longer the case.<\/p>\n

Reputable researchers are careful not to overstate their conclusions, but the scientists behind Levy\u2019s new study note that that their findings have far-reaching social implications. In personalized medicine, for example, education could bolster positive attitudes in people at higher risk of developing dementia. On a broader scale, as Levy points out, the research lays a foundation for creating a public health campaign to beat back against ageism and negative beliefs about aging. I\u2019ve been making this case for years.<\/p>\n

No matter how you feel about the longevity boom, or just about hitting that next big birthday, everyone wants olders to stay as healthy as possible for as long as possible. Imagine the benefits to health and human potential of replacing negative stereotypes about age and aging with more nuanced, positive and accurate portrayals. The 65+ population of the US is expected to double by the year 2030. Let\u2019s get cracking!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What affliction do Americans fear most? Alzheimer\u2019s disease. I\u2019m one of them, but facts comfort me. Abundant new data shows that our fears are way out of proportion to the threat\u2014and that those fears themselves put us at risk.<\/p>\n

Read more Less Ageism = Less Dementia. It\u2019s That Clear<\/span> ›<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

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