THESE Personality Traits Determine Your Dementia Risk?!
Your personality says a lot about who you are and how you look at life.
But did you know it can also impact your disease risk?
More specifically, it can impact your risk of developing dementia.
Find out what these two specific traits can tell you about your risk.
Psychologists say that there are five main personality traits, and they go by the acronym OCEAN:
- Openness to experience
- Conscientiousness
- Extroversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism
Previous studies show that two of these traits are tied to the risk of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s.
For this study, researchers studied data collected from adults over age 65 who filled out a questionnaire that identifies personality traits and completed tests to determine cognitive function.
The results showed a clear connection between neuroticism and mild cognitive impairment. This is defined as a slight but noticeable decline in memory and thinking skills.
On the other hand, openness was associated with a reduced likelihood of mild cognitive impairment.
Said another way, neuroticism increases the risk of cognitive impairment, while openness helps protect against it.
Incidentally, neuroticism has also been associated with a greater disease burden in general and for the condition to be more severe.
Now that we see the connection between personality and mild cognitive impairment, a natural question follows:
Do these personality traits increase the risk, or do they occur as a result of existing impairment?
Meaning, it’s possible that someone with MCI would develop neurotic traits as a result of aging—and that they would have identified these traits differently when they were younger.
It’s also possible that these traits could be a result of loss of cognitive function.
We still don’t have all the answers, but I think the answer can be both.
Certain personality traits are associated with cognitive impairment AND certain personality traits can increase your risk of disease.
While you can’t do much about the first point, you can take steps to impact the second.
Neurotic people have a tendency to be more anxious, depressed, have self-doubt, and other negative feelings.
While this might be your tendency, it doesn’t have to be your reality.
Practices like yoga, meditation, stress-relief, social activities, therapy, and physical activity—coupled with good lifestyle habits like spending time in the sun, getting enough sleep, and cutting junk food out of your diet—can help you have a more positive mindset.
Studies like these show that it could impact your lifestyle AND your health.
