Rowing with your partner ‘significantly INCREASES your risk of dementia’
Brits with closer bonds to their children are less likely to develop dementia
REGULARLY rowing with you husband or wife significantly increases your risk of dementia, experts have warned.
Getting along at home, and having a good relationship with your kids, protects against the brain-wasting disease.
University of East Anglia researchers followed more than 10,000 over-50s for over a decade to calculate the impact of family life on dementia risk.
Experts found the size and health of a person’s social network significantly altered their chances of developing the disease.
It found older Brits with a close bond with their children were 17 per cent less likely to get dementia.
Researchers found a similar effect if participants got on well with their spouses.
But older Brits with critical, unreliable or annoying relatives were 31 per cent more likely to get the disease.
Researchers think having bad relationships may leave people stressed and drive unhealthy habits, such as boozing and smoking, which increase dementia risk.
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And those with supportive family are more likely to take care of themselves.
Around 850,000 people in the UK have the condition.
There is no effective treatment, but current medications can help to slow down the symptoms.
Lead researcher Dr Mizanur Khondoker, a senior lecturer in medical statistics at UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said: “It is well known that having a rich network of close relationships, including being married and having adult children, is related to a reduced risk of cognitive decline and developing dementia.
“But the association is even stronger for negative relationships. One theory is the stress is more harmful than the benefits of a warm relationship.”
The study is published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Fellow researcher Prof Andrew Steptoe, from University College London, said: “The research highlights the value of thinking about social relationship issues in individuals vulnerable to dementia, while pointing toward specific ways of potentially modifying risk.”
He added more needs to be done to protect older Brits from the impacts on loneliness.
Dr Laura Phipps of Alzheimer’s Research UK said: “An active social life with strong support networks can benefit brain health into older age.
“This study suggests that negative relationships could be detrimental to cognitive health and increase the risk of dementia. It could be that negative personal relationships lead people to make more unhealthy lifestyle choices that have a knock-on effect on the brain.”
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