TUESDAY, Dec. 27, 2022Living in an area with easy access to parks and rivers appears to slow the progression of devastating neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. That’s the conclusion of a new study based on more than a decade and a half tracking disease risk among nearly 62 million Americans 65 years old and up. “Prior research showed that natural environments — such as forests, parks and rivers — can help to reduce stress and restore attention,” noted lead author Jochem Klompmaker, a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. “In addition, natural environments provide settings for physical activity and social interactions, and may reduce exposure to air pollution, extreme heat and traffic noise.” To build on such observations, his and his colleagues looked at hospital admissions for Alzheimer’s and related dementia, as well as Parkinson’s disease. By focusing on hospital admission, Klompmaker stressed that his team was not assessing the initial risk for developing either disease. Instead, researchers wanted to know if increased exposure to nature lowered the odds that either disease would progress quickly. And on that front, Klompmaker said, researchers observed significant protective links: The greener an older individual’s surrounding environment, the lower their risk of hospitalization for either neurological illness. The finding could have bearing on millions of Americans, given that Alzheimer’s…  read on >  read on >

Stress is rarely a good thing for your health, but new research warns that it significantly raises the risk of a stroke. The study found that increased stress at home or work and recent stressful life events — like getting divorced or a major family conflict — were associated both with increased risk of stroke due to a clot, known as an ischemic stroke, and a stroke due to bleeding in the brain, called a hemorrhagic stroke. What to do to lower that risk? “Optimal approaches to managing, and preventing, psychosocial stress are uncertain. Previous studies have looked at interventions such as cognitive behavioral therapy, relaxation techniques, client-led discussion, stress management, exercise regimens and anger management,” said study author Dr. Catriona Reddin, of the University of Galway College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, in Ireland. “The most effective approach may vary from person to person. It’s important that everyone has a strategy that works for them,” Reddin said. Her team studied stress around the world using data from a retrospective study known as INTERSTROKE in more than 26,000 people in 32 countries in North and South America, Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. People who had severe work stress were more than twice as likely to have an ischemic stroke as those with no work stress, the investigators found. They were more…  read on >  read on >

If you need another reason to quit smoking, researchers have one: your mid-life brain health. Not only does smoking harm lung and heart health, but it increases the chances of middle-aged memory loss and confusion, a new study shows. The likelihood of mental (“cognitive”) decline is lower for those who quit — even if they did so only recently, according to researchers at Ohio State University, in Columbus. Past research has established a connection between smoking and Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia. This new study used a one-question self-assessment to ask participants if they were experiencing worsening or more frequent memory loss or confusion (also known as “subjective cognitive decline”). Using the 2019 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey, the researchers compared subjective cognitive decline measures for current smokers, recent former smokers and those who had quit years earlier, analyzing more than 136,000 people aged 45 and older. About 11% reported subjective cognitive decline. “The association we saw was most significant in the 45 to 59 age group, suggesting that quitting at that stage of life may have a benefit for cognitive health,” said senior study author Jeffrey Wing, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Ohio State. The researchers did not find a similar difference in the oldest group in the study, which could mean that quitting earlier is more beneficial, Wing suggested.…  read on >  read on >