Studies in inevitability

Researchers have found that stress in middle age could lead to dementia later on in life. As if we all don’t have stress! And the focus group participants were all women. Wonderful!

Psychological stress in middle age could lead to the development of dementia later in life, especially Alzheimer’s disease, reveals research from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Based on data from a study which followed women for 35 years, this is the first research in Sweden to indicate a link between stress and dementia.

The research, published in scientific journal Brain, is based on a major population study of women from Gothenburg. A representative sample of women were examined for the first time in 1968 when aged between 38 and 60, and then re-examined in 1974, 1980, 1992 and 2000.

A question about psychological stress was included in the 1968, 1974 and 1980 surveys and was answered by 1,415 women.

“Stress was defined as a sense of irritation, tension, nervousness, anxiety, fear or sleeping problems lasting a month or more due to work, health, family or other problems,”

Science Daily

I’d wager that even in tribes of indigenous natives, the sort that dot the pages of National Geographic, even their women have stress. Relationships, food, health problems. It’s universal to the species.

If they’re going to flush money, they could at least do a study about something important, like why dogs feet smell like Fritos!

Directly across the news of that study was yet another one also pertaining to women: Fat Around the Middle Increases the Risk of Dementia. As if we hadn’t been buffeted about enough today.

Women who store fat on their waist in middle age are more than twice as likely to develop dementia when they get older, reveals a new study from the Sahlgrenska Academy.

“Anyone carrying a lot of fat around the middle is at greater risk of dying prematurely due to a heart attack or stroke,” says Deborah Gustafson, senior lecturer at the Sahlgrenska Academy. “If they nevertheless manage to live beyond 70, they run a greater risk of dementia.”

Science Daily

That study posted in something called ‘Neurology’.

Next thing you know they’ll fund a study to find out why women get so fat after they have sex!

So I guess if I’m stressed and carrying a few extra pounds around my middle – and by the way, nature sort of dictates we women do that - then I should be drooling within 10 years. We’re all terminal, it’s just a matter of time.

They can sod off.

All this hilarity reminds me of Suzette’s recent post in which her doctor thinks Miz S might be at risk for stroke.
Thinks. Might. A plane might fall on her house, too. Or mine. Or yours.

I’ve got another doctor’s appointment this coming Monday. Dr. Cohen’s going to think things as well, but I know this damn gall bladder is coming out if I have to use hubby’s tools to do it.
That’s just another one of those inevitable things.