How a common mental health issue can raise risk of Alzheimer’s by SEVEN-FOLD, first-of-its-kind study shows

It can cause people’s hearts to race and they can dread meetings at work.

But new research shows that living with anxiety may also significantly increase your risk of dementia.

Adults aged 60 and older who have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder in the past 10 years have about three times the risk of developing dementia than people without the condition.

And people diagnosed with an anxiety disorder before age 70 were even less likely to develop dementia, up to seven times more likely.

The team believes this is because patients with mental illness are more likely to engage in risky behaviors, such as smoking and unhealthy eating, which have been shown to lead to dementia.

There is also evidence that anxiety leads to excess stress hormones. This can lead to inflammation in the brain, which releases toxins and decreases cognitive function, leading to dementia.

The research is part of a growing body of research showing that mental health is linked to cognitive impairment.

The researchers wrote: ‘To our knowledge, this is the first study to assess the effect of persistent anxiety (chronic anxiety vs. resolved anxiety vs. new anxiety) and timing of anxiety exposure on dementia risk.’

‘These results suggest that anxiety may be a modifiable risk factor for dementia and that early management of anxiety may help reduce the risk of dementia.’

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, just under one in five American adults has an anxiety disorder, or 40 million Americans.

The researchers evaluated 2,132 participants over the age of 60. The majority (53 percent) were women.

Most Australians who participated in the study had completed at least some vocational training and had a history of smoking.

On average, 62 percent of participants drank one to four alcoholic drinks per week.

Patients were divided into three groups based on age: 60-70, 71-80, and 81+. The average age of participants was 76.

Anxiety was measured once at the start of the study (wave 1) and again after five years (wave 2).

Patients with ‘chronic’ anxiety showed symptoms at the beginning and end of the experiment, while those who were only anxious at the beginning had ‘resolved’ anxiety. Meanwhile, patients who only showed symptoms had ‘new’ anxiety towards the end.

During the 10-year study period, approximately three percent of participants developed dementia and seven percent died.

The researchers found that participants with chronic anxiety were, on average, 2.8 times more likely to develop dementia, and those with new fears were 3.2 times more likely.

However, the chance of this happening was greatest in people under 70 years of age.

Patients aged 60 to 70 years with chronic anxiety were 4.6 times more likely to develop dementia, and for people in that age group with new-onset anxiety, this was 7.2 times more likely.

The team said this could be because anxiety at a young age has been shown to increase the long-term risk of heart disease and other conditions linked to dementia.

However, the study also found that participants whose anxiety disappeared between the first and second rounds were not at increased risk, indicating that treatment with therapy and medication was effective in reducing risk.

“Our study found that the risk of dementia in recovered cases was comparable to that of people without anxiety,” the researchers wrote.

‘These findings support anxiety as a potential modifiable risk factor for dementia and point to the potential role of managing anxiety in middle-aged and ‘young’ older adults to reduce the risk of dementia later in life.’

Anxiety disorders are typically treated with a combination of therapy, medications, and lifestyle changes, although every patient is different.

‘People with anxiety disorders are more likely to have unhealthy lifestyle habits, such as unhealthy eating, lack of exercise and smoking, which can lead to cardiovascular disease, which is strongly associated with dementia,’ the team wrote.

‘Therefore, these are plausible direct and indirect mechanisms through which anxiety may increase the risk of dementia.’

The study had several limitations, including that cases may not have been detected until after the disease first manifested, and that anxiety symptoms were not assessed until four weeks after each follow-up.

The team also had “no information about how the fear disappeared” at the end of the experiment.

The researchers believe that lifestyle factors common in people with anxiety may explain the increased risk.

The study was published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.