Loneliness and Alzheimer's disease

Although it may sometimes be difficult for busy people to find time to spend with family and friends, there’s good reason to keep socializing high on your list of priorities.

That’s because researchers at the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center have connected one aspect of a person’s social well-being — loneliness — to Alzheimer’s disease. This degenerative brain disorder affects memory and cognition.

Researchers found that people who feel emotionally isolated may be twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease. It’s not known exactly how loneliness affects risk, but negative emotions in general appear to cause changes in the brain.

Once the precise mechanism behind this connection is discovered, it’s possible that medications or behavior changes may be able to lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by decreasing the toll loneliness takes on a person’s brain health.

Meanwhile, research at Rush shows that staying mentally and socially active helps fend off cognitive decline in general, and maintaining close ties with family and friends provides protection against Alzheimer’s disease specifically.

Source – Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center