Scientists found a link between young adult with anger issues and memory impairment in old age.
(Mirror Daily, United States) – Life may be tough, especially for a young adult, but you should keep calm and don’t lose your nerves or else you’ll lose your memory, too. At least, that’s what a team of scientists are claiming.
A team of researchers from the American Neurology Academy has determined that people who are angrier in their young adult years tend to be more forgetful in their old age. This may be a good thing, though, young anger is not being transformed in old resentments.
In order to reach these conclusions, the scientists conducted a study that lasted a quarter of a century.
Almost 25 years ago the team gathered a sample of 3126 volunteers with an average age of twenty-five. The participants were then given various tests in order for the researchers to determine their distinctive personality traits.
According to the levels of social hostility and effortful coping in social matters, the subjects were divided into four groups.
The first were the ones that usually remained calm in stressful situations, the second those who had problems from time to time with coping, and so on. The last group was made out of individuals who reacted angrily to stress factors.
After being divided into their particular groups, the volunteers were then asked to complete some memory, stress and thinking abilities tests.
When the participants turned fifty, the researchers recalled them and gave them the same memory, stress and thinking ability tests.
One of the memory tests consisted in giving them some random words and then, fifteen minutes later, asking the volunteers to remember them.
The results showed that those who were prone to hostility in their young adult age remembered approximately 0.16 words less than those who were much calmer.
Also, the members of the group that had problems coping remembered roughly 0.30 words less than the group that had no problem in dealing with stress, whatsoever.
Lenore J Launer, the primary author of the cited study declared that her paper only shows the existence of a link between a lack of coping skills and thinking and memory impairment.
The results only suggest that there is a relation of association between the two factors, not causation.
So keep calm and don’t lose your nerves thinking that hostile attitudes may cause memory impairment in old age. Actually, it’s best if you keep calm and don’t lose your nerves, period. It’s better for your blood pressure.
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