Anxiety Archive

In the journals

Some antidepressants may not offer much relief for people who battle both depression and a chronic disease, according to research in the Nov. 21, 2017, Journal of the American Medical Association.

Nearly half of Americans live with a chronic condition, according to the CDC, and many also suffer from depression, including more than half of Parkinson's disease patients, 41% of cancer patients, and more than 25% of those with diabetes.

Regardless of age, you're unlikely to have a flawless memory. People who can remember very long lists of numbers or recall the minutiae of their daily lives — right down to what they ate for lunch every day last year—are exceedingly rare. And frankly, such a memory can be a burden rather than a blessing. Memory, it seems, is inherently flawed—and in more ways than you might think.

Daniel Schacter, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, described the most common ways that normal memory fails us in his book The Seven Sins of Memory. Some of these memory flaws become more pronounced with age, but unless they are extreme and persistent, they are not considered indicators of Alzheimer's or other memory-impairing illnesses. They are simply the way that our brains work. The following is a brief summary of two of Schacter's seven memory "sins."

Your daily habits and lifestyle — what you eat and drink, whether you exercise, how stressed you are, and more — affect your mental health every bit as much as your physical health. A growing body of research indicates that regular exercise and a healthful diet can help protect your memory from aging-related decline.

Exercise

Physical fitness and mental fitness go together. People who exercise regularly tend to stay mentally sharp into their 70s, 80s, and beyond. Although the precise "dose" of exercise isn't known, research suggests that the exercise should be moderate to vigorous and regular. Examples of moderate exercise include brisk walking, stationary bicycling, water aerobics, and competitive table tennis. Vigorous activities include jogging, high-impact aerobic dancing, square dancing, and tennis.

News briefs

You've probably heard about tests to measure chemicals in the blood that indicate chronic inflammation in the body. They are sometimes used to estimate risk for heart disease. But what about using these kinds of biomarkers to gauge your risk for declining brain health? A study published Nov. 1, 2017, in Neurology found that having certain inflammatory markers in midlife was associated with brain shrinkage and poor memory in older age.

Researchers measured five inflammation biomarkers in about 1,600 middle-aged people and gave them brain scans and a memory test about 25 years later. Compared with people with no elevated inflammation markers, people with high levels of three or more biomarkers scored lower on the memory test and had about 5% shrinkage in the hippocampus and other parts of the brain associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Feeling afraid about life issues is common as you age, but if it takes over your life, you may have generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).

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Everyone feels afraid or worried at times, but if these feelings begin to take over your life, then you may have crossed over into generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), which is the most common anxiety disorder among older adults, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA).

"The issue with many older men is they often just endure the discomfort of GAD, or think it's normal, and do not talk about the problem," says Dr. David Mischoulon, director of the Depression Clinical and Research Program at -Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. "However, left alone to manifest, GAD may lead to serious health problems, such as high blood pressure, depression, and addictive behavior like excessive drinking."

In the journals

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If you have persistent trouble detecting or identifying odors, that may be an early sign of dementia, according to a study in the Sept. 25, 2017, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Almost 3,000 older adults, ages 57 to 85, who did not have dementia were asked to detect and identify five common odors like peppermint, fish, orange, rose, and leather. Five years later, the researchers found that almost half of those who performed poorly on the smell test (were either unable to detect the odors or unable to identify what the smells were) had been diagnosed with dementia. In comparison, 79% of those who scored high on the smell test did not have dementia.

The results only show an association between poor sense of smell and dementia, but the researchers noted that a smell test could be a simple way to identify high-risk people. It isn't clear how sense of smell and dementia may be linked, but the researchers speculated that underlying causes of dementia, like amyloid plaque buildup and tau tangles in the brain, also may affect the olfactory (sense of smell) system.

If exercise were available as a pill, experts say, everyone would be taking it. One reason is that exercise is very good at defusing stress. If you exercise — especially right when the stress response is triggered — you burn off stress hormones just as nature intended, instead of letting them pile up.

What's more, just about any form of motion on a regular basis helps relieve pent-up tension. Rhythmic, repetitive movements, such as walking, running, swimming, bicycling, and rowing — and specific types of exercise such as yoga, tai chi, and qigong — actually elicit the relaxation response, too. Regularly engaging in these kinds of activities can help you ward off everyday stress.

While the holiday season is a time of festivities and reconnecting with family, for people in recovery from substance use disorders, these specific situations and events can be especially stressful. For them it’s crucial to plan ahead and to make sure recovery remains the priority at all times.

Get through the season on your own by changing your perspective, creating new traditions, and reaching out to others.

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The holidays are traditionally a time for family and friends. But plenty of people find themselves alone at this time of the year, especially older adults who live by themselves, are unable to drive, or live far from grown children. "I think it's probably hardest for people who have recently lost a loved one," says Dr. Suzanne Salamon, associate chief of gerontology at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Emotional impact

A number of emotions may creep in when you face holidays alone. One is pressure to make the holiday an event. "There's a feeling that it's supposed to be a celebration. That may be stressful if you have no one to celebrate with," says Dr. Elyse Park, director of behavioral health research at the Harvard-affiliated Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine.