Married People Far Less Likely to Suffer Dementia
A recent study has found that marriage can decrease the chances of dementia.
A new study posted in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry has claimed that a person's relationship status may influence the risk of dementia, with marriage lowering it up to 30 percent. The research paper had taken into account the pieces of evidence found from 15 previously published reports which had involved about 800,000 individuals hailing from Europe, Asia, North and South America.
According to the study, after combining all the data and factoring the ages and genders of the individuals, the researchers from the University College London had concluded that people who had never married are at a 42 percent increased risk for developing dementia. Married people, along with widows and widowers, on the other hand, are at a comparatively lower risk at 20 percent.
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The above-mentioned risk for unmarried people still holds even after the physical health of an individual was taken into consideration. Furthermore, other results indicate that married people tend to be healthier than those who are not and researchers explained this to be caused by couples motivating each of their partners to live healthy lifestyles, to exercise and smoke or drink less, to eat healthier and even to strengthen social relations.
Andrew Sommerlad, a psychiatrist at the University College London and one of the researchers of the study, explains that wearing a wedding ring itself is not the cause of the lowered risks.
"We don't think that it is marriage itself or wearing a wedding ring which reduces people's risk of dementia," he explained. "Instead, our research suggests that the possible protective effect is linked to various lifestyle factors which are known to accompany marriage, such as living a generally healthier lifestyle and having more social stimulation as a result of living with a spouse or partner," he added.
Dementia is characterized by a loss of brain function, the most common of which is Alzheimer's disease. About 47 million people all over the world are affected by dementia, and 70 percent of which is from Alzheimer's disease.
