Aggressive Adults may Have Memory Issues in their 50s

BEACON TRANSCRIPT – Life can be pretty rough sometimes, so the best way to cope with any situation is to be as cool as a cucumber, and let it all pass by you. Learning to deal with a situation or with people might have surprising benefits. A new neurological study proved that aggressive adults may have memory issues in their 50s.

Stress is considered to be something of a malade du siècle, as Madame du Stael might put it. More of a festering pool of tons of diseases, than an actual illness, stress is ever present in our everyday lives.

From our jobs to our humble hovels, regardless of how busy we are, we still have some room for some more stress. Providing for the family, taking care of your parents, giving it your best at the company, these are all considered factors that fuel stress.

And stress can give birth to all kinds of diseases such as cardiovascular issues, obesity (if a stressed person indulges in too much ice-cream of cookies to vent out his or hers frustrations) and even cancer (this lead is still being investigated).

Well, according to a new study performed by a team of neurologists from the American Academy of Neurology, our predisposition towards aggression and failure to cope with a situation might damage us in more ways than we could ever imagine.

Lenore J. Launer, a neurologists working at the prestigious research institute and the senior author of the study, remarked that even the most meager personality trait may impose on our minds. In fact, throughout her study, Doctor Launer and her team of scientists discovered that individuals who are unable to handle stress during their adulthood are more prone to develop memory-related issues.

The neurological study, which was recently published in the online version of the Neurology Journal, analyzed over 3000 participants, which an average age of 25 years-old.

For the purpose of the exercise, the team split the participants into four groups, depending on their level of aggression and effort to cope. The four groups were asked a series of questions to ascertain their core traits and were asked the same questions 25 years later during a follow-up survey.

The team discovered that the participants who had a high level of aggression during adulthood remembered 0.16 percent fewer words when they were asked to memorize a list of 15 words. Moreover, those who had a high degree of coping during young adulthood would remember 0.30 percent more words than those with low levels of coping.

Doctor Launer points out that the study is purely observational and that more data is needed to see if there is indeed a link between personality traits and memory.

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