Stress faced by caregivers of spouses with memory impairment is linked to adverse physical and mental health outcomes, including dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study.
This study is one of the first to look at how cellular health affects the well-being of spouse caregivers of people with dementia. Daily stress is high.
“This study builds on our previous work on chronic stress and immunity by highlighting the important role of cellular health in the mind-body connection,” said Chris Fagundes, a professor of psychology at Rice University and one of the study’s authors.
“We found that chronic stress affects not only immune function but also the health of individual cells, suggesting a deeper, more complex connection between mental state and physical health.”
Specifically, researchers are investigating the link between mitochondria (essentially the engines that power each individual cell) and mental and physical health. The energy produced by mitochondria is necessary for humans to carry out everyday activities like walking, shopping, and driving. One way to measure the health of a person’s cells is to determine how much energy they have left after these activities.
Fagundes likened cellular health to the fuel efficiency of a car.
“Having more energy or fuel left after driving is an indicator of how well your car is doing, or how well things are going,” he says. “It’s pretty much the same idea with cellular health.”
Just as a car gets less fuel efficient over time, it’s only natural that as we age, our cells have less remaining energy. Chronic stressful situations, like caregiving, can also have a negative impact on cellular health. But some people’s cells are naturally more resistant to aging and stress than others.
The researchers found that caregivers with low cellular energy reserves were less able to engage in physical activities, such as walking or carrying groceries, than caregivers with high cellular energy reserves, and were less likely to experience positive emotions, such as excitement, inspiration, and alertness, compared to caregivers with high cellular energy reserves.
Higher cellular energy reserves are associated with better mental and physical health, whereas lower cellular energy reserves lead to higher inflammation and may ultimately lead to a variety of mental and physical health issues, including disease diagnoses such as dementia and Alzheimer’s.
The researchers hope that their findings could lead to the development of medicines and interventions that target cellular health, helping caregivers Negative results It could result from the stress they face.
The study has been published in the journal Psychosomatic medicine.
Additional co-authors are researchers from Rice University, Baylor College of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and the University of Houston.
sauce: Rice University
