Cynical people are at three times higher risk of developing dementia, a new study finds.
Cynical distrust is the act of thinking everything others do is for selfish reasons. Many people face such trust issues. Previous studies have linked cynicism to health issues like heart diseases. Now, a group of researchers from University of Eastern Finland found that cynical distrust may have mental implications as well leading to brain damage.
After conducting the study on 1,449 people with an average age of 71, researchers found that cynicism elevates the risk of dementia. During the 8-year study period, 622 people completed two tests for dementia and answered questionnaires that measured their level of cynicism. Based on scores each participant got in the questionnaire, researchers divided them into groups of low, moderate and high levels of cynical distrust. Researchers found 164 people with high levels of cynicism, 212 people with low levels of cynicism and the remaining fell into the group with moderate levels of cynical distrust.
At the end of the study, 14 people from the high level group and 9 from the low level group developed dementia. Doing the math, researchers said that high levels of cynical distrust ups dementia risk by three times.
"These results add to the evidence that people's view on life and personality may have an impact on their health," said study author Anna-Maija Tolppanen in a press statement. "Understanding how a personality trait like cynicism affects risk for dementia might provide us with important insights on how to reduce risks for dementia."
In the second part of the study, which included 1,146 participants, researchers looked to see if there was any association between cynicism and early death. During the 10 years of follow-up that was conducted, 361 people died. At first researchers thought the deaths were associated with cynicism. However, after adjusting other influencing factors like socioeconomic status, behaviors such as smoking and health status, no such link was found.
"People with different personality traits may be more or less likely to engage in activities that are beneficial for cognition, such as healthy diet, cognitive or social activities, or exercise, Tolppanen told BBC News. "Or personality may act via morphological changes or structural differences in brains. Also, inflammation has been suggested as one link between cynicism and worse health outcomes."
Dementia is a syndrome categorized by a decline in memory, thinking speed, mental agility, language, understanding and judgment.
The study was supported by the University of Eastern Finland, the European Commission's Seventh Framework Program, the Swedish Society for Medical Research and the Finnish National Graduate School of Clinical Investigation. Findings were published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
