Need another reason to de-stress in your life? While it's known how harmful stress can be to your physical, mental, and emotional health, new research indicates that stress may raise your risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. There are 5.8 million Americans currently living with Alzheimer's disease and this number is projected to rise to nearly 14 million by 2050! The overwhelming majority of them will be baby boomers. 

One in eight boomers will get Alzheimer's disease after they turn 65 and almost one in two people ages 85 and over has it. Those baby boomers who do not have it almost certainly know someone who does. If you've had a loved one experience dementia, you know first-hand how debilitating and disheartening it can be. It can make you feel helpless. While there's no cure for Alzheimer's disease at present, research is constantly being done to better understand it. Many things can raise your risk of developing Alzheimer's, such as age, family history, genetic makeup and certain health conditions that impact the blood vessels, like cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Now, stress may be added to that list, according to an article from Medical News Today.

A new study recently revealed a link between vital exhaustion and Alzheimer's. What is vital exhaustion? It's a marker of psychological stress that manifests as irritability, fatigue and feelings of demoralization. It can happen when people experience what they view as "unsolvable problems" or if they've been exposed to stressors over a prolonged period of time.

The study analyzed data on 7,000 participants over the course of 20 years, with the participants averaging 60 years old at the start of the study. Participants that reported five to nine symptoms of vital exhaustion had a 25% higher risk of developing dementia, while participants that reported ten to seventeen symptoms had a 40% higher risk of dementia, compared with not having symptoms.

The results indicate that addressing psychological risk factors could possibly help in the prevention of dementia. Of course, everyone experiences and even defines stress differently, so it's not a simple and clear solution to try and avoid stress or relax more in order to lower your risk of developing Alzheimer's. Knowing this link exists, however, is just another reason to take care of yourself.

While the link between stress and Alzheimer's disease needs to be studied further, most researchers agree that stress increases inflammation in the brain, which makes the brain more susceptible to dementia. There are specifically 27 stressful life "events" which could lead to Alzheimer’s in life. Some of these include bankruptcy, a prison sentence, joining the military, going on welfare, legal difficulties, and even dropping out of school. One thing all researchers agree on is taking the steps today to reduce stress can greatly improve your quality of life down the road.