ICAD: Pondering Over Woes in Middle Age May Save the Brain in Later Life

By Peggy Peck
CHICAGO, 02 aug 2008-- Men who spend their 40s and 50s focusing on the difficulties of daily life may be rewarded with a dementia-free old age, researchers reported here.
A study of Israeli men found that those who ruminated -- going over and over worrisome details -- during midlife were about 30% to 40% less likely to develop dementia in their 80s, Ramit Ravona-Springer, M.D., of Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel, told attendees at the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease.
The cohort were 9,000 participants in the Israeli Ischemic Heart Disease study, which is a longitudinal look at incidence and risk factors for cardiovascular disease among Jewish male civil service workers, who were assessed for "rumination" in 1963.
At the initial assessment, the men ranged in age from 40 to 60. The mean age at follow-up in 1999 was 82.
Rumination was defined as the "unintentional process of repetitively focusing attention on one's depressed mood and potential causes and implications of it," said Dr. Ravona-Springer.
To gauge rumination, men were asked, "when your wife/ children/peer/superior hurts you, do you forget this, tend to forget, tend to ruminate, or usually ruminate."
Men who said they forgot or tended to forget scored low on the rumination scale with a one (forget) or two (tended to forget), while those who said they tend to ruminate received a three, and those who usually ruminate were given a four.
In 1999, the researchers conducted follow-up examinations on 1,715 of the 2,600 survivors of the original cohort.
At follow-up, 24% of the men who forgot about hurts inflicted by co-workers or superiors and 21% of those who forgot a hurt by a child or wife had developed dementia.
But only 14% of the men who usually ruminated over hurts inflicted by spouses or children and 15% of those who ruminated about hurts inflicted by peers and bosses had developed dementia.
There were no differences in blood pressure, cholesterol levels, diabetes, or tobacco use by rumination status.
Men with the highest rumination score had a slightly higher survival rate after age 70 -- 63% -- but it was not significantly different from the survival rate for men with low rumination scores.
Dr. Ravona-Springer said that, on first glance, the findings differ from other studies that have linked rumination with depression, and neuroticism, both of which are believed to increase the risk of dementia.
One possible explanation would be the type of rumination -- reflection or brooding.
Reflection, she said, "consists of contemplation, which is proposed to be adaptive, and not associated with increased risk of depression."
Brooding, by contrast, consists of what she called "moody pondering" and it is considered a maladaptive tendency that does increase the risk of depression.
The ruminating men in this study may have been men who were given to reflective pondering, "leading to problem solving, a cognitive activity that may be protective."
No funding source was disclosed. Dr. Ravona-Springer disclosed no financial conflicts.
Primary source: International Conference on Alzheimer's DiseaseSource reference:Ravona-Springer R, et al "Tendency for rumination as a psychological cognitive style in midlife is associated with decreased risk for dementia three decades later" ICAD 2008; Abstract O8-A-2763_ALZ.