RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Do you think the best days of your life are behind you, or that your day-to-day activities have little to no meaning? You could be at higher risk for developing Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
THE DETAILS: The researchers recruited 951 older adults with an average age of 80 from 40 retirement communities and senior housing facilities around Chicago. Each adult underwent initial psychological tests to determine if he or she had Alzheimer's disease or mild cognitive impairment, a precursor to Alzheimer's disease. Each also filled out questionnaires related to "purpose in life," defined as the ability to derive meaning from life's experiences and to possess a sense of intentionality and goals that drive behavior. For example, positive responses to the statements "I feel good when I think of what I have done in the past and what I hope to do in the future" and "I enjoy making plans for the future and working them to a reality" indicate having a strong purpose in life, whereas positive responses to the statements "I live life one day at a time and do not really think about the future" and "I sometimes feel as if I have done all there is to do in life" indicate not having a purpose in life.
The adults were followed for seven years, during which 16 percent of them developed Alzheimer's disease—and those who did develop the disease had reported lower purpose in life than the people who didn't. In fact, people with high purpose of life score were 2.4 times less likely to develop Alzheimer's than people with low scores. And even after adjusting for factors like previous depressive symptoms, the size of an individual's social network, and chronic medical conditions, having a purpose in life was strongly associated with a decreased risk of Alzheimer's disease.
The same held true for people with mild cognitive impairment. The researchers tested a sub-sample of 698 adults who were free of mild cognitive impairment at the start of the study and in that group, 285 developed the condition over the seven-year period. People having high purpose in life scores were 1.5 times less likely to develop mild cognitive impairment than people with low scores.
Read on to learn how to create more meaning and purpose in life.
WHAT IT MEANS: Having a higher purpose in life is related to your overall sense of well-being and happiness, says the study's lead author Aron Buchman, MD, associate professor of neurological sciences at the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center. It's up to each of us to figure out what the purpose may be. "For one person, it might be writing a book, for another it could be volunteering. They generally have to define it themselves," he says. But waiting to define it until you're in your 80s, as study participants were, may be missing the point. "It could be that purpose in life is a signifier for people who have been living a certain lifestyle for decades," he says, "and those lifestyles are less conducive to disease and other adverse health outcomes," for instance, lifestyles that incorporate healthy a diet and exercise. How a higher purpose connects to a healthy lifestyle may not be clear, but we are learning that brain health isn't just influenced by physical factors. Cognitive and social activity are important as well, as evidenced by the fact that participants in his study who had larger social networks also had higher purpose in life scores. "If it turns out that increasing social activity just a little bit each day or each week could be beneficial, over the course of a few decades, that can have a profound influence on you by the time you're age 80," says Dr. Buchman.
Read on to learn how to create more meaning and purpose in life.
Wondering if you need to redefine your life's purpose? Here are a few tips:
• Rate your own purpose in life. The concept of having a purpose in life can be hard to grasp. The following statements are the measures used in the study to define high purpose; rank each on a scale of 1 to 5 and then average your score. The higher your score, the higher your sense of life purpose.
1. I feel good when I think of what I have done in the past and what I hope to do in the future.
2. I enjoy making plans for the future and working them to a reality.
3. I have a sense of direction and purpose in life.
4. I am an active person in carrying out the plans I set for myself.
5. Some people wander aimlessly through life, but I am not one of them.
• Diversify your activities. Defining a life purpose doesn't necessarily have to mean setting lofty goals for yourself like "I want to be CEO one day." It could mean meeting up with friends more often or getting involved at a local charity. "Increasing social contacts between people and increasing participation in various organizations might be ways to create more meaning and more purpose in life," Dr. Buchman says. Studies have even shown that furthering your education could ward off Alzheimer's—and it's also a good way to expand your social network.
• Call your friends. Friends can add meaning and purpose to your life, and they even help you live longer. Set a goal to call a few friends each week or meet up for lunch or, better still, an exercise class.