Higher purpose in life tied to better brain health
People with a high sense of purpose in life have a lower risk of stroke, according to new research.
Purpose in life is protective against multiple adverse health outcomes in older age, said lead study author Lei Yu, an assistant professor of neurological sciences at Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
For their study, published in the journal Stroke, Yu and his team analyzed autopsy results on 453 older adults who had been enrolled in the Rush Memory and Aging Project. All participants underwent annual physical and psychological evaluations, including a standard assessment of purpose in life, and were followed till death at an average age of 90.
At autopsy, 154 individuals had macroscopic infarctions and 128 had “microinfarcts” .
Purpose in life was judged on a five-point scale with higher scores indicating a greater purpose. The average score was 3.5. With every one-point increase in the score measuring purpose, the likelihood of having one or more macroscopic infarctions decreased by about 50 percent.
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