Angsty women in mid-life may be at higher risk for Alzheimer’s

Yet another risk factor for neurodegenerative disease has cropped up in recent studies: Worry among older women. Research conducted at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden provided a score on the scale of neuroticism for 800 women in mid-life and evaluated any potential links to Alzheimer's. Those who peaked on the anxiety scale were two times as likely to develop the disease.

“All common disorders like Alzheimer’s disease or cardiovascular disease are multi-factorial and this is one of the factors,” said Ingmar Skoog, MD, PhD, the lead author of the study, according to this Reuters report.

Not so fast, gentlemen—the study authors indicate that this is probably just as true for men, even though no men were included in this particular research.