Curmudgeon?

June 20th, 2020| Topic: RaMbLeS | 3

Alzheimer’s disease, one of the main causes of dementia in the elderly, affect more than 5 million Americans (projected to go up to 14 million by 2050). Worldwide this is estimated to be 50 million. Ten percent of those 65 or older are afflicted. It is the sixth leading cause of death in the US, costing the nation $305 billion.

While some risk factors, such as hypertension and diabetes, have been implicated in this neurodegenerative disease particularly affecting those brain structures dealing with memory, non-biological factors are beginning to be investigated.

Scientists from the University of Geneva and the University Hospitals of Geneva, in Switzerland, discovered that certain personality traits protect brain structures against the neurodegenerative effects of Alzheimer’s. They studied a community-based cohort of 65 elderly people over several years, amyloid accumulation (the culprit substance) and brain volume.

Prof. Giannakopoulos, first author of “Less Agreeable, Better Preserved? A PET Amyloid and MRI Study in a Community-Based Cohort,” in Neurobiology of Aging:

In order to get as complete a picture as possible, we decided to look at the non-lesional determinants of brain damage, i.e. the environment, lifestyle and psychology. So we conducted cognitive and personality assessments. [Our data] suggest that the combination of low agreeableness and high openness is an independent predictor of better preservation of brain volume in areas vulnerable to neurodegeneration.”

Apparently the more of a curmudgeon you are, the less likely you are to get Alzheimer’s!

Well, that may not be the whole truth.

From the journal article:

Agreeableness refers to the tendency of establishing interpersonal relationships without aggressiveness searching for social acceptance. Agreeable persons are more prone to avoid conflicts, adapt themselves to other’s commitments and adopt easily a majoritarian viewpoint.”

I.e., agreeable = marching with the rest of the crowd. And disagreeable = marching to your own beat. Likely implying self-thinking, reflective, firm holding of opinions, without fear of conflict.

Giannakopoulos again:

A high level of agreeableness characterizes highly adaptive personalities, who want above all to be in line with the wishes of others, to avoid conflict, and to seek cooperation. The important determinant is the relationship to the other: do we adapt to others at our own expenses?”

We have no idea what all this means. And how it works. And whether we can do something to prevent the awful disease.

But here’s another reason that we should not necessarily follow the crowd. Not that we should be necessarily contrarian, but the majority is not always right. Follow your own metronome—actually, follow the beat of the Bible. That’s the best way to keep ourselves more or less sane, our brains reasonably intact, and to allow us to glorify our God with these already failing bodies.

“You shall not follow the masses in doing evil,
nor shall you testify in a dispute
so as to turn aside after a multitude in order to pervert justice.“
Exodus 23:2

For group-think is not necessarily God-think.

There is a way which seems right to a person,
But its end is the way of death.
Proverbs 14:12

In fact, Jesus warned of following after the world.

“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.
If you were of the world, the world would love its own;
but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world,
because of this the world hates you.”
John 15:18–19

After all, …

It is better to take refuge in the LORD
Than to trust in a human.
Psalm 118:8

Curmudgeons of the world, unite!

SOURCES:
Agence France-Presse; Neurobiology and Aging