Posted on 05/29/2014 1:34:42 PM PDT by BBell
Cynics are three times more likely to develop dementia than those who have faith in humanity, a study has shown.
Believing that others are motivated by selfishness, or that they lie to get what they want, appears to radically increase the risk of cognitive decline in later life.
It could mean that grumpy old men and women should be screened more closely for diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Cynicism has previously been linked to health problems such as heart disease, but this is the first time it has been associated with dementia.
“These results add to the evidence that people’s view on life and personality may have an impact on their health,” said Dr. Anna-Maija Tolppanen, the lead researcher at the University of Eastern Finland, whose study is published online in the journal Neurology.
Academics asked nearly 1,500 people with an average age of 71 to fill out a questionnaire to measure their levels of cynicism.
They were asked how much they agreed with statements such as “I think most people would lie to get ahead”, “it is safer to trust nobody” and “most people will use somewhat unfair reasons to gain profit or an advantage rather than lose it.”
Those taking part were monitored for eight years, during which time 46 of them were diagnosed with dementia. The academics discovered that those who had scored highly for cynicism were three times more likely to have developed dementia than those with low scores.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalpost.com ...
Obviously, someone was targeting MY water glass. Probably someone in the Obama administration.
What’s my name again. Why am I posting here?
I’ve found that life is a whole lot less aggravating ones I learned to let things roll off my back.
If the glass is half empty, who stole the other half?
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The guy I trusted too much.
I don’t believe a word of whatever we were talking about
There is no good way to screen for Alzheimer’s unless you kill them first and then do an autopsy. You can only screen for dementia (various causes).
Excellent take on this “study”.
I smell a hidden agenda to get more funding for something.
Pardon me, but I dont believe in this ‘scientific’ study of ...of...of... Well, it was something important I’m sure of that.
They MUST be crazy to oppose liberal policies. Everybody KNOWS that, right? The longer they've held these beliefs, the crazier they are!
-PJ
I see the difference between 1910 liberalism and 1930 “liberalism” as the difference between having faith and being a cynic: Theodore Roosevelt famously asserted that"It is not the critic who counts . . . the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena . . . who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds . . .The meaning of “liberalism” was inverted, according to Safire’s New Political Dictionary, in the 1920s. So now, “liberalism” means the attitude expressed by Fauxcohantas or by Barak Obama:
If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.The latter quotation is pure cynicism in comparison to the former one.
Most of these “studies” are worth nothing. They aren’t even valid science.
In other words, concocted justification for throwing political opponents into sanatoriums.
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Exactly. Skeptics are dangerous to the existing order and prevailing liberal orthodoxy. Such political heretics must be institutionalized.
The other possibility is that cynics don’t have as many close friends, and the lack of strong social connections is correlated to decreased life expectancy. The personality trait causes the lack of social connections.
Or they suffered the loss of partners and family members early, making them cynical. In that case, the personality trait is caused by the environment. The symptom - cynicism - is then blamed as the cause of shorter life expectancy.
I’m in big trouble....
Ruh, roh. I’m worried now, although I can’t remember about what.
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