Dr. Sara Weisenbach’s article
titled, The double burden of age and
disease on cognition and quality of life in bipolar disorder, can show us a
great deal about the detrimental effects certain illnesses can have on our
cognitive skills. Her experiment specifically focused on two factors: aging and
bipolar disorder and their effect on a plethora of cognitive skills. The
results from her experiment were profound. Similarly, a study published by the American
Academy of Neurology (AAN) showed the effects that obesity can have on
cognitive skills. Many things can impact our cognitive skills with some things
having a greater effect than others. It is important to understand how much of
an impact things such as disease or disorders can have on our cognitive skills
so that we can work towards preventing them.
Dr. Weisenbach’s research discusses how
aging can affect cognitive skills in people with bipolar disorder (BPD). BPD is
a disorder associated with mood swings, from depression to mania. This study
involved 80 individuals with BPD and 78 healthy individuals. There were four
groups in total: Young HC, Old HC, Young BPD, and Old BPD. The researchers also
tested cognitive skills such as memory, attention, psychomotor speed, emotional
processing and executive functioning. The results of the experiment were profound
with older BPD patients having the worst performance scores for cognitive
tests. From these results we can conclude that aging plays a great role in the
detrimental effects towards cognitive skills.
Obesity can be considered a
metabolic abnormality because it can be characterized by high blood pressure,
cholesterol, blood sugar, or triglycerides. The obesity study from the AAN
involved 6,401 subject with an average age of about 50 years old. This was a
ten year long study that involved healthy and obese individuals. They were
studied over this period of time, specifically their performance on cognitive
tests. These individuals were tested a total of three times throughout the
length of the study. They were tested on their memory skills and their
cognitive abilities. The results were prominent with obese individuals scoring
22.5 percent less than their healthier counterparts. Although Dr. Singh, the
author of the study, believes these results can show us something important, he
believes that more research should be done to eliminate the role of genetic factors.
Both of these studies show a strong
correlation between decreased cognitive abilities with disease. From this
research we can learn to place a stronger emphasis on maintaining cognitive
skills, even up until later years in life. It is important to maintain these
skills because damages and changes to the brain are permanent for the most
part. I believe more research should be done on how to improve cognitive abilities
so that people with damages can recover. So far we have the knowledge of how to
prevent this from occurring, so our next step should consider how to fix this
situation. We can stress the importance of brain exercises, memory tests,
certain diets, and restrictions. This research also has the potential to expand
as well. We could potentially apply these results to systems other than the
nervous system. How does disease or aging affect the immune system, or the
cardiovascular system?
There is a lot to learn from these
studies. There is also a lot of potential for these studies to expand and
deepen our knowledge in other areas of the body. We have to make the public aware
of the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The brain is a sensitive
organ, surrounded by a thick skull, any damages to it can be extremely life
threatening. Therefore, one must be careful and make healthy choices whenever
possible.
References
American
Academy of Neurology (AAN). (2012, August 20). Obesity, metabolic factors
linked to faster cognitive decline. ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 1,
2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120820160851.htm
Weisenbach,
S. L., Marshall, D., Weldon, A. L., Ryan, K. A., Vederman, A. C., Kamali, M., Zubieta,
J., McInnis, M. G., & Langenecker, S. A. (2014). The double burden of age
and disease on cognition and quality of life in bipolar disorder. International Journal of Geriatric
Psychiatry. 29(1), 952-961. https://luc.app.box.com/s/4c031c26bsh2bj3619si/1/2926649189/24809638293/1
No comments:
Post a Comment