{"id":53279,"date":"2026-05-18T08:56:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T00:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=53279"},"modified":"2026-05-18T08:56:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T00:56:36","slug":"being-optimistic-can-lower-dementia-risk-by-15-harvard-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=53279","title":{"rendered":"Being optimistic can lower dementia risk by 15%, Harvard study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"


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This is the 89th instalment in<\/em> a series on dementia<\/em><\/span>, including the research into its causes and treatment, advice for carers, and stories of hope<\/em><\/div>\n

A recent study published by researchers at Harvard University found that people with higher optimism scores were less likely to develop dementia.<\/p>\n

The cheerfully named study \u2013 \u201cThe Bright Side of Life: Optimism and Risk of Dementia\u201d \u2013 followed 9,000 older adults over 14 years from 2006 to 2020, conducting assessments every four years.<\/p>\n

Researchers found that a higher level of optimism \u2013 roughly the jump from an average outlook to a notably positive one \u2013 was linked to a 15 per cent lower risk of dementia.<\/p>\n

Optimism is defined as the ability or inclination to put a positive spin on actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome.<\/p>\n

Someone who is optimistic is often referred to as a \u201cglass half-full\u201d person, as opposed to being \u201cglass half-empty\u201d. Being optimistic is usually accompanied by a \u201ccan-do\u201d attitude, which is valuable as we get older.<\/p>\n

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\"Elderly<\/div>
Elderly people take part in a ballet lesson at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui. Being optimistic is usually attended by a \u201ccan-do\u201d attitude, which is valuable as we get older. Photo: Eugene Chan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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This is the 89th instalment in a series on dementia, including the research into its causes and treatment, advice for carers, and stories of hope…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[4112,332,1351,14894,1567,4118],"class_list":["post-53279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-dementia","tag-finds","tag-harvard","tag-optimistic","tag-risk","tag-study","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/53280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}