Does Positive Thinking Affect Your Cognitive Health? You bet it does!
By Alexandra Marvar | October 21st, 2020,
For Cognitive Resilience,
Positive Thinking Tips From Harvard Psychiatry
Harvard Professor of Psychiatry Dr. Jennifer Gatchel shares tips for positive thinking toward to improve cognitive health.
A recent study found that constant uncontrollable worry — what cognitive scientists call repetitive negative thinking — may be a factor in the aggregation of the harmful brain proteins that lead to Alzheimer’s and related dementias.
“Understanding the factors that can increase the risk of dementia is vital in helping us improve our knowledge of this devastating condition and, where possible, developing prevention strategies,” Alzheimer’s Society Director of Research and Influencing Fiona Carragher said in a news release. One of those prevention strategies could be as simple as training the brain toward positive thinking.
Study co-author Dr. Gael Chételat at Université de Caen-Normandie added: “Looking after your mental health is important, and it should be a major public health priority, as it’s not only important for people’s health and well-being in the short term, but it could also impact your eventual risk of dementia.”
Dr. Jennifer R. Gatchel, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School recently shared with Harvard Health some tips for encouraging positive thinking.
According to Gatchel, if repetitive negative thinking does have a lasting detrimental impact on brain health, addressing it could be a means of preventing cognitive health problems down the line, including dementia.
Here are a few of the ways she suggested altering unhealthy thinking patterns to boost mental and emotional health.
Submitted by Pat France, MSRN Member
