Climbing the social ladder may lower your risk of dementia 40%, study finds READ MORE: I thought my husband fell out of love - it turned out to be dementia By Maiya Focht For Dailymail.Com Published: 11:07 EDT, 21 May 2024 | Updated: 11:13 EDT, 21 May 2024 e-mail View comments Being a social climber doesn't just get people invites to the best parties - it also does wonders for their health. Researchers in Japan found people who climbed the social ladder were less likely to get dementia by up to 40 percent.
People born into a low income home with little social support who gained more wealth and social standing over their life saw the biggest protective effect. Conversely, people who were stuck on a low rung in the socioeconomic ladder, those that moved from higher to lower standing and those who hung somewhere in the middle were all more likely to develop dementia than the climbers. About 55 million people are currently living with dementia.
Scientists think a combination of genetic and lifestyle factors probably contribute to your likelihood for developing the disease. Social support decreases your risk for developing dementia. This study was one of the first to show if changing your social standing can affect your dementia risk.
'This report marks the first documentation, to our knowledge, of the benefits of upward SES patterns during the life course for dementia prevention,' the study authors wrote in the paper, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association N.