{"id":446873,"date":"2026-05-18T00:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T00:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/446873\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T00:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T00:01:08","slug":"being-optimistic-can-lower-dementia-risk-by-15-harvard-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/446873\/","title":{"rendered":"Being optimistic can lower dementia risk by 15%, Harvard study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"ElderlyElderly 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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is the 89th instalment in a series on dementia, including the research into its causes and treatment,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[199682,208984,598,5303,537,208983,18379,163,1283,51748,3448,85,5195,46,22144,208982,87208,208986,208985,80074],"class_list":["post-446873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-anhedonia","tag-avoid-smoking","tag-cortisol","tag-dementia","tag-depression","tag-gratitude-journal","tag-harvard-university","tag-health","tag-heart-health","tag-hippocampus","tag-hong-kong","tag-il","tag-inflammation","tag-israel","tag-optimism","tag-pessimism","tag-rumination","tag-serenity-prayer","tag-sleep-better","tag-social-networks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}