Anyone else feel like the statistic that not having many close relationships being linked to dementia is kinda silly?

[marina's diamond]

Don't get me wrong, I'd pick having friends over not having them, but I feel like that statistic is a sort of fear mongering tactic used to drive people to change themselves just to BE in a relationship. I've pretty much gone my whole life without having a "best friend," and yeah, it has hurt, and it definitely has led to some insecurities, but I don't think not having a best friend was necessarily the cause of whatever cognitive dissonance I live through now. I feel like more of my negative self talk and self-image came from negative experiences from past friendships, rather than being alone. Instead I feel like being alone sort of amplified the residual pain from those experiences. I dunno, I could be talking total nonsense but it just seems a bit farfetched. Dementia, probably not. Loneliness leading to insecurity seems at least somewhat more reasonable. Let me know your thoughts, because I'd much rather live on my own and have the liberty of being authentic then live in a relationship built on a fabricated foundation.

 

[charlotte craig]

Don't think it is silly because we need mental stimulation and you get that through chatting to people. I can think of people I know got dementia who sat watching television all day every day and am sure them not seeing o ther people contrib uted to it. But if you have a busy job , lots of hobbies, etc, you regularly use your brain to learn new things, that all comes into it too. Simply socialising is not enough.

 

[Kar]

It's poor data modeling. Other bad examples:
* A glass of wine a day is good for your heart
* daily green tea consumption was linked to lower risk of death from heart disease

These are examples of causation fallacy. The point is there is a correlation (both sets of data tread similarly) but correlation does not imply causation. There are other factors like people who drink green tea regularly might also have an overall healthier lifestyle so it isn't the green tea that resulted from lower risk of heart disease but the overall lifestyle they lead of which drinking green tea was an example. Similarly, they can't determine causation from the correlation of not having many friends resulting in dementia.

 

[marina's diamond]

It's poor data modeling. Other bad examples:
* A glass of wine a day is good for your heart
* daily green tea consumption was linked to lower risk of death from heart disease

These are examples of causation fallacy. The point is there is a correlation (both sets of data tread similarly) but correlation does not imply causation. There are other factors like people who drink green tea regularly might also have an overall healthier lifestyle so it isn't the green tea that resulted from lower risk of heart disease but the overall lifestyle they lead of which drinking green tea was an example. Similarly, they can't determine causation from the correlation of not having many friends resulting in dementia.

Yeah, this is what it looked like to me. It sounds like what the studies were trying to say is that the majority of those dementia victims lacked close relationships. But I just find it a bit silly to think that the lack of those close relationships are a direct cause/contributor of dementia.

 

[user 135067]

Statistics are cherry picked. Use what supports the result you want.

Did you know that people over 5'4" are more likely to get hit by lightning?

It's not because of their height. It's because most lightning strike victims are adults.

For my take, dementia seems to be a failure of the system of memory that powers recall. It's all still there, it's just not being retrieved. To me that suggests chemistry and/or oxygen. Not stroke type oxygen loss. More of a kink in a hose sort of reduction.

I don't think I'm off base to say most victims of dementia have family. Did the study suggest how many friends one must visit everyday to stay off dementia? Yeah, I thought not.

Memory is a complicated process. When you store a memory you store colors, time, smells, feelings, sounds, and a lot more, each of them placed onto a separate shelf with a catalogue number* that is associated with its other elements. When any part of the memory fails the entire memory becomes harder to retrieve. It's there, but for whatever reason it just can't be reached. The memory becomes dim.

*The brain likely does not use catalogue numbers... unless you are Stephen King, e.g. Dream Catcher.

 

[Finished]

I do not socialize in real life. When I talk to people in real life for more then just a minute or so I get a headache and very tired. IMO, our brains are like our muscles. If you don't use them, you loose them. I have a feeling the socialization part of my brain has already shrunken and will continue to do so. It may even atrophy and die eventually. I will probably get dementia because of it. Some already think I have it. But, what were we talking about again? Ha! ha!