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MARCH 14 2020 LISTENER

TODO OR NOT TODO

A survey of 300 undergraduate

students on their use of to-do

lists showed half the participants

created formal, written to-do

lists, a sixth created spur-of-the-

moment lists on scraps of paper

and a fifth made mental to-do lists.

The survey also found those who

create to-do lists procrastinate less

and are more conscientious than

the random or mental to-do list

students, and the more detailed a

to-do list is, the more consistently it

is followed and habitually created.

WIDOW OF OPPORTUNITY

Scientists believe that becoming a

widow increases your chances of

developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Cognitive ability declined three

times faster over a three-year

period after a partner’s death in

people with high levels of the pro-

tein marker beta-amyloid than in

married people with equally high

amounts of the plaque. Although

the researchers say Alzheimer’s

has many causes, a high level of

the stress hormone cortisol has

been linked to poor memory and

low immunity, as well as depres-

sion and anxiety, which are also

known contributors to Alzheimer’s.

NATURAL BALANCE

Office workers with a small plant

on their desk that they can water

and gaze at feel less tired and less

anxiety and experience a lower

heart rate than before they had a

desk plant. Mental health is also

improved when workers take a

“nature-break” for three minutes.

A study of 63 office workers in

Japan found significant decreases

in stress after having plants

and nature breaks for four

weeks, and more than

a quarter of workers

had a lowered

heart rate. The

study authors said

those people

who watered

the plant

themselves

experienced

satisfaction and

stress reduction.

PSYCHOLOGY BRIEFS

of showing no evidence of dementia.

Subsequent studies with the same group

suggest this holds across age, gender and

education. It’s less obvious in people with

cardiovascular problems (whose mortality is

more likely to be explained by those issues)

and is also dramatically less likely among

people without a particular allele – a gene

variant that’s associated with Alzheimer’s.

Not everyone who has a copy of this allele

gets Alzheimer’s, but there is a clear link.

What this grab bag of statistics tells us

is that increasing difficulty finding your

marbles is, in Wilson’s words, “more

strongly associated with impending

mortality than advancing age”.

I’m not sure if I should find

this reassuring or not.

The prescription is to live

a healthy life. Things such

as listening to and making

music, exercise, meditation

and sleep are cheap and

evidence-based ways to

stave off the cognitive reaper. l