Do you have Stressheimer’s?

According to researchers from the Albert Einstein School of Medicine, among their study participants 70 and older, every 5-point increase in a person’s perceived stress score boosted the risk of developing mild cognitive impairment by 30 percent! Folks who had the very highest estimation of their daily stress levels were 250 percent more likely to suffer from cognition problems than lesser-stressed folks.

What’s Your Memory Like? According to researchers at Gothenburg University in Denmark, while many 50- and 60-year-olds complain that their memory is not as sharp as before, during their four-year study only 10 percent of participants went on to develop true dementia. For 90 percent, their memory troubles were almost always related to major stress.

How to dispel stress and protect your brain:

1. Get around 60 minutes of aerobic exercise four or more days a week.

2. Meditate. Or learn deep breathing, guided imagery, progressive muscle relaxation or at least one of the 12 techniques that work for some for managing stress. Discover the world of choices by starting with “What Meditation Technique Is Right for Me?” at sharecare.com.

3. Identify stressors. Talk about them with friends or family, face to face. It’s the most powerful way of not aging or decreasing brain function from stress. You may benefit from keeping a stress diary. (Download one at www.mindtools.com; click on “Toolkits,” then “Stress Management.”)

4. Get help from a trained counselor.

5. Remove unnecessary stressors. This is hard because it means you have to recognize the choices, activities, habits and addictions that cause you stress. If you’re chronically late or nervous about seeing someone, going somewhere, or doing something, those are tells that you need to do a house cleaning.

Mehmet Oz, M.D. is host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” and Mike Roizen, M.D. is Chief Wellness Officer and Chair of Wellness Institute at Cleveland Clinic. To live your healthiest, tune into “The Dr. Oz Show” or visit www.sharecare.com.