We posted on a report
several years ago in which it was reported that a chess master had staved off
the ill effects of full blown Alzheimer’s until essentially the last year of
his life. It was clear that the brain had
literally done work arounds to overcome the ongoing damage.
This present study
nicely confirms the implied conjecture.
The take home us that
whatever else you may do, take up brain exercises in the form of games once you
feel the slightest reduction in function that may be related to aging. Do Sudoku, crosswords and other games of
choice.
It will not cure
Dementia and Alzheimer’s but exchanging a decade long debilitating decline for
a one year rapid decline after ten years becomes very attractive and
beneficial.
Crosswords could knock
10 years off brain and delay dementia
Training
the brain with puzzles and crossword could delay the onset of cognitive decline
in old age, keeping the mind of an 80-year-old as sharp of someone 10 years
younger, researchers claim
7:00AM GMT 14 Jan 2014
Crosswords and puzzles
could knock 10 years off the age of the brains of older people and even delay
dementia by keeping the mind sharp, researchers believe.
A 10 year study
looking at the benefits of brain
training found nearly three quarters of those who
took displayed cognitive benefits a decade on.
Researchers said the
findings were ‘pretty astounding’ and advised that pastimes like maths puzzles
or crosswords can keep the mind ticking over like a 70-year-old when you get to
80.
Studies have long
pointed towards the benefits of keeping the brain active later in life, but
this is the first of its kind to show how a little training goes such a long
way.
The US study involved
2,800 participants, the largest of its kind so far, and they had an average age
of 74.
Participants were
split into four groups: some received brain training focusing on processing
speed, others on memory and others on reasoning ability.
A fourth group did not
get any brain training.
All four groups were
given 10 sessions lasting 60 to 70 minutes over five or six weeks and nothing
else for the next decade.
The effects were
measured at intervals over the next 10 years.
The findings showed
that around 60 per cent of those who participated in the brain drills reported
they had less difficulty with day-to-day activities such as shopping and
handling their finances, compared to 49 per cent of those who did not have the
training.
George Rebok, an
expert on aging and a professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and
lead author, said: "What we found was pretty astounding.
"Ten years after
the training, there was evidence the effects were durable for the reasoning and
the speed training."
Study co-author Sharon
Tennstedt, vice president of New England Research Institutes, said: ‘If these
training interventions can have that kind of effect on preserving cognitive
function, then there is potential for either delaying dementia or kind of
attenuating it’.
Some 500,000 people in
the UK are affected by Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia.
Previous research has
found a lower risk of Alzheimer's among people who frequently go to the
theater, read or play games
such as cards.
Going to a museum,
dancing and playing a musical instrument had a positive effect, as did regular
social interaction.
The latest study appeared appears in the
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society .
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