The old expression “never stop learning” may do more than just keep you engaged in life — it may also reduce your risk of dementia, according to a new study published on July 14 in JAMA Network Open.
Investigators found that participants who regularly participated in “adult literacy activities” — things like using a computer, taking educational classes, and writing letters or journaling — and those who engaged in activities that exercised their brain, such as games, cards, chess, puzzles, or crosswords, were 9 to 11 percent less likely to develop dementia than their peers.
“These findings highlight the types of activities which may be most beneficial to preserve cognitive health with aging,” says senior author Joanne Ryan, PhD, an associate professor and head of the biological neuropsychiatry and dementia research unit in the school of public health and preventive medicine at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. The results may help older individuals and aged care professionals plan more targeted approaches to reducing dementia risk, according to the authors.
Over 30 Percent of U.S. Adults 65 and Up Have Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment
Nearly 1 in 10 U.S. adults ages 65 and older have dementia, while another 22 percent have mild cognitive impairment (MCI), according to a nationally representative study published in October 2022 in JAMA Neurology.
Dementia is a general term for loss of memory, language, problem-solving, and other thinking abilities that is serious enough to interfere with daily activities. MCI is milder, and symptoms may not impact daily living. People with MCI may eventually develop dementia, but in some cases do not, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
To explore whether socially and mentally stimulating activities were associated with reduced dementia risk, researchers used data from about 10,000 “generally healthy” Australians ages 70 and older participating in the ASPREE project (ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly) and the ALSOP (ASPREE Longitudinal Study of Older Persons) sub-study. The subjects reported leisure activities within one year of enrollment and underwent standardized cognitive measures over a 10-year period.
The median age was 73.8 years old, 53 percent of participants were women, and 98 percent self-identified as white.
The leisure activities assessed included the following:
Researchers found that adult literacy activities and mental acuity tasks were associated with the greatest reduction in dementia risk — an estimated 9 to 11 percent risk reduction. Creative hobbies and more passive activities reduced the risk by 7 percent.
The results remained statistically significant even when adjusted for earlier education level and socioeconomic status.
There is no minimum amount of time to spend on an activity to get the benefits, per se, says Dr. Ryan. “Our results indicate that increasing the frequency of activities is beneficial, whether that is from no activity to sometimes, or from sometimes to frequently.”
Activities That Stimulate the Brain May Help Preserve Function
Although the study wasn’t designed to uncover why certain activities might help protect against dementia, Ryan offers a possible explanation.
“The activities we found to be most strongly associated with dementia are those that generally require greater cognitive stimulation, including learning and processing new information, critical thinking and logical reasoning — activities that are likely to help maintain and build networks and connections in the brain, and overall cognitive functioning. In turn, they enable compensatory mechanisms to be used and help delay the onset of dementia symptoms,” she says.
People Who Like Puzzles and Games May Have Other Healthy Habits That Help Reduce Dementia Risk
“The findings from this study are interesting — anything that lives in the lifestyle intervention space that people like to do and shows promise in reducing the incidence of dementia is interesting to me,” says Maryjo Cleveland, MD, a researcher in Alzheimer’s disease and physician who specializes in managing dementia and frailty at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in Winston Salem, North Carolina. Dr. Cleveland was not involved in the research.
However, the design of the study — one that observes outcomes in people who are already engaging in certain activities rather than a randomized control trial — makes Cleveland reluctant to draw any firm conclusions from the findings.
“One sentence in the study — ‘Individuals who routinely participate in leisure activities may possess certain behavioral and personality attributes, which are not sufficiently adjusted or controlled for in the analysis’ — is important,” she says.
In other words, the results did not rule out that those naturally drawn to the types of leisure activities linked to cognitive health also had specific personality traits that were otherwise beneficial, or they may generally have had better health behaviors, according to the authors.
Findings Didn’t Show Benefit for the Number of Friends or Frequency of Social Outings
Somewhat surprisingly, the size of someone’s social network and the frequency of external outings to the cinema or restaurant were not associated with dementia risk reduction, notes Ryan.
“This may be because the majority of participants were already having some level of social engagement, and the quality of social interactions may be the most important, not the number,” she says.
Cleveland was also surprised that social activities didn’t seem to make a difference. “I have spent the last three years seeing profound declines in patients’ memory and thinking, and have felt strongly that some of it was due to the reduced social interaction brought on by the pandemic,” she says.
Social isolation, a lack of human connections or support, has been linked to dementia in previous studies. Research suggests that social isolation significantly increases a person’s risk of premature death from all causes and is associated with about a 50 percent increased risk of dementia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Expert Advice on Reducing Dementia Risk
These findings can help inform strategies for dementia prevention and cognitive reserve strengthening in later life, in the context of modifiable daily routines, wrote the authors.
Cognitive reserve is the brain’s ability to be agile, solve problems, take on challenges, and resist injury due to trauma, stroke, or aging. How a person gets or improves on “brain resilience” isn’t totally clear. It seems to be a combination of the brain we were born with and how we do — or don’t — use it, according to Bright Focus, an Alzheimer’s disease research and advocacy organization.
Trauma or poor nutrition may lower cognitive reserve, and things like good relationships, education, sleep, exercise, and staying curious may help build it.
Cleveland encourages her patients to “do it all.” That includes eating a Mediterranean diet, getting 150 minutes of aerobic activity per week and a good night’s sleep, controlling blood pressure, and being socially and cognitively a part of the world.
Ryan acknowledges that it’s unlikely that mentally stimulating and creative activities can completely prevent dementia, but by helping build networks within the brain, they could delay the onset of dementia symptoms. “Continued learning and engagement in new activities which challenge and stimulate the mind may be the best way to help promote good cognitive function with age,” she says.
This content was originally published here.
