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 In the study of people in their seventies and eighties without
dementia, those with more years of education, mentally stimulating
jobs and greater amounts of cognitive activity in middle and later
life started experiencing memory and thinking problems up to nine
years later than those with the least enriched lives.
“We knew that lifetime intellectual enrichment can delay the onset
of cognitive decline, but here we were able to estimate how much it
helps you,” said lead author Prashanthi Vemuri, a radiologist at the
Mayo Clinic and Foundation in Rochester, Minnesota.
Factors earlier in life, including education and employment, and
mental stimulation later in life were both very important, she told
Reuters Health.
Although education and employment seemed to be more important
overall, mid- and later-life cognitive activity accounted for at
least a few of the extra sharp-witted years. And those with less
education early in life saw the largest benefit from mental
stimulation in later life.
To gauge the effect of exercising the mind regularly later in life,
Vemuri and her team used questionnaires to assess how challenging
the study participants’ school and work had been, as well as how
much they challenged their brains during their middle age and later
years with activities like reading, socializing or using a computer.
Men and women who had more years of education and worked in a
mentally stimulating job, for example as a surgeon, experienced
mental decline about five years later than people with less
education or those who worked in more manual jobs, according to the
results published June 23 in JAMA Neurology.
But it was encouraging how much later-life activity seemed to make a
difference for people who had less education and less stimulating
jobs, Vemuri said.
Regardless of education and work history, people who challenged
their brains at least three times per week delayed the onset of
cognitive decline by more than three years compared to those who did
less.
“Individuals with greater educational/occupational ‘brain reserve’
are more resistant to the effects of cognitive decline,” said Kevin
Duff. “However, if you don't get this reserve early in life, then it
appears that cognitive stimulating activities in mid/late life can
also have beneficial effects.”
Duff, who was not a part of the new study, is a neuropsychologist at
the Center for Alzheimer's Care, Imaging and Research at the
University of Utah Health Care in Salt Lake City.
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People who had beneficial early- and late-life cognitive factors
delayed decline in thinking by more than eight years. Both margins
are considerable, Vemuri said.
Other studies have supported the notion that cognitive activity at
various points throughout life is protective against cognitive
decline and dementia, Duff told Reuters Health by email.
This study only assessed an association and did not test whether
brain activity actually staves off cognitive decline, Vemuri noted,
but it makes sense that challenging yourself mentally “keeps brain
connectivity up and running.”
Compared to dementia, cognitive decline is mild, Duff said.
“It does not tend to interfere with daily activities, like driving,
managing meds, handling money, cooking,” he said. “When it does get
so severe that it interferes with daily activities, then we usually
diagnose this as dementia.”
Stimulating activities could include reading, doing crossword
puzzles, playing bridge, painting, taking a class at a community
college, playing a musical instrument, or even playing video games,
he said. People should pick activities they enjoy because they are
more likely to keep doing them, he advised.
These results could be useful both for individuals and for public
health authorities, Vemuri said.
“For people with low education, if you’re able to help them by
providing mentally stimulating activities later in life, that could
delay cognitive decline by three years, and that really is a big
number,” she said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/UBAR0e
JAMA Neurol 2014.
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