Based on these results, using your brain for cognitive and social
activities seems to preserve cognitive function or keep the neurons
stimulated, said lead author Rosebud O. Roberts of the Mayo Clinic
in Rochester, Minnesota.
“What is surprising from our study is that you have to begin these
activities in midlife and continue through old age,” Roberts told
Reuters Health by email.
For the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging, 256 people ages 85 to 89 with
normal cognitive function filled out questionnaires about their
typical activities at age 50 and also during the year prior to study
enrollment. Researchers extracted their health histories from
medical records.
Every 15 months for roughly the next four years, the participants
completed in-person mental status checkups with tests of memory,
language, visual-spatial skills and executive function, which
includes abilities like reasoning and problem-solving.
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During the study, 121 of the 256 participants developed memory
deficits that did not affect their daily functioning, but which may
later progress into dementia, which is also called mild cognitive
impairment.
Those who said they had engaged in arts, crafts like sculpting or
woodworking, or social activities like Bible study or travel during
midlife were about half as likely to develop mild cognitive
impairment as those who did not, the authors report in the journal
Neurology.
“In a sense, what the findings suggest is that such activities
engage the brain in a way that keeps it ‘alive’,” Roberts said. “As
you use your brain for these activities, we believe that you
preserve or maintain function of the brain cells; you may also
develop new neurons or neuronal connections that preserve memory and
thinking skills.”
Physical exercise may help preserve brain function as well, she
said.
“Continued education, learning new things - taking classes in a new
area of learning, may also yield positive benefits for cognitive
function,” she said.
Those who reported doing arts and crafts or using the computer in
their 80s were also less likely than others to develop memory
problems.
“For prevention of cognitive decline in old age, I would agree that
people need to determine which cognitively stimulating activities
they can maintain, and engage in these activities as early in life
as possible, and not wait till they are older,” Roberts said.
“People who are older can still gain benefit from these activities
but the earlier people start and continue through late life, the
stronger the benefits they are likely to reap from these
activities.”
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People with high blood pressure, depression and other chronic
conditions were more likely to develop mild cognitive impairment, as
has been found in other studies, according to Dr. James E. Galvin of
NYU Langone Medical Center in New York, who wrote a commentary
accompanying the new research.
“That was a confirmation of a lot of the things we already knew,”
Galvin said. “What I thought was more interesting was to begin to
look at something that reduced the risk. That’s what people want to
know.”
Though this study only observed an association between cognitive
activities and later memory, and did not test whether certain
activities would directly preserve memory, people may begin to try
new activities in midlife or later and there should be no downside
to trying, Galvin told Reuters Health.
“The brain is an organ that while you can’t grow new brain cells, is
constantly remodeling,” he said. “Doing something that’s
stimulating, you build new brain connections and strengthen old
connections.”
That can include developing old activities and picking up new ones,
he said.
“If you have been knitting since you were 6, at some point it’s not
a cognitively stimulating activity,” he said. “If you’ve never
painted before, that is stimulating.”
But genetics and other factors play a role as well, and there is no
guarantee that trying activities like knitting or book clubs will
stave off cognitive decline for every individual, Galvin said.
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“I know marathon-running vegan astrophysicists who develop
Alzheimer’s Disease and Twinkie-eating couch potatoes who don’t,” he
said. “There’s no guarantee.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1f4kQ99
Neurology, online April 8, 2015.
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