Feeding the Brain’s Curiosity Helps Delay Alzheimer’s, Study Says

I feed my brain with hundreds of stroke research studies each year. Something your doctor should be doing for you  but obviously is figuring that your need to keep up to date on research is more important for preventing your dementia than solving your problems with stroke recovery.

Feeding the Brain’s Curiosity Helps Delay Alzheimer’s, Study Says

People genetically prone to Alzheimer’s who went to college, worked in complex fields and stayed engaged intellectually held off the disease almost a decade longer than others, a study found.
Lifelong intellectual activities such as playing music or reading kept the mind fit as people aged and also delayed Alzheimer’s by years for those at risk of the disease who weren’t college educated or worked at challenging jobs, the researchers said in the study published today in JAMA Neurology.
More than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, and the number is expected to triple by 2050, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. Today’s findings show that intellectual enrichment pursued over a lifetime may help reduce the number of people who will develop the disease, the authors said.
“Keeping your brain mentally stimulated is a lifelong enterprise,” David Knopman, a study author and a professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said in a telephone interview. “If one can remain intellectually active and stimulated throughout one’s lifespan, that’s protective against late-life dementia. Staying mentally active is definitely good for your brain.”
Currently there are no effective treatments for Alzheimer’s. A report by the Alzheimer’s Association projected that any treatment that could delay the onset of Alzheimer’s by five years would reduce the expected number of patients with the disease in the U.S. by about 43 percent by 2050.

Reducing Dementia

Knopman said providing mid-to late-life cognitive activities across the population may not be as beneficial as an actual treatment for Alzheimer’s and dementia. Still if new cases of dementia were reduced even by a fraction it would be a “great success.”
Researchers studied 1,995 people ages 70 to 89 without dementia who lived in Minnesota. They looked at their education and occupation and their mid-to late-life cognitive activity.

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