Alzheimer's Dementia Risk Nearly 40% Lower With Lifelong Learning

 Will your competent? doctor provide this to reduce your dementia risk? Oh, DOING NOTHING LIKE USUAL! Because your doctor doesn't even know of the need?

With your risk of dementia, you need this.

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1. A documented 33% dementia chance post-stroke from an Australian study?   May 2012.

2. Then this study came out and seems to have a range from 17-66%. December 2013.`    

3. A 20% chance in this research.   July 2013.

4. Dementia Risk Doubled in Patients Following Stroke September 2018 The latest here:  

Alzheimer's Dementia Risk Nearly 40% Lower With Lifelong Learning

Key Takeaways

• Lifelong intellectual activity, such as reading or museum visits, was tied to lower Alzheimer's dementia risk in older adults.
• Adults with the highest level of cognitive enrichment developed mild cognitive impairment about 7 years later than others.
• Results persisted even after adjusting for Alzheimer's pathology, suggesting strong cognitive resilience.

A lifetime enriched with intellectually stimulating activities -- including reading, writing, or frequently visiting museums -- was associated with lower risks of Alzheimer's disease dementia and mild cognitive impairment in late life, longitudinal research showed.

Over nearly 8 years of follow-up, each 1-point increase in lifetime cognitive enrichment correlated with a 38% lower risk of Alzheimer's dementia (HR 0.62, 95% CI 0.52-0.73), reported Andrea Zammit, PhD, of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, and colleagues.

The risk of developing mild cognitive impairment also was reduced by 33% (HR 0.67, 95% CI 0.58-0.78) for every 1-point increase in lifetime enrichment, Zammit and colleagues wrote in Neurology.

Compared with people in the lowest 10% of lifetime enrichment, those in the top 10% developed mild cognitive impairment an average of 7 years later and had dementia onset 5.4 years later.

The relationship between lifelong intellectual stimulation and higher cognitive function persisted after adjusting for Alzheimer's pathologies at autopsy, suggesting higher resilience, the researchers observed.

"Our findings are encouraging, suggesting that consistently engaging in a variety of mentally stimulating activities throughout life may make a difference in cognition," Zammit said in a statement. "Public investments that expand access to enriching environments, like libraries and early education programs designed to spark a lifelong love of learning, may help reduce the incidence of dementia."

Zammit and colleagues studied 1,939 adults from the Rush Memory and Aging Project. Participants completed surveys reflecting lifetime enrichment, had annual clinical evaluations, and were dementia-free at baseline.

Baseline age was 79.6 years, and 75% of the sample was female. Mean education level was 15 years.

A composite measure from baseline surveys reflected cognitive enrichment at three life stages:

• Early enrichment up to age 18 included the frequency of being read to and reading books, access to newspapers and/or an atlas at home, and learning a foreign language
• Midlife enrichment included income at age 40, household resources like magazine subscriptions, dictionaries, and library cards, and the frequency of visiting museums or libraries
• Late-life enrichment included the frequency of reading, writing, and playing games, and income from Social Security and other sources

The researchers followed participants for an average of 7.6 years; in that period, 551 people developed Alzheimer's disease dementia.

A subset of 948 participants who died during the study had neuropathology data. Each 1-point higher of lifetime enrichment was associated with higher global cognition (P<0.001) and slower rate of decline (P=0.02) proximate to death, independent of neuropathology, the researchers said.

"Individuals in the topmost decile of lifetime enrichment experienced over 43% less decline than individuals in the lowest decile, equivalent to being about 6 years younger," Zammit and co-authors observed. "These results suggest that lifelong cognitive enrichment may delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease dementia and protect cognition in the presence of neuropathology."

The findings have several limitations, the researchers acknowledged. Participants reported details about their early and midlife experiences late in life, which carries risks of potential recall bias and reliability.

The sample included mainly white individuals of European descent who were highly educated, leading to potential ascertainment bias, they added. The results support previous work linking higher cognitive activity engagement to better Alzheimer's and dementia outcomes, underscoring "the need to be replicated in more diverse cohorts," Zammit and colleagues wrote.