Experts found that people can stave off a decline in thinking skills and memory by keeping the brain active through lifelong learning
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Activities like reading, writing or learning languages can cut the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by nearly 40 per cent, research suggests.
Experts found that people can stave off a decline in thinking skills and memory by keeping the brain active through lifelong learning.
They examined data for 1,939 people (75 per cent women) with an average age of 80 who did not have dementia at the start of the study, and followed them for around eight years.
Asking about their childhoods, researchers looked at whether people had access to encyclopaedias, globes or atlases and books, whether they were read to or learned a language, and if parents were educated and bought newspapers.
In mid-life, researchers looked at income level, whether people had reading material or were members of a library, and activities such as visiting museums.
Late-life enrichment activities from around the age of 80 included reading, writing and playing games. Researchers also looked at income.
Using a score and after adjusting for factors such as age, sex and education, the study found that people in the top 10 per cent of lifetime cognitive enrichment had a 38 per cent lower risk of Alzheimer’s and a 36 per cent lower risk of mild cognitive impairment compared to those in the bottom 10 per cent.
People with the highest amount of lifelong learning developed Alzheimer’s disease five years later and developed mild cognitive impairment seven years later than those with the lowest amount.
Author Dr Andrea Zammit, from Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago, said: “Our findings suggest that cognitive health in later life is strongly influenced by lifelong exposure to intellectually stimulating environments.”
Alzheimer’s Research UK senior policy manager, Dr Isolde Radford, said: “This new research shows that staying mentally active throughout life can cut the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by nearly 40 per cent.
“This supports what we already know about the preventative steps people can take to reduce their risk of developing dementia.
“It also highlights that dementia is not an inevitable part of ageing and that our cognitive health is shaped throughout our lives.
“Yet only a third of UK adults realise they can reduce their risk of dementia, meaning millions of people are missing opportunities to protect their brain health.
“Prevention matters, and the Government must lead a bold, joined-up approach to protecting the nation’s brain health — from tackling air pollution, to making healthy food affordable and prioritising early-years education.
“These big changes are essential to make sure everyone, particularly those in disadvantaged communities, benefits from good brain health.”
During the study, 551 people developed Alzheimer’s disease and 719 developed mild cognitive impairment.
Of those with the highest level of enrichment, 21 per cent developed Alzheimer’s. Of those with the lowest level, 34 per cent developed Alzheimer’s.
People with the highest lifetime enrichment developed Alzheimer’s disease at an average age of 94, compared to age 88 for those with the lowest level.
For mild cognitive impairment, people with the highest lifetime enrichment developed mild cognitive impairment at an average age of 85, compared to age 78 for those with the lowest level.
Further detail was gathered from people who died during the study and had post-mortem examinations.
Those people with higher lifetime enrichment had better memory and thinking skills and slower decline prior to death, even when researchers accounted for early brain changes linked to Alzheimer’s.
The study was published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
