Use it or lose it is a common adage increasingly used for matters related to brain health. But to what degree does using cognitive faculties prevent them from deteriorating? Medical News Today looked at some of the latest research and spoke with experts in the field to find out. Millions of people around the world live with dementia, a chronic neurodegenerative condition that affects memory and thinking abilities. The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease.
While some treatments do exist to help manage the symptoms of dementia, there is currently no cure for the condition.
While research is underway to understand more about dementia pathology and to develop treatments, significant amounts of research are also underway to investigate how lifestyle interventions may affect dementia risk and cognition.
Some of this research is investigating how cognitively-stimulating activities, such as reading and crossword puzzles, affect dementia risk and cognition. A study published in Neurology in 2021 found that high levels of cognitive activity, such as reading, playing games like checkers and puzzles, and writing letters, can delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease by 5 years among those aged 80 years and over.
Another study, published in 2022 in PNAS, found that more time spent in cognitively passive activities, such as watching TV, is linked to increased dementia risk, whereas more time spent in cognitively active tasks, such as using a computer, is linked to a reduced risk of dementia.
And a study from JAMA OpenTrusted Source, published in July 2023, found that frequently engaging in brain-challenging activities, including journaling, playing chess, and solving crossword puzzles was associated with a lower risk of developing dementia among older adults.
To understand more about these associations, Medical News Today spoke with five experts on topics including how cognitively-stimulating activities reduce dementia risk, what else reduces dementia risk, and how to take action on the research.
To begin, MNT spoke with Dr. Joyce Gomes-Osman, vice president of interventional therapy at Linus Health, and a voluntary assistant professor of neurology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
