BRAIN WORKOUT
Mental exercises help seniors stay agile, cope with daily tasks
CHICAGO
Scientists have been preaching the benefits of mental exercise to seniors for years, but a study released recently may be the clincher that people in their golden years have been waiting for.
The study found that a little mental workout goes a long way, and that a sharper mind can make it easier to cope with everyday tasks such as driving, bookkeeping, shopping, and cooking that get more challenging with age. "Our findings clearly suggest that people who engage in an active program of mental training in late life can experience long-lasting gains from that training," said Michael Marsiske of the University of Florida.
The volunteers in the study did a modest amount of problem-solving and memory-enhancing training, no more than 18 hours in any given case. But the payoff was dramatic in the short term.
Follow-up testing showed that the mental improvements were sufficient to counteract the cognitive declines seen over a seven-to 14-year period in older adults without dementia. Five years on, the volunteers reported that they had maintained the sharper edge that the training had given them in memory and problem-solving skills, and the speed at which they processed information.
What's more, the seniors who got the training reported less difficulty in performing everyday chores-such as doing simple arithmetic in their heads and looking up numbers in a telephone book-than a control group of pensioners who did not get the mental tune-up. The results suggest that certain mental exercises can offset some of the age-related decline in older adults' thinking skills and that some of the benefits of short-term cognitive training can persist for as long as five years.
It's not clear how much this was due to study practice at home: the study did not look at this question, but there was anecdotal evidence that some of the pensioners worked on the skills they had picked up on their own time afterwards.
The other finding-the first of its kind-is that a mental workout can help maintain the grey matter needed to do everyday jobs. This is important because cognitive decline is known to precede loss of functional ability in older adults, the authors said.
"Research to identify effective ways of delaying this decline is important because it may help individuals, our ageing citizenry, maintain greater independence as they grow older," said Patricia Grady, director of the National Institute of Nursing Research, which funded the study along with the National Institute on Aging.
The findings come from a long-term study conducted between 1998 and 2004 and involving more than 2,800 American seniors between the ages of 65 and 96 in six US cities. The volunteers were divided into four groups. One group worked on problem-solving tasks, another on memory-enhancing tasks (memorizing word lists and sequences of items), while a third was asked to identify visual information quickly on a computer screen in an exercise designed to simulate the job of recognising road signs. A fourth control group received no training.
The study group that showed the most benefit, at least as far as real-life functioning was concerned, was the problem-solving group, according to Marsiske.
In an editorial accompanying the study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina suggested that similar programs could be developed for the mass market.
"Cognitive training programs may give individuals a greater sense of control over the disturbing prospect of cognitive decline and have a beneficial effect on their quality of life," said Sally Shumaker, a researcher in the university's department of public-health sciences. M AFP
Blood test can tell onset of Alzheimer
LONDON
A new study fueled hope for a breakthrough in diagnosing Alzheimer disease before its age-related symptoms become visible. Experts at King's College in London presented research suggesting that a blood test could predict the onset of Alzheimer, the commonest form of dementia.
"This is definitely good news. We found some evidence that there are protein differences in the blood of people with Alzheimer," said Simon Lovestone, a professor at the college's Institute of Psychiatry. "It is a devastating disease and we currently have problems diagnosing it and measuring its progression in patients.... This raises the prospect of a blood test for Alzheimer disease," he added.
Results of the five-year project, funded by the Alzheimer's Research Trust, were published in the journal Brain.
The researchers found that levels of two types of protein found in the blood can indicate an increased risk of having the disease in later life. The Alzheimer patients who were tested had higher levels of telltale proteins in their blood than people who did not have the disease.
Alzheimer most commonly appears after the age of 65 and the risk increases with ageing. The precise cause is unclear but genes, environment, and lifestyle may all play a role.
On average, people live eight years after diagnosis. The onset of symptoms is gradual. Until now diagnosis has relied heavily on psychiatric tests, which amount to assessing the patient's memory by asking him or her questions.
Alzheimer causes forgetfulness and disturbs thinking, emotions, and behavior. The disease is degenerative and currently incurable. In spite of this, doctors say it would be useful to have a diagnostic test before symptoms emerge, as susceptible individuals could make important decisions about their lifestyle or their will.
Twenty-four million people today have dementia, a figure likely to rise to 42 million by 2020 and 81 million by 2040 because of rising longevity.
Alzheimer accounts for between 50 and 60 percent of all dementia cases. The direct and indirect annual costs of caring for people in the United States alone are at least US$100 billion. M AFP
Bilingualism retards senility
MONTREAL
Speaking one or more languages can stall the onset of dementia, according to a new Canadian study published in the February issue of Neuropsychologia. "Our study found that speaking two languages throughout one's life appears to be associated with a delay in the onset of symptoms of dementia by four years compared to those who speak only one language," Ellen Bialystok, lead researcher and professor at York University in Toronto, said.
Her research team examined the medical records of 184 patients with cognitive complaints. Ninety-one spoke one language and 93 were bilingual, speaking a combination of 25 different languages, including Polish, Yiddish, German, Romanian, and Hungarian.
They found that monolingual patients showed evidence of Alzheimer or other forms of dementia at 71.4 years of age on average, while the bilingual group manifested symptoms at 75.5 years. This difference remained even after considering the possible effects of cultural differences, immigration, formal education, employment, and gender on the results.
"There are no pharmacological interventions that are this dramatic," said Morris Freedman, coauthor and an expert on the mechanisms underlying cognitive impairment due to diseases like Alzheimer. M AFP
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