![]() ![]() The precise mechanisms governing such an association between mental stimulation and reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease remain unclear. Moreover, people with the highest frequency of activity had a 47 percent lower risk of disease compared with those with the lowest activity level. For each one-point increase in a subject's score on the scale of intellectual activities, they report, the risk of developing the disease decreased by 33 percent. The researchers found an inverse correlation between the frequency of cognitive activity and the risk of developing the disease. Over a seven-year period, 111 participants developed Alzheimer's disease. The scientists followed the subjectsall age 65 or older and dementia free at the start of the studyfor an average of 4.5 years and administered annual follow-up cognitive tests. Participation frequency was rated on a five-point scale ranging from every day (five points) to once a year or less (one point). ![]() At the study's outset, the subjects underwent cognitive testing and filled out a questionnaire probing the amount of time they spent engaged in common pastimes involving information processing: watching TV, listening to the radio, reading, playing games or solving puzzles and going to museums. ![]() Wilson of the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center and colleagues examined more than 700 participants in the Religious Orders Study, a group of Catholic nuns, priests and brothers who have agreed to annual memory testing and brain donation at the time of death. When it comes to memory, there might just be something to the old adage "use it or lose it." Writing in the February 13 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers provide further evidence that people who participate more frequently in cerebrally challenging activities have a decreased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. ![]()
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