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Brain-stimulating activity crucial for those over 70: Study
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A study finds that playing games is associated with a 22 percent reduced risk of mild cognitive impairment for people over 70 who do not have established cognitive problems. (Shutterstock/File)
A
new study from Mayo Clinic in the US city of Scottsdale suggests that for the elderly, games might be a way to postpone a decline in brain power.
The study, published on Monday, illustrates that mentally stimulating games and other activities could “protect against new-onset mild cognitive impairment, which is the intermediate stage between normal cognitive aging and dementia.” The team of researchers “found that persons who performed these activities at least one to two times per week had less cognitive decline than those who engaged in the same activities only two to three times per month or less," said Dr. Yonas E. Geda, the senior author of the study and a psychiatry and neurology researcher at the clinic, as quoted by the Miami Herald.
Playing games was associated with a 22 percent reduced risk of mild cognitive impairment for those over 70 who do not have established cognitive problems. In addition to games, working on crafts was seen to lower the risk to 28 percent, computer use to 30 percent and social activities to 23 percent, according to Reuters.
(Read also: Loss for words can be a rare brain disorder, not Alzheimer's)
The researchers examined data of nearly 2,000 adults between the age of 70 and 93 who did not have a cognitive impairment to begin with. The participants were surveyed every 15 months, and half of the participants stayed for more than four years. In the surveys, the candidates reported how often they did the different activities. Researchers then compared the risk of new-onset mild cognitive impairment based on each person’s frequency of the activities. By the end of the study, 456 of the participants developed new-onset mild cognitive impairment.
Researchers put a specific focus on those who had an increased risk of cognitive decline, as they were carriers of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene, a factor in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s dementia. For these carriers, it was only social activities and computer use that were associated with a decreased risk of mild cognitive impairment.
Dr. Geda continued, “Mentally stimulating activities, perhaps in combination with known healthy lifestyles such as exercise, are simple and inexpensive activities that can potentially protect people against the development of mild cognitive impairment.” (sul/kes)
