Mental Exercise - Effects On Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia

Effects On Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia

Mental exercise has been very commonly associated with affecting the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. A study done in 2006 by the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) was the first randomized, controlled trial demonstrating beneficial and enduring effects of concise mental training in the elderly. This study showed that the average senior who received cognitive training had fewer declines in specific mental skills than seniors who did not receive any kind of training. The study concluded that the benefits gained by the training were able to roughly counteract the regression in mental performance that is expected in the elderly. Another 2006 study, led by Michael Valenzuela of the University of New South Wales in Australia, found that being mentally active diminishes the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia by nearly 50% by constructing and maintaining a reserve of cognitive stimulation. This reserve of cognitive stimulation is commonly referred to as either brain reserve or cognitive reserve. Similarly, the cognitive reserve hypothesis states that it is possible to develop the brain’s resistance to neuronal damage and delay the onset of Alzheimer’s. A prior study led by Valenzuela found that after mentally exercising healthy people for five weeks, participants had additional brain chemistry markers in the opposite direction than the markers in Alzheimer’s patients. A study done in 2007 gave tests to approximately 700 elderly people. The results found that no matter which cognitive level the person began at, the people who stimulated their brain more frequently experienced a slower rate of cognitive decline than others. In addition, recent research by Robert Wilson, also of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, has added more evidence to these older studies. This study encompasses nearly 1200 individuals over the course of almost twelve years. Also, this study agrees with older studies in finding that mental activity may slow the normal declines in memory and thinking that the elderly encounter. However, the new evidence also states that when dementia does hit, its effects attack harder and faster in those who have stimulated the brain more frequently than others. This creates a type of “trade-off” that each person must decide which course of action is best for him or her. This trade-off is that mental exercise may delay the onset of dementia and give an individual more time of capability and individuality, but the price of these advantages will be less time in the hindered and reliant state that coincides with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Furthermore, the study found specifically those who read, played games, and went to museums more frequently were less likely to experience mental decline over the course of several years.