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Perhaps one of
the “products” that may rev up the economy is the search for preventing Alzheimer’s
and other diseases of aging, ie. $toys and $prevention. - KWC NYT Editorials/Op-Ed:
Checkmating Alzheimer's
June 24, 2003 @ http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/24/opinion/24TUE4.html
Can regular games of bridge or chess or playing a musical
instrument ward off the onset of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of
dementia? That is the provocative implication of a study published in the
prestigious New England Journal of Medicine last week. If the findings hold up
in more rigorous follow-up inquiries, the day may yet come when doctors will
routinely recommend regular mental activity to ward off dementia just as they
recommend regular physical exercise to ward off obesity and heart disease. For now, the study offers at least a ray of hope for
preventing or delaying some of the most intractable mental diseases facing
modern medicine. Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the
Bronx followed 469 people aged 75 and older who showed no signs of dementia at
the start. Over a median follow-up time of five years, dementia developed in
124 of the subjects. The striking finding was that participation in mentally
demanding leisure activities late in life seems to provide protection against
dementia, although the evidence was not conclusive. Playing chess, checkers,
backgammon or cards was associated with a reduced risk, as were playing a
musical instrument and reading. The evidence on crossword puzzles was not quite
statistically significant, but those who did crossword puzzles four days a week
had a much lower risk of dementia than those who did one puzzle a week. By
contrast, most physical activities, like group exercise or team games, had no
significant impact. The only exception was ballroom dancing, possibly because
of the mental demands of remembering dance steps, responding to music and
coordinating with a partner. There are reasons to be cautious about over-interpreting
this study. For one thing, despite heroic efforts by the researchers to screen
out subjects who already had dementia before the study started, it remains
possible that some subjects had extremely subtle abnormalities that diminished
their interest in mental activities. In that case, incipient dementia may have
caused their lack of interest in mental engagement, not the other way around. Here is the Link to the New England Journal of Medicine abstract and
full article: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/348/25/2508 |
