NEW YORK: Reading, writing letters and playing card games or puzzles even in advanced old age may help delay the onset of Alzheimer's dementia by up to five years.
The research, published in the online issue of journal Neurology, looked at 1,978 people with an average age of 80 who did not have dementia at the start of the study and were followed for seven years.
People with the highest levels of activity, on average, developed dementia at age 94. The people with the lowest cognitive activity, on average, developed dementia at age 89, a difference of five years.
"The good news is that it's never too late to start doing the kinds of inexpensive, accessible activities we looked at in our study," said Robert S. Wilson, from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
"Our findings suggest it may be beneficial to start doing these things, even in your 80s, to delay the onset of Alzheimer's dementia," Wilson added. (IANS)
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