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Reading a newspaper is good for the brain
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There is, as yet, no known cure for dementia. Yet a growing body of research suggests that falling prey to this syndrome, which describes the symptoms of cognitive decline caused by a variety of diseases, can be delayed. Increasing exercise and social interaction, while reducing alcohol intake and exposure to air pollution, have all been strongly linked to a lower likelihood of developing dementia. So has prioritising high-quality sleep.
That individuals can help to manage their personal risk factors by making lifestyle changes is beyond dispute. One million people in the UK suffer from dementia, the country’s leading cause of death. Yet now another study, in Chicago, provides further evidence that poor brain health is not an inevitable effect of ageing.
The study’s scientists focused on Alzheimer’s disease, endured by about two thirds of the UK’s dementia patients. They found that living in an “intellectually stimulating environment” can significantly defer the horrors of memory loss, confusion and impaired judgment. This is good news. Cerebral engagement preserves, or at least prolongs, the very functions being deployed. Put crudely: use it or lose it.
The study, published in the journal Neurology, cites learning foreign languages, visiting museums, playing games and reading books as examples of activities that enrich and protect the brain. Attempting to, if not quite master, then at least get a tune out of a musical instrument is also excellent mental exercise. So is tackling puzzles.
Ideally, such stimulation begins in early childhood and lasts a lifetime. Yet even for those older souls who have fallen out of the habit of embracing intellectual challenges as they once did in their youth, it is never too late to resume. Besides, you’re already halfway there. The Chicago academics say that one top tonic for those little grey cells is reading a newspaper. This newspaper, naturally.
