Recently, a study found that “stretching” your brain can help lower your risk of dementia by as much as 11 percent. But what does this actually mean in practice?
In reality, the brain isn’t the type of organ that you can stretch like you would the muscles in your arms and legs prior to a workout. In this case, “stretch” is just a word that is used because we already associate a meaning to it. It helps us understand that we are using the organ and doing so in a way that might not otherwise be comfortable or natural. If we go by this meaning, then it does seem like we can stretch the brain to help improve cognitive health and lower the risk of dementia as we age.
The researchers found that doing things like journaling, using a computer, or taking classes was correlated with an 11 percent reduction in the instances of dementia that were noted in this sample study. Things like playing cards or board games, crafting, and doing puzzles of various sorts was associated with a 9 percent reduction in the instances of dementia.
These numbers might not be definitive, but they do highlight that keeping the brain active and moving is associated with better outcomes. It might not prevent everyone from getting dementia and these actions haven’t been proven to actually be the cause of dementia prevention, but they also are things that have been shown to help with cognitive and emotional health. In other words, they can’t hurt but only help you to live a healthier life.
This study was conducted by a group of researchers out of Monash University in Australia. They published their findings in the journal, JAMA Network Open. There’s a lot more work here that needs to be done still in order to effectively treat or prevent dementia, but it’s projects like this that allow doctors to better understand what dementia is, how it progresses through the brain, and gives a better idea of how to fight it. Hopefully, this leads to more research in the future.
There’s a sort of Catch-22 with all of this, however. Older seniors at risk of dementia are typically retired and out of the workforce. It is a lot harder for someone who is elderly to participate in these kinds of activities.
Creating a routine or a system to encourage activity is important. This is actually one of the benefits of a quality care service. Being around trained caregivers and other like minded seniors can help an older individual to be active and engaged with their surroundings. Care might not be a perfect solution for everyone, but it’s always better than aging in isolation.
When a loved one is struggling with dementia, these types of activities have also been shown to help slow the spread of dementia in some cases. Even if the diagnosis is grim, such as Alzheimer’s disease, there’s always something that can be done to help make life a little bit better.
Call us today to see how we can help to make your care experience a little better.
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