Your doctor emphasizes the importance of regular physical activity to help protect you from diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease, that become more common as you age. Although not universally accepted in the medical community, there is growing evidence that challenging your brain by engaging in regular mental exercises can decrease your risk for developing diseases of cognitive and mental decline, such as Alzheimer's disease.
Benefits
The Alzheimer's Research and Prevention Foundation says that the effects of regular mental exercise on the prevention and progression of Alzheimer's disease are profound. Some neurologists believe that engaging in regular exercises that challenge and engage your brain may decrease your likelihood of developing Alzheimer's disease by as much as 70 percent. According to the Alzheimer's Foundation of America, regular brain exercises may increase and enhance what it describes as mental reserve, or your brain's ability to resist damage over time. Your risk for diseases of mental and cognitive decline increases and decreases relative to the size of your mental reserve. The larger your mental reserve, the better protected you are.
Types
There are three criteria for the types of protective mental exercises. The most beneficial activities will meet all three. The mental exercises you choose should engage more than one of your senses, keep you focused and attentive and provide a change, or break, from your normal daily routine. The Alzheimer's Foundation of America provides a list of beneficial mental exercises. The list includes learning to play a musical instrument, doing jigsaw puzzles, learning a foreign language, taking classes and playing board games. Become a life-long learner by learning a new fact or skill every day. Avoid routine by regularly engaging in mental activities that are new to you. Engaging in these activities for 20 minutes each day at least three times per week may provide measurable protection.
Considerations
Robert Wilson, a senior study author at Chicago's Rush University Medical Center, proposes a different hypothesis regarding the relationship between mental reserve and disease progression for patients who develop issues of cognitive decline in their lifetimes. His research suggests that although there is evidence showing that regular mental engagement can stave off symptoms, such as dementia, of Alzheimer's disease, once the symptoms begin, the progression of those symptoms is much quicker. Wilson theorizes that because of the way in which Alzheimer's disease develops, mentally active individuals who do go on to develop the disease actually end up with more severe manifestations of it. Charles Hall, neurology professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, suggests that although there is need for more research, the results of Wilson's study "do suggest that mental exercises help stave off dementia but then increase mental decline after dementia onset."
Additional Interventions
Regardless of its outcome with regard to Alzheimer's prevention, engaging in regular mental activities is important to your overall health. In addition to mental exercise, physical exercise is also key. Evidence suggests that regular exercise reduces your chance -- by up to 50 percent -- of developing Alzheimer's disease. Also, Help Guide suggests that avoiding diabetes by maintaining a healthy diet and weight, quitting smoking -- especially if you are over 65 -- and reducing your exposure to stressful situations are all lifestyle habits that will likely reduce your risk of developing cognitive disease.
References
- Alzheimer's Research and Prevention Foundation: The 4 Pillars of Alzheimer's Prevention
- Alzheimer's Foundation of America: Lifestyle Choices -- Mental Exercises
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Mental "Exercise" May Only Hide Signs of Alzheimer's
- Help Guide: Alzheimer's Treatment and Prevention
