Playing mentally demanding games may protect against dementia A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has shown that participation in mentally demanding leisure activities late in life may provide protection against dementia. Playing checkers, backgammon, chess, or cards was associated with a reduced risk, as were playing a musical instrument, reading, and crossword puzzles (for those who did crossword puzzles four days a week). Other studies reached similar conclusions. Challenging oneself by learning a new language or playing a new musical instrument may be a solution to preventing memory problems or the development of dementia or Alzheimer's. From a study called Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE), funded by the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute of Nursing Research, researchers found that short mental workouts improved performance and was sustained even five years later. In the study, approximately 2,800 volunteers were assigned to one of three training conditions (trained participants received instruction in one of three different kinds of thinking skills:

memorizing lists, reasoning [looking for patterns in strings of numbers or letters] and visual concentration) and a condition where no training occurred. All trained participants received a baseline of ten hours of instruction. Half of the trained participants received an extra eight hours of "booster" training. Five years later, compared to untrained controls, the participants in each training group still showed a significant performance advantage on learned thinking skills. One in Seven Americans Age 71 and Older Has Some Type of Dementia A New NIH-Funded Study suggests that about 3.4 million Americans age 71 and older—one in seven people in that age group—have dementia, and 2.4 million of them have Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The study, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is the latest in a series of analyses attempting to assess the prevalence of dementia and AD, the most common form of dementia. Published online this week in Neuroepidemiology, the study is the first to estimate rates of dementia and AD using a nationally representative sample of older adults across the United States.

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