Brain exercises can hold back memory loss in later dementia, a new study shows.
Activities that exercise the brain such as reading, writing, and playing card games, are linked to a slower decline in memory, say Dr Charles Hall of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, USA, and colleagues.
The team recruited 488 people aged 75 to 85 years, who did not have dementia at the start of the study. They were asked how often they read, wrote, did crossword puzzles, played board or card games, had group discussions, and playing music.
Over the next five years, 101 individuals developed dementia. In the journal Neurology, the researchers report that for every activity a person participated in, the onset of rapid memory loss was delayed by 0.18 years.
"These activities might help maintain brain vitality," the team believes.
A second study, published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, has found that smoking, having high blood pressure and having diabetes in middle age may increase the risk of dementia.
Cardiovascular risk factors have previously been linked to dementia, so Dr Alvaro Alonso of the University of Minnesota, USA, and his team analysed figures from more than 11,000 people aged 46 to 70 years.
They found that smoking, high blood pressure and diabetes were all strongly associated with dementia in white participants and African-Americans.
"Current smokers were 70 per cent more likely than those who had never smoked to develop dementia, people with high blood pressure were 60 per cent more likely than those without high blood pressure, and people with diabetes were more than twice as likely than those without diabetes to develop it," they write.
Hall, C. B. Cognitive activities delay onset of memory decline in persons who develop dementia. Neurology, Vol. 73, August 2009, pp. 356-61.
Alonso, A. et al. Risk of dementia hospitalisation associated with cardiovascular risk factors in midlife and older age: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. The Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, published online August 4, 2009.
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