Guten Tag! Bonjour! Buenos Dias! Buon Giorno! Hello!

I don’t usually write posts in five languages but I am exercising my mental muscles for a good reason. Researchers have found evidence that bilingualism is protective against Alzheimer’s and other dementias in old age, delaying the onset of dementia by four years as opposed to those who are monolingual.

Links between various lifestyle factors and “cognitive reserve” in later life have long been studied. Cognitive reserve refers to enhanced neural plasticity, compensatory use of alternative brain regions as well as enriched brain vasculature. Scientists at the Rotman Research Institute and the Baycrest Research Centre for Aging and the Brain have found that another lifestyle factor, bilingualism, is also protective in terms of cognitive reserve.

The researchers studied the diagnostic records of 184 patients who met the criteria for Alzheimer’s and other dementias. By interviewing patients and their families or caregivers, the researchers were able to determine that the mean age of onset of dementia in the monolingual group was 71.4 years. The mean age for the onset of dementia in the bilingual group was 75.5 years.

“There are no pharmacological interventions that are this dramatic,” says Dr. Freedman, who is Head of the Division of Neurology, and Director of the Memory Clinic at Baycrest, referring to the four-year delay in onset of symptoms for bilingual patients.

“The data show a huge protective effect,” adds co-investigator Dr. Craik, who cautioned that this is still a preliminary finding but nonetheless in line with a number of other recent findings about lifestyle effects on dementia.

The study is published in the February 2007 issue of Neuropsychologia (Vol.45, No.2) and was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

If you could do something to keep your brain healthy into your senior years- and ward off mental health problems - what would that be? Watch this amazing interactive display of a brain’s MRIs over time and see for yourself all the power in older brains – power that is activated by what you do.

Dementia’s on the rise in aging populations according to recent research in the Public Library of Science. With more people living well into their nineties, comes a sharp rise in mental incapacitation in later years. Sadly, that longer life expectancy means dementia will become much more common, as things stand now.

Not surprisingly, this 10 year UK study found that an 80 year old person who is mentally healthy, holds no guarantee to die without mental limitations. In fact the 12,000 participants, all over 65 … showed a 58% chance of developing cognitive impairment or dementia at ages above 95. Compare that with people who passed on between the ages of 65 and 69 and who had a 6% chance of dying with dementia.

Gender and education alter the odds too, but not as you may think. This UK study showed women as more likely than men, to develop dementia. Interestingly, a higher level of education was associated with only a slightly lower risk of dementia in much older adults.

Two findings interested me especially because of the hope in this study tucked into doable suggestions that could help prevent dementia at every age….

Firstly, researchers recommended that people use more preventative measures to delay the onset of dementia, since these will “yield enormous benefits.”

While they admitted that it’s difficult to prove that all preventative measures will work, and they even warn us that aging populations should be prepared for large numbers of elderly patients with dementia, they still saw benefits for those who use their minds far later in life.

Secondly, the study affirmed that education - or tactics people use daily to improve their lives – seem to prevent decline in mental functioning, later in life when dementia odds increase.

The takeaway for baby boomers, as I see it is simply…

Use your brain more….

Play with brain teasers such as Sudoku … or take up new interests like Brain Age… which uses different parts of the human brain to lower your DS brain age daily. There are endless options.

Garden, swim, or listen to a good orchestra to maintain a healthy brain through activity in your later years. It’s just that people rarely start new habits in their 90’s but those who start now will likely continue then. What’s your mind-bending plan?