(Seattle) - Engage in activities that exercise the brain, such as reading and even knitting, can delay or prevent memory loss, report researchers.
in a new study, reading magazines, knitting and padding, and social activities in middle age cut the risk that people would develop memory loss in their 70 or 80 for more than a third.
and if you have already done 70 or 80, it is not too late to benefit from exercises that tax the brain, says researcher Yonas Gede, MD, a neuropsychiatrist at the Mayo clinic in Rochester, Minn.
in later years, reading books, playing and making crafts Activities decreased the chance of memory loss for about one-third, study shows.
Computer activities were even more protective for people in their 70 and 80, cutting the risk of memory loss by half, Gede Tells WebMD.
Watch more than seven hours of TV per day, on the other hand, was connected to a greater chance of memory loss.
The discoveries were presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology.
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The familiar hedge you can not teach an old new dog tricks "is absolutely incorrect", comments Greg Jicha, MD, a University of University Kentucky neurologist , in Lexington, which is also studying the connection between brain activities and loss of memory.
Activities that challenge mind Rewire the brain, it tells WebMD.
Laboratory experiences show that if you put brain cells on a petri dish, "they will form connections and survive. But if you put only one cell on the plate, it will die," says Jicha.
Reading, playing and other activities stimulate brain cells to connect and bloom, it explains.
New activities are particularly beneficial, adds jicha. "Do not keep doing the same old man."
The new study involved 197 people between the ages of 70 and 89 with light cognitive impairment, or loss of diagnosed memory, and 1,124 people in the same age group without memory problems.
Participants were made a number of questions about their daily activities last year and middle-aged when they were between 50 and 65 years.
A limitation of the study is that "they are relying on memories of the participants," says Jicha. He suggests that in future studies, family members and friends also wonder about the participants' activities to check their memories.
Geda recognizes that the study does not cause cause and effect and that more research is needed to confirm the discoveries.
But along with another research, "suggests that cognitive exercise seems to protect against future memory loss," he says.
