What’s the crucial age to engage the brain to help ward off dementia?

This article appeared in Woman’s Day 14/3/2012:

Get the Kids Cross-Training

We’ve all heard doing the Woman’s Day crossword may help ward of dementia, but did you know the crusical age to engage your brain is between six and 40?

Researchers at the University of California surveyed 65 adults with an average age of 76 and found that those who had regularly done crosswords and the like, particularly between six and 40, had lower levels of a protein associated with Alzheimer’s.

Crossword solution for recession

The UK Daily Express reported that Britons believe doing crossword puzzles is the answer to beating the recession.

As many as 76%  reckon finding ways to occupy themselves is the key to getting through the credit crunch, a survey found.

And 86% of the 1000 people polled said they found traditional crossword puzzles more stimulating than modern ‘brain’ games.

The survey by the Chevrolet car company also showed that people in East Anglia are the most frequent crossword players - with 52% doing them on a weekly basis.

A Chevrolet spokesman said: “It comes as no surprise that people are turning to activities such as crosswords. We are all more aware of looking after the pennies”. He added: “A crossword provides cost-effective entertainment and brain stimulation”.

Daily Express, Friday March 13, 2009.

White Matter Keeps Brain Working: Expert

That daily crossword or Sudoku puzzle has just been elevated from fun time waster to vital task.

Australian researchers have found it’s not grey matter that disappears with age, but connecting white matter in the brain.

The research is rewriting the book on how the brain ages, and shows how important it is to undertake mentally engaging tasks into old age.

Researchers found it’s not the brain’s capacity to store memories that fails in latter years, it’s the wiring.

“If you take the analogy of a range of computers, the computers would be the grey matter and the connecting cables would be the white matter,” says Dr Olivier Piguet, a research fellow at Sydney’s Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute.

“The computers still work but the cables stop working, or you lose connections between your network of computers.”

The effect of age-related degenerative conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, had encouraged a view that a loss of grey matter was a gradual and unavoidable part of ageing.

But when Dr Piguet and colleagues conducted a post-mortem study of 24 healthy brains they found grey matter was remarkably untouched by time.

The study examined the disease and injury-free brains of Australians, aged 46 to 92.

By taking cross-section images of the brains, and through meticulous measurements, Dr Piquet identified just a five per cent loss in grey matter from the youngest to the oldest brain.

This was eclipsed by a 32 per cent loss of white matter.

Dr Piguet’s study concludes “healthy brain ageing is a process affecting predominantly white matter, not grey matter”.

“This is another piece of the puzzle in trying to understand what is healthy ageing, the normal wear and tear on the brain,” Dr Piguet says.

The research shows how “brain power” - the neurons or nerve cells within grey matter - remains constant throughout life. Instead, what the brain suffers is a loss of connections.

Dr Piguet says the study underscores the need for people to stay mentally and physically active for as long as possible into old age.

Mentally engaging tasks, such as card or board games, or playing musical instruments, are known to prevent the loss of these connections and even foster new ones.

People should not assume that memory loss is an unavoidable part of ageing, Dr Piguet says.

“You can certainly maintain connections, create new connections … there are many studies showing that taking part in new activities will benefit your brain,” he says.

“It’s extremely important to remain active, be out there, play bridge, chess and be physically active as well.”

The study will be published next month in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.

Danny Rose
WAtoday.com.au

Insurance Companies, UK

Life insurance companies devise tests to help them gauge how long their clients will live. So it is important to get it right.

Some questions examine whether their clients involve their minds in any activities.

It’s an eye-opener to see the huge extent to which mental performance, IQ and mind-sports related answers can account for a STAGGERING 11.5 PRODUCTIVE YEARS IN YOUR FAVOUR.

Professor Arnold Scheibel

Former head of the Brain Research Institute at UCLA

Anything that is intellectually challenging can probably serve as a kind of stimulus for dendritic growth. That adds to your brain’s ability to work things out.

Do puzzles … researchers agree that it is never too late

All of life should be a learning experience because then we are challenging our brain and building brain circuitry. Literally, this is how the brain works.