CHICAGO (AP) – Even in your 70s and beyond, simple activities including web-surfing, playing bridge and socializing can stave off mental decline, new research says.
Benefits were greatest in computer users and in those without a gene variation linked with Alzheimer’s disease. But even among seniors with that trait, mental decline that sometimes precedes dementia was less common among those who engaged in mind-stimulating activities.
The results don’t apply to costly, computer-based games that purport to keep the brain sharp – those were not studied. The benefits were found from activities that many seniors have access to.
“They don’t have to spend their life savings” on fancy gadgets, said Dr. Yonas Geda, the study’s senior author and a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic’s Scottsdale, Arizona, campus.
The study was published Monday in the journal JAMA Neurology. The researchers noted that the statistical link they found with reduced risk does not prove the activities were responsible.