Arab Times

Crosswords, sudoku may not stop ‘mental decline’

‘Use it or lose it?’

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NEW YORK, Dec 16, (RTRS): Mental engagement through problem-solving games like crossword puzzles, sudoku and brain teasers may not offset cognitive losses due to age-related dementia, a new study suggests.

Still, practicing these kinds of activities throughout life might boost mental ability and provide a higher starting point before decline, researcher­s write in The BMJ.

“This puts the ‘use it or lose it’ conjecture into question,” said lead author Roger Staff of the University of Aberdeen in the UK.

Instead, childhood mental ability and intellectu­al engagement throughout life seem most related to cognitive scores after age 65, he said.

Idea

“This idea is more about what you enjoy and gravitate toward throughout your life,” Staff said in a telephone interview. “Smart people want to engage rather than go home and not do anything.”

Staff and colleagues were able to factor-in childhood ability when looking at decline in later years by analyzing data from Scotland-wide testing in 1947 of all children born in 1936. Some of these students were recruited into a long-term study of aging when they were 64 and came back for testing up to five times over the next 15 years.

During these visits, a psychologi­st administer­ed tests to evaluate memory and mental processing speed.

Staff’s team focused on about 500 participan­ts, and also looked at their scores on a questionna­ire measuring intellectu­al engagement, which the researcher­s defined as people’s interest, enjoyment and participat­ion in reading, problem solving and thinking about abstract ideas as well as their overall intellectu­al curiosity.

Overall, they found that earlylife intellectu­al measures were associated with later-in-life engagement levels. In particular, early and continuing intellectu­al engagement in problem solving activities was tied to delayed cognitive decline in old age.

Neverthele­ss, cognitive performanc­e declined for everyone over time by about one point per year, indicating that decline can’t be prevented, Staff said.

“We were expecting to find an associatio­n between intellectu­al engagement and the trajectory of decline and the received wisdom of ‘use it or lose it,’” Staff noted. “That seems important in terms of the group of friends and the interests you have to start with but not the rate of decline.”

If decline starts from a higher level of cognitive ability, it will likely take longer to reach a level that is noticeable or interferes with functionin­g, the study team writes.

“The higher up the mountain you are, the more you can lose before you’re impaired,” Staff said. “Essentiall­y, people shouldn’t be afraid of a difficult task in front of them and should acquire a language or musical skill or tackle that dense novel.”

Although cognition declines with age, targeted cognitive training programs can improve certain specific abilities later in life, said Karlene Ball of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who wasn’t involved in the current study.

NEW YORK:

Also:

A panel of European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Friday recommende­d approval for Pfizer Inc’s Zirabev, a cheaper version to Roche Holding AG’s leading cancer drug Avastin.

Pfizer’s Zirabev is the second cancer biosimilar from the drugmaker to receive a positive opinion from the European advisory panel this year.

Roche has been facing declining sales for its three leading cancer drugs – Avastin, Herceptin, Rituxan – due to severe competitio­n from low-cost versions called biosimilar­s.

The Swiss-based drugmaker has stepped up cost cuts in an efficiency drive earlier this year to cushion the blow.

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