Dementia boost for bilinguals

SPEAKING two languages regularly can help protect against Alzheimer’s disease.

In regions where people often switch from one tongue to another dementia occurs half as often, researchers at Spain’s Open University of Catalonia found.

The study, in the Neuropsychologia journal, said mastering more than one language “enhances cognitive reserve and delays the appearance of symptoms associated with cognitive decline and dementia”.

By switching, the brain has to perform “linguistic gymnastics”.

The study looked at Barcelona where Spanish and Catalan are spoken widely.

Professor Marco Calabria explained: “Those people with a higher degree of bilingualism had mild cognitive impairment later than those who were passive bilinguals.

“The more you use both languages the more neuroprotective advantage you have.”