The brain games that mean we CAN fight dementia
THE elderly lady sitting in front of me waved her magazine. ‘ I’ve been doing lots of crosswords, puzzles and Sudoku, doctor,’ she said proudly. ‘ Every day. I’m doing everything I can to stop dementia.’
She paused and looked at me warily: ‘I’m not wasting my time, am I?’
This is a question I’m asked frequently — and until this week I’ve never been 100 per cent sure of the answer, as I’ll explain.
When I first started work, dementia was very much an overlooked speciality and certainly not a condition widely discussed outside medical circles. How things have changed! We are now all much more aware of the illness and of how devastating it can be, so there is inevitable anxiety as we age.
Have you only misplaced the car key or is it the first sign of Alzheimer’s? Is forgetting why you walked into a room just a slip of the mind or does it herald something more sinister? Did you take the wrong route to the supermarket because you were distracted or . . .?
People absolutely dread dementia. Many patients tell me they’d rather develop any manner of physical illness instead. And, of course, the natural response is to want to do something to prevent it.
As the sole carer for her frail 84-year-old husband, my patient had every reason to want to stay as sharp as possible. If she were to be incapacitated, it would be a tragedy for both of them.
She wanted to be proactive — to do something positive to reduce the risk of this happening — but would ploughing through puzzle books really help? FOR
a long time, scientists thought of the brain as being like a muscle, and that the more you used it, the stronger and more resilient it would be. The ‘use it or lose it’ theory — and, of course, that would surely ward off dementia.
This idea took hold and a lucrative industry sprang up to cater for the demand for brain teasers for the middle-aged and elderly. They fill pages in publications popular with this age group, and book stores have whole sections dedicated to every kind of puzzle book.
The problem was the lack of evidence that this actually worked. Individuals who did daily Sudoku or who could complete difficult crosswords in record time still got dementia.
Gradually, the official line among scientists was that these fun mental challenges conferred little protection. However, I’ve always had my doubts about this and, like many of my colleagues, I’ve encouraged my patients to keep on doing puzzles if they enjoy them. Now research published this week vindicates this position.
Scientists at Aberdeen University suggested that puzzles
do work — at least in part. They found that they won’t prevent dementia, but they do raise the point at which cognitive decline starts, meaning that an individual stays mentally well for longer.
In other words, it takes longer to reach the threshold for developing noticeable symptoms.
This fits with our understanding of neurobiology. The brain has great plasticity; it is constantly growing, changing and adapting throughout our lives.
It doesn’t matter if you’re eight or 80, your brain will retain this capacity, although it does slow down and more nerve connections are lost than are created.
What the new study shows is that regularly using the brain for complex tasks — including practising memory games and other mental challenges — creates a greater number of connections between brain cells.
It means that when the wiring of the brain starts to break down with age, or if dementia develops, the brain has ‘back-up’ networks to use instead.
Not only does this show how amazing the brain is, it also offers some hope in a condition where hope is often in short supply.
And the best thing of all? It’s never too late to start building those brain connections, so if you’re in need of stocking fillers this year for an elderly relative, why not pop in a puzzle book?