A crossword a day can knock 10 years off your brain age
DOING crosswords and sudoku every day may help to keep your brain a decade younger in middle age, researchers have found.
The largest and most detailed joint study of how puzzles affect the brain health of the over-50s asked participants to undertake a battery of cognitive tests over a week.
Those who enjoy doing word puzzles every day performed as well as people ten years younger. Number puzzle enthusiasts were found to have the thinking skills of people eight years younger.
This suggests that the puzzles may ward off declining memory in older age, providing a mental ‘reserve’ which experts believe can prevent or delay dementia.
Dr Anne Corbett, senior author of the two studies, from the University of Exeter, said: ‘Most of the people involved in this research did crosswords or sudoku, which exercise the memory and improve problem- solving abilities and focus.
‘The working theory behind this is that the brain is a muscle just like any other in the body and continuing to use it will improve its capacity and adaptability. The brain is made up of lots of connections, which we need to regularly use in activities like puzzles so we don’t lose them.’
More than 19,000 people were asked how often they completed word and number puzzles, with their answers ranging from never to monthly, weekly, daily or more than once a day. Participants, aged 50 to 93, then completed detailed online cognitive tests every day for a week.
Across all ten tests, which included trying to remember number sequences or matching pictures after they disappeared, participants who did daily number puzzles scored higher than everyone else.
Those who enjoyed daily word puzzles scored higher in nine out of ten tests. Both sets of people had much faster reaction times, pressing buttons quicker when selected objects flashed up on a computer screen. Participants who did daily number puzzles had the short-term memory of people eight years younger.
Those who did word puzzles had the problem- solving skills of people ten years younger. This conclusion was based on a test in which they saw a diagram of a square within a circle and marked sentences such as ‘the circle encompasses the square’ as true or false.
The research, published in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, is part of the Protect study on the brain health of over-50s, which is still recruiting participants.
The authors, who are also from King’s College London, conclude that puzzle fans have brains which may work better for longer. People who never did puzzles had significantly lower test results.
Dr Corbett added: ‘We’ve found that the more regularly people engage with puzzles, such as crosswords and sudoku, the sharper their performance is across a range of tasks assessing memory, attention and reasoning.’