A new study claims that a simple brain exercise can reduce the risk of dementia by 25%.
According to RCO News Agency, A simple brain exercise can reduce a person’s risk of dementia by 25 percent, a new study has found, but researchers are cautious about interpreting the results.
There are many brain-training games and programs that claim to combat cognitive decline, although little long-term, high-quality research has been conducted on their effectiveness.
The new study is a randomized controlled trial that is considered the gold standard for medical research and first began enrolling participants in the late 1990s.
More than 2,800 people aged 65 or older were randomly assigned to one of three different types of brain training (speed, memory or reasoning) or were part of a control group.
First, the participants did a one-hour training session twice a week for five weeks. One and three years later, they did four booster sessions. In total, there were less than 24 hours of training.
Marilyn Albert, one of the authors of the study from Johns Hopkins University in the United States, told AFP: “During the follow-ups after 5, 10 and recently 20 years, ‘speed training’ has always been interestingly beneficial.”
According to the study, after two decades, records showed that people who did speed and strength training sessions had a 25 percent reduced risk of dementia.
This is despite the fact that the other two types of exercise did not create a statistically significant difference.
“For the first time, this is a gold standard study that gives us an idea of what we can do to reduce the risk of dementia,” Albert said.
However, Rachel Richardson, a researcher who was not involved in the study, cautioned that although statistically significant, the result may not be as dramatic as the 25 percent reduction. That’s partly because the margin of error ranges from a 41 percent reduction to just 5 percent, he told the Science Media Center.
He added that the study excluded people with conditions such as visual or hearing impairment, meaning it may not be fully representative.
Baptiste Leurent, a medical statistician at University College London, said the study had significant limitations. He added: Although the analysis of a subgroup yielded a significant result, this finding is generally not considered as strong enough evidence to demonstrate the effectiveness of the intervention, and more research is still needed to determine whether cognitive training can reduce the risk of dementia.
Strengthen communication in the brain
Speed training consists of clicking on cars and road signs that appear in different areas of the computer screen. Albert said the researchers don’t know why this particular exercise seems to be more effective.
He added: We hypothesize that this training affected something about communication in the brain.
Uncovering the exact mechanism of why speed training works could help researchers develop a new, more effective workout in the future, Albert said.
He added that these results only apply to this particular exercise and cannot show anything meaningful about other brain training games.
Albert emphasized that this finding is incredibly important, noting that reducing dementia among 25 percent of the US population could save $100 billion in patient care.
According to the World Health Organization, dementia affects 57 million people and is the seventh leading cause of death worldwide.
The study was published in the journal Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Research.
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