“‘Use it or lose it’ is a catch-cry that applies to the brain as well as the body. For some time now, researchers have known that, in general, people who stay more mentally active throughout their lives tend to have a lower risk of developing dementia in their later years. Why this is has been much less clear.

An active cognitive lifestyle leads to reduced dementia risk. Antonio Monerris

“Research my group has recently published sheds light on this interesting and potentially very powerful biology. We started off with a broad interest in ‘cognitive lifestyle’, a term used to describe a person’s lifetime patterns of learning new things, engaging with others, and challenging the mind. In this study, cognitive lifestyle was measured by asking each person about their educational experiences, classifying how complex and demanding the main job was during their working years, and more currently, how often they were catching up with family and friends.

“The Study

“This research was only possible by working with one of the largest datasets of its kind, the Cambridge-based Cognitive Function and Ageing Study (CFAS). The study has more than 13,000 participants – older individuals who have now passed their 14th year of ongoing follow-up.

“Initially, we used this dataset to confirm that living a “more active cognitive lifestyle” does indeed lower your risk of dementia. We found that, on average, people who had either completed more years of education, worked in a more complex or mentally demanding occupation, or were more socially engaged with family and friends had a 40% lower chance of developing dementia over the long term.

“Next, we analysed tissue from all 329 people in the study who had died during the 14 years and donated their brain to science. Since the most common cause for dementia is the build up of Alzheimer’s disease, our first test asked one of the more obvious questions: do more cognitively active people simply develop less Alzheimer’s pathology? Read the rest of this entry »