Cosy season is here, and if you’re wondering how to make the most of those long dark evenings over the winter, you might want to take note from researchers studying cognitive decline.
Prof Paul Little, Professor of Primary Care Research at the University of Southampton, and his team conducted a study involving 11,000 people aged 60 to 85 years old who had mild to severe cognitive impairment.
Participants were then split into three groups:
- Group one (the control group), were asked wh brain-stimulating activities they did daily. Their cognitive function was tested and they were then offered evidence-based advice about how to protect their cognitive health – from exercise and eating a healthy balanced diet, to doing brain-stimulating activities.
- Group two was offered the same information as group one. But they were also given access to a website offering brain exercises and advice for following a healthy lifestyle.
- Group three was offered the same as group two – as well as two brief interactions with a facilitator, like a nurse, to help their engagement with the website.
A year later, cognitive function was tested again and researchers spotted something unexpected.
As predicted, groups two and three had additional improvements in cognition compared to the “control” group.
But researchers were “surprised” to see that, a year later, “28% of people in group one no longer had signs of cognitive impairment,” Prof Little wrote for The Conversation.
“In group two, just under 33% reversed their cognitive decline, while around 32% of those in group three did.”
Seeing as participants had healthy diets and were exercising at the start of, and during, the research period, researchers believe this improvement was all down to them doing more brain-stimulating activities.
What kind of brain-stimulating activities are we talking about here?
According to Prof Paul Little, these include:
- Brain games
- Puzzles
- Crosswords
- Reading
- Listening to music
- Playing a musical instrument
- Socialising
- Singing in a choir
- Learning a new language.
Other activities that might help stimulate the brain include:
- Drawing
- Painting
- Sculpting
- Knitting
- Woodworking.
Prof Little added that the study “shows that the brain remains malleable and can learn new things well into older age” which means “even the small things you do each day can really make a difference in combating cognitive decline”.
Per Harvard Health, it’s thought these types of activities might “stimulate new connections between nerve cells” and even help the brain generate new cells, “building up a functional reserve that provides a hedge against future cell loss”.
Controlling high blood pressure, managing blood sugar, maintaining a healthy weight, exercising, eating a healthy diet, treating hearing problems and aiming for seven to eight hours of sleep per night are also important ways to help prevent cognitive decline as you age.
