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| Posted: January 16, 2008 |
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Some 5 million Americans live with some form of Alzheimer's disease. The degenerative brain illness usually attacks people over 65, but new technology is now detecting it in those much younger. Neurologist Claudia H. Kawas of the University of California, Irvine, answered your questions. |
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| Jeff Douthwaite of Seattle, Wash., asks: |
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| Are there kinds of mental exercises which one can do to help avoid this disease? For example, chess, poker, or reading and writing? Would physical exercise help? |
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| Dr. Claudia Kawas responds: |
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 Both physical and mental exercises are important for our health, and this likely includes our brain health. We know that animals allowed to exercise have higher levels of brain growth factors and they appear to develop and maintain more synapses (connections between nerve cells). Similar results have been found for animals that have toys in their cages or regular engagement with humans on walks, etc. Exercising the brain with mental activities is likely to be good for the brain, but I don't believe the specific mental exercise is the key. Rather what is likely to be important is that you are keeping your brain active and using it to learn and manipulate ideas and information. Thus, while it is good to play chess and poker, it is probably even better to learn these games and start playing them if you didn't know them before. Neither physical or mental exercise (nor anything else for that matter) will absolutely prevent Alzheimer's disease, but it is likely to be good for overall brain function and cognitive reserve, and may help to delay cognitive decline.
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