Revealed: The 'mentally stimulating' tasks you need to do twice weekly to prevent dementia READ MORE: Dementia wave may be fueled by surprising culprit in every home By Emily Joshu Health Reporter For Dailymail.Com Published: 10:43 EDT, 4 October 2024 | Updated: 11:07 EDT, 4 October 2024 e-mail View comments What activity has been shown to ward off dementia in a new study? Clue: It's one across and has nine letters. In a recent study, doing a crossword at least twice a week was found to dramatically slow cognitive decline in older Americans compared to those who did this less often.
Other 'mentally stimulating' activities like reading a book, playing Sudoku or journaling also appeared to protect against the decline. It's thought that these activities can help form new brain cells and boost connections in the brain responsible for memory. Researchers in Mississippi, Texas, and Illinois found that older Americans who did 'mentally stimulating' activities more than twice a week had a lower risk of cognitive decline than those who did so less often (stock image) Your browser does not support iframes.
Researchers in three states followed nearly 6,000 adults over 50 for almost a decade and divided them into groups based on how often they participated in 'cognitively simulating' activities. Though all participants suffered memory decline with age, those who regularly picked up a book or a puzzle had consistently better memory and slower rates of cognitive decline over an eight-year .