Amazing...Bilingualism delays onset of dementia
 

Okay, so every in the pool!! Time to go back to school, learn a second language...if you don't know one...and use both daily. Come to think of it, I did receive my semi-annual HACC class circular today. My daughter even told me, "You should take a course, or teach one. They are always looking for ideas."


Bilingualism delays onset of dementia

* 23:22 12 January 2007
* NewScientist.com news service, United Kingdom
* New Scientist and Reuters
http://www.newscientist.com/article/...-dementia.html

People who are fully bilingual and speak both languages every day for most of their lives can delay the onset of dementia by up to four years compared with those who only know one language, Canadian scientists said on Friday.

Researchers said the extra effort involved in using more than one language appeared to boost blood supply to the brain and ensure nerve connections remained healthy – two factors thought to help fight off dementia.

"We are pretty dazzled by the results," Professor Ellen Bialystok of Toronto's York University said in a statement.

"In the process of using two languages, you are engaging parts of your brain, parts of your mind that are active and need that kind of constant exercise and activity, and with that experience [it] stays more robust," she later told CTV television.

The leading cause of dementia among the elderly is Alzheimer's disease, which gradually destroys a person's memory. There is no known cure.

Bialystok's team focused on 184 elderly patients with signs of dementia who attended a Toronto memory clinic between 2002 and 2005. Of the group, 91 spoke only one language while 93 were bilingual.
Active brain

"The researchers determined that the mean age of onset of dementia symptoms in the monolingual group was 71.4 years, while the bilingual group was 75.5 years," the statement said. "This difference remained even after considering the possible effect of cultural differences, immigration, formal education, employment and even gender as [influences] in the results."

Bialystok stressed that bilingualism helped delay the start of dementia rather than preventing it altogether.

Psychologist Fergus Craik, another member of the team, said the data showed that being fully bilingual had "a huge protective effect" against the onset of dementia but he added that the study was still a preliminary finding. The team plans more research into the beneficial side effects of bilingualism.

The Alzheimer Society of Canada described the report as exciting and said it confirmed recent studies that showed that keeping the brain active was a good way to delay the impact of dementia. "Anything that staves off the time when the risk factor [for dementia] overcomes the defences is wonderful news," says scientific director Jack Diamond.

The society estimates that in 2000, the latest year for which data is available, Canada spent C$5.5 billion (US$4.7 billion) taking care of people with Alzheimer's disease.

Vraiment?

paula

Attachment 677

Got me Paula. Had to look that word up in the dictionary.com.

Not bilingual here. So, does that me I am already demented...:Scratch-Head:

Carolyn,
Me neither but my computer is bilingual. At this point, it would take 4 years off of my life trying to learn it. But good for bilingualists?! I'm sure I would love speaking another language fluently tho.

paula

Erstaunlich (Amazing)
 

Ich kann deutsch sprechen, aber nicht jeden Tag
(I speak German but not every day,)
I can also say, "I have no money in Dutch, Spanish and French.
OH and English!!! LOL
Ron

I've always heard that keeping the brain active is good for it, but had never seen a specific area of activity singled out.

The article doesn't say if they did anything to narrow it down to bilingualism, or could any form of regular mental activity accomplish the same thing?

(Is jogging your memory a form of brain exercise?)

Godt for mig!
 

This is a nice piece of news for me, who grew up in Denmark, for my husband who studied in Denmark and learned the language, and for our children. Speaking Danish to the children from their babyhood - and spending summers there, and giving them the opportunity to go to school and university there for a semester or two, made the whole family bilingual.
Some words are more effective and more descriptive in one language or the other, so we have a kind of pidgin family language.
Our sons in law don't speak Danish, but one teaches Greek and Latin, the other teaches Accadian and Sumerian. That must come to the same......
Und wir können alle ein bisschen Deutch sprechen.
Et Francais aussi, mais seulement un petit, petit peu.. ( and I'm not too sure of the French spelling).
A four year delay is good news.
Men jeg vil hellere være fri for overhovedet at FÅ Alzheimer's.
But I'd rather not GET Alzheimer's at all.

birte.

people who are bilingual
 

have constructed more neural pathways....that's the name of the game. I just heard a local health guru on a tv interview say if you want to save your cells or at least maintain, you should be learning and challanging yourself all the time. His suggestion was learn a new operating system for your computer. If your getting frustrated, thats the counterpart of sweating if you work out physically. Along these same lines I have noticed that the people I know with PD who live alone have many more day to day problems to solve....(like how the heck am I gonna get to my medication on the other side of the room???) because they do not have a care giver to fetch, cook, and just generally take care of all their needs. They do a lot more problem solving than those who don't live alone and they seem to be a little bit quicker on the draw when it comes to wit and wisdom. Maybe I'm just imagining things, but any kind of problem solving is good brain exercise. So go climb that mountain baby!!!! :p

Thanks Rosebud :Tip-Hat:

Hey, Paula, you and I are in good shape!!

I knew there was a positive side to living alone, just never found it before this thread. Although it would be nice if someone would cook and drive for me from time to time, do the laundry, which is down the stairs and outside to the side of the building, lug my groceries up the stairs...ho hum.

Learned French in school, badly. Actually worked in French one summer, but in a very limited field - we used to teach all pre-op patients how to deep breathe and cough after surgery. If someone wanted to have a conversation, I was looking for a translator! Then lived in Germany for three years with the air force - we lived in a little village as the only Canadians so had lots of chances to try the kleine bisschen Deutsche that we'd learned. And forgot most of the French in the meantime. Now we're trying to learn some Italian for our planned trip there in the near future. Is it ever hard - I don't think I'm blessed with language learning brain parts! Maybe the struggle is the best part - I'll have to keep that in mind! This is great information - I wondered how to keep my brain going after I'm not working any more.