Playing card games, cutting back on alcohol and eating a varied diet can help preserve your memory well into old age, according to a new study.
Even those who have a higher chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease because of their DNA can protect their memory by living a healthier lifestyle, scientists concluded.
Neurologists from China and the US published their findings in British Medical Journal on Wednesday – the results of the study of 29,072 people over the 10 years ending in 2019.
Participants were over 60 years old, with an average age of 72 years, and were located in 12 provinces in China. There is also a divide between men and women.
Geographic diversity created a participant pool that was representative of varying degrees of urbanization, economic status, dietary patterns, and cultural and social differences, the researchers said.
People with mild cognitive impairment or dementia, life-threatening illnesses or hearing or vision impairments are not eligible to participate.
Six factors were used to investigate the relationship between lifestyle and memory: diet, physical exercise, socialization, cognitive activity, never smoking or being an ex-smoker, and not drinking alcohol.
Lifestyle information was monitored through a questionnaire at the beginning of the study and at four follow-up appointments, each of which was two to three years apart.
A healthy lifestyle for each category is defined as:
- Diet: The daily intake of 12 foods – fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, milk, salt, oil, eggs, cereals, nuts, legumes and tea – was measured. Those who eat at least seven of the 12 food groups each day are considered the healthiest.
- exercise: The healthiest group were those who did 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week.
- socialization: People who participate in activities like meetings, attend parties, visit friends or relatives, travel and chat online twice or more per week are sorted into the healthiest set for socialization.
- Cognitive activity: Reading, playing cards, playing mahjong and participating in other games are given as examples of activities that – if engaged in at least twice a week – help to create a healthy lifestyle.
- Smoking: Smoke less than 100 cigarettes in your lifetime or quit smoking at least three years ago
- Alcohol: Low-risk drinking is defined as never or occasionally drinking alcohol. Any form of daily drinking – even 1 gram of alcohol – pushed participants out of the healthy lifestyle category for alcohol consumption.
Based on the answers given, the participants were sorted into three groups: “agree” if they follow four to six healthy lifestyles, “average” if they follow two to three, and “not good” if they follow zero or one. healthy lifestyle factors.
During baseline and follow-up consultations with participants, researchers measured various aspects of cognitive function, including immediate recall, short-delay recall (after three minutes), long-delay recall (after 30 minutes) and long-delay recognition .
The test involves reading a list of 15 words, then trying to repeat the words as many times as possible.
The researchers concluded that the study provides “strong evidence that adherence to a healthy lifestyle with a combination of positive behaviors, such as never smoking, not drinking, a healthy diet, regular physical exercise, and active cognitive activity and social contact, is associated with memory levels. which is slower.”
They found that living a healthy lifestyle benefits memory even in those who are genetically more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease because they have the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele.
“This study may provide important information to protect the elderly against memory decline,” the researchers said in the paper.
However, they noted that there were some limitations to the study, including the fact that lifestyle factors were self-reported and therefore prone to measurement error. He also said it was impossible to tell if lifestyle had begun to have an effect on memory before participants entered the study.
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