Therapist Diaries: One crossword a day keeps dementia away

The Bronx Aging Study published in 2014 by Pillai, J A, Hall, C B, Dickson, D W, Buschke H, Lipton R B and Verghese J, followed 488 healthy individuals living in the community and has found that by actively engaging in crossword puzzles at baseline can slow down dementia by 2.54 years.

The study also found that those who did partake in crossword puzzles frequently at baseline, suffered a faster memory decline once dementia set in.

The study believes that engaging in crossword puzzles improves cognitive reserve thus slowing down the onset of dementia. However, as pathological damage from dementia catches up, the cognitive reserve is no longer able to counterbalance for the damage thereby causing a faster decline post dementia in individuals who do crossword puzzles frequently.

The study also concluded that the effects of other mind stimulating activities such as reading or playing card games, on slowing memory decline, are not as significant as compared to actively engaging in crossword puzzles.

Crossword puzzles are so readily accessible these days that we can only stand to benefit from partaking in the mental activity regardless of our reasons.

In conclusion, we can takeaway that although dementia is a progressive disease, staying mentally active can improve our chances of leading a better quality of life for longer.