- NEW YORK (Reuters Health)
- Participating in intellectually challenging leisure-time activities such
as reading or taking evening courses appears to improve the middle-aged
mind, new research suggests.
-
- UK investigators also found that middle-aged people who
took part in more social activities tended to have sharper minds than people
who engaged in more solitary pursuits, which included gardening and other
household tasks.
-
- These findings support the "use it or lose it"
theory, Dr. Archana Singh-Manoux told Reuters Health, which proposes that
our intellectual ability is influenced by what we do and our environment.
-
- "Participation in complex leisure activities keeps
the brain active and engaged," she said.
-
- Singh-Manoux and her colleagues asked 5352 people between
the ages of 35 and 55 about what they do for fun, then tested their mental
function.
-
- Participants completed tests assessing their short-term
memory, mathematical reasoning and vocabulary. As part of one test, they
were asked to list as many words that begin with "s" or as many
animals as they could in one minute.
-
- People who spent more time on leisure activities had
higher mental function than others, the researchers report in the Journal
of Epidemiology and Community Health.
-
- And people who more often engaged in activities that
challenged the mind and brought them in contact with other people tended
to have sharper minds than people who spent their free time on other pursuits.
Activities linked to higher mental function included cultural visits, social
and indoor games like cards or chess, reading, listening to music, and
participating in voluntary organizations.
-
- Singh-Manoux, based at the University College London,
conceded that it could be argued that people with sharper minds are more
likely to engage in complex, intellectual activities. To control for that
possibility, she said that she and her colleagues used statistics to remove
the influence of education and profession type from their results, two
factors strongly related to intellectual ability.
-
- A number of studies have shown that hobbies and socializing
help keep the mind sharp in old age, Singh-Manoux noted. The current study
addresses a growing body of evidence suggesting that what we do early in
life can also influence the state of our minds in old age, she noted.
-
- "Not all individuals decline at the same rate in
old age, so some factors during the 'lifecourse,' both in early adulthood
and middle age, must offer protection," Singh-Manoux said.
-
- SOURCE: Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health,
November, 2003.
-
- Copyright © 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited
without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable
for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance
thereon.
|
