Speaking Two Languages Deters Dementia by Nearly 5 Years, Scotland Study Shows

By Pat Rarus

¿como estás?
comment allez-vous?
wie geht es dir?
kamusta ka?

If you can speak just one other language besides English, your chances of delaying or perhaps never getting dementia are greatly enhanced. Those are the results of a recent study by the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. As a plus, it doesn’t even matter how fluent you are or how authentic your accent is.

Tracy Miller, a reporter for the New York Daily News, wrote about the Scottish study last November. From the article:

“Those who speak more than one language may enjoy built-in protection against the devastating effects of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study.
People who were bilingual or multilingual developed dementia an average of 4.5 years later than those who spoke only one language, researchers wrote in the journal Neurology.

Dementia refers to symptoms such as memory and attention loss, communication difficulty, and decreased visual perception that result from damage to brain cells. Alzheimer’s, the most common type of dementia, is the fifth leading cause of death for Americans over 65 and is thought to affect 5.2 million people.

This study is the largest to examine the effects of bilingualism on dementia and the first to demonstrate the effects not just for Alzheimer’s but other types of dementia, including vascular and frontotemporal, study author Dr. Thomas Bak of Scotland’s University of Edinburgh told the Daily News.”

The abstract of the study is available here.

Monica Garcia, 57, an Oceanside counselor, learned to speak Spanish in her early 20s out of necessity. Monica, whose maiden name is Voge, married her husband, Victor—a Mexican native—back in 1977. Although Victor learned English as a teenager, his brothers and sisters could only speak Spanish. When various relatives came to live with Monica and Victor—some for a few months; others for a couple of years−Monica needed to communicate with them in their native language. That’s how she learned Spanish.

“I took it in high school for three years,” she recalled, “but then I never used it. In school you learn a lot about Spanish grammar, tenses and other formal parts of the language. When the relatives lived with us, though, I learned phrases the natural way, like the way children learn a language—by osmosis. Of course,” she added, “Victor helped a lot as well.” In addition, Monica watched Spanish-language TV shows and movies.

Today, she is as fluent as a Mexican national and her memory skills are formidable —in both English and Spanish. Monica recently took a memory test that ranked her in the 88^th percentile of people in her age group. Even more impressive are her scholastic achievements. At age 53, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude from California State University San Marcos. “All that studying really involved a lot of memory work,” she said with a smile.

Delaying Retirement Might Prevent Alzheimer's and other Types of Dementia

By Pat Rarus

Financial planners often tout the importance of delaying retirement for financial gain. More vital than capital, however, is one’s mental and physical health. These priceless assets transcend a high net worth and the upscale lifestyle it supports.

USA Today cited research from France last year involving nearly half a million people− the largest study to date to analyze work and mental health.  Associated Press writers Marilynn Marchione and Lindsey Tanner wrote the article in July 2013.

From the article:

 Working tends to keep people physically active, socially connected and mentally challenged — all things known to help prevent mental decline.

"For each additional year of work, the risk of getting dementia is reduced by 3.2%," said Carole Dufouil, a scientist at INSERM, the French government's health research agency. She led the study and gave results at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Boston on Monday.

About 35 million people worldwide have dementia, and Alzheimer's is the most common type. In the U.S., about 5 million have Alzheimer's — 1 in 9 people aged 65 and over. What causes the mind-robbing disease isn't known and there is no cure or any treatments that slow its progression.

France has had some of the best Alzheimer's research in the world, partly because its former president, Nicolas Sarkozy, made it a priority. The country also has detailed health records on self-employed people who pay into a Medicare-like health system.

Researchers used these records on more than 429,000 workers, most of whom were shopkeepers or craftsmen such as bakers and woodworkers. They were 74 on average and had been retired for an average of 12 years.

Nearly 3% had developed dementia but the risk of this was lower for each year of age at retirement. Someone who retired at 65 had about a 15% lower risk of developing dementia compared to someone retiring at 60, after other factors that affect those odds were taken into account, Dufouil said.

To rule out the possibility that mental decline may have led people to retire earlier, researchers did analyses that eliminated people who developed dementia within 5 years of retirement, and within 10 years of it.

"The trend is exactly the same," suggesting that work was having an effect on cognition, not the other way around, Dufouil said.

France mandates retirement in various jobs — civil servants must retire by 65, she said. The new study suggests "people should work as long as they want" because it may have health benefits, she said.

You can read the article here

 

Peggy Sigler, 87, a longtime San Diego (Point Loma) resident, worked about 50 hours a week at a start-up company until age 70. After retiring from her paid position, Peggy volunteered for a variety of causes. Currently, she serves as president of the GA Retirees Organization.

Recently, Peggy− a lifelong expert at planning special events− volunteered to help with an event to honor San Diego teachers aboard the Maritime Museum of San Diego. http://www.sdmaritime.org/

“Working in either a paid or voluntary position keeps your mind active and engaged,” Peggy said, as she prepared for yet another meeting. “I love being busy and helping others.”