Playing crosswords daily may keep your brain younger

Tuesday 18th July 2017 19:36 EDT
 

Love to play word puzzles such as crosswords? It may improve brain function and keep your brain ten years younger, a study has found.

The results indicated that the more regularly people engaged with word puzzles, the better they performed on cognitive tasks assessing attention, reasoning and memory — decline of which may lead to the development of dementia. Further, such people also have brain function equivalent to ten years younger than their age on tests of grammatical reasoning speed and short-term memory accuracy.

“Performance was consistently better in those who reported engaging in puzzles and generally improved incrementally with the frequency of puzzle use,” Wesnes added.

For the study, presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) 2017 held in London, the team analysed data from more than 17,000 healthy people aged 50 and over, submitted in an online trial.

Along with keeping the mind active, exercising, avoiding smoking and eating a healthy balanced diet may also help reduce the risk of developing dementia, the researchers suggested.


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