“Hard medical evidence is beginning to accumulate supporting the contention (long intuited in medical circles) that Alzheimer's Disease is less common among people who engage in intense and diverse intellectual activity through most of their lives. In other words, the more you use your mind, the less you're likely to lose it. We're still arguing about which is cause and which is effect, but it's looking like keeping your brain active in some unexplained way wards off dementia. One study and one research paper came to light here today, and both are worth a look. (All you can see of the research paper is the abstract, but that sums things up, and trust me, reading scientific papers is hard work and rarely worth it for casual research.)
This is great good news, since mental activity is definitely something you can control, and if you work at it, you can reduce your likelihood of developing AD considerably. (Couch potatoes were two and a half time more likely to develop dementia than people who had engaged in intellectual hobbies all their lives.) Read. Write. Design. Express. Build things. Use it or lose it!” [Jeff Duntemann's Contrapositive Diary]