Dementia: Can reading and 'mental exercises' help lower risk?
“Use it or lose it” is a common adage increasingly used for matters related to brain health. But to what degree does using cognitive faculties prevent them from deteriorating? Medical News Today looked at some of the latest research and spoke with experts in the field to find out. Share on Pinterest Can reading and similar activities help stave off dementia? Image credit: Simone Wave/Stocksy? Millions of people around the world live with dementia, a chronic neurodegenerative condition that affects memory and thinking abilities. The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease. While some treatments do exist to help manage the symptoms of dementia, there is currently no cure for the condition. While research is underway to understand more about dementia pathology and to develop treatments, significant amounts of research are also underway to investigate how lifestyle interventions may affect dementia risk and cognition. Some of this research is investigating how cognitively-stim...