Crossword puzzles versus Alzeimers

[Rube E. Tewesday]

It seems to have become a truism that doing crossword puzzles helps ward off dementia, but what is the evidence, really? I've seen anecdotes in the media about "people who do crosswords never get Alzeimers", but I'm skeptical. Obviously an elderly person who's still doing crosswords is unlikely to be demented, but how do you check with a demented person whether they used to do them? Certainly famous writers have had Alzeimers, including mystery writers, and you'd think that would give the brain at least as much exercise as crosswords. So, what's the scoop?

[silenus]

Link

One study, but the evidence was rather strong. I'm hoping there are a lot of follow-up studies going on. But it seems that it's daily, concentrated cognitive activity that is the key.

[Laughing Lagomorph]

One problem I can see from that study is it seems they looked at people who were already doing crosswords (or whatever) and who turned out to have a lower risk of Alzheimer's.

What if symptoms develop earlier than people realize, and people at risk for Alzheimer's don't do crosswords (or chess, or whatever) because their symptoms make these activities less enjoyable for them? They need to do a study that would show taking up crosswords or other mental activity staves off dementia.

Warning: anecdote follows. My uncle was a full professor at an Ivy League University and certainly was actively engaged intellectually every day for years with his students, colleagues and family. Until he developed dementia in his early 70s and couldn't teach anymore, he went downhill rapidly after that. But intense daily mental activity didn't seem to help him.

[Exy]

One problem I can see from that study is it seems they looked at people who were already doing crosswords (or whatever) and who turned out to have a lower risk of Alzheimer's.

What if symptoms develop earlier than people realize, and people at risk for Alzheimer's don't do crosswords (or chess, or whatever) because their symptoms make these activities less enjoyable for them? They need to do a study that would show taking up crosswords or other mental activity staves off dementia.

This is my question too. In fact there is evidence that Alzheimer's Disease impacts mental acuity well before it becomes obvious; there's a famous study of nuns who were required to write 'autobiographies' upon joining the convent, typically at a very young age, and the sisters who went on to develop Alzheimer's -- decades later -- wrote sentences that were structurally simpler than those who maintained their faculties.

I can't find a cite right at the moment but someone might. At any rate I haven't read any of the studies that purport to demonstrate that 'mentally stimulating' activities help prevent dementia, but whenever I hear the claim I wonder how the authors attempt to statistically remove the effects of the very early cognitive decline that Alzheimer's patients seem to suffer.