Education May Help Prevent Dementia
We often joke that wives are better at remembering things than are husbands. Men are portrayed as forgetting anniversaries and birthdays, and sometimes their kids’ names and ages. The stereotypical women remember things from long ago, especially unwise words from the husband, as well as romantic events the husband has forgotten.
Recent scientific research indicates that this characterization may not be far from the truth. Against expectations, dementia rates seem to be declining as baby boomers creep into the dementia-prone age bracket. Despite the prevalence of brain-health risk factors, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, the rates have been decreasing over the past decade or so.
Do you remember the days when you played board games with your friends and family? Back then, a “screen” was something to keep out bugs, not a portal to digital paradise. As “primitive” as a game of chess or bingo or Monopoly may seem, those neighborhood bridge tournaments were honing your thinking and memory skills, according to a recent study by the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
During these unsettled and unsettling times, many of us are losing sleep over the ramifications of shutdowns, lockdowns, masks, social distancing, financial woes, empty supermarket shelves, disease, and whatever other worries we hear about or even manufacture ourselves.