Mastering a second language pumps up the brain in ways that seem to delay getting Alzheimer’s disease, experts suggested.
Bilingual patients did not contract Alzheimer’s until five years later than their monolingual fellows. This scientific phenomenon was discussed by Ellen Bialystok, a psychology professor at York University in Toronto in the annual AAAS conference in Washington D.C. this week.
Bialystok studied 450 Alzheimer’s patients, all of whom showed the same degree of impairment at the time of diagnosis. Half of the patients were bilingual and the rest monolingual.
The bilingual Alzheimer’s patients were diagnosed between four and five years later than the patients who spoke only one language. Bialystok told the attendees at the annual meeting this week. Her work supports an earlier study from other colleagues that also found a protective effect.
When an individual knows two languages, they are essentially turned on all the time. The brain learns to inhibit the one that’s not needed, keeping the brain at a level of constant activity.
Age memory loss comes as a result of disuse, experts said. Alzheimer research indicates the condition can be prevented through memory improvement exercises. An effective mental exercise program will keep the brain in shape well into the senior years.
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