|
| |
Main
Article page |
Beauty articles
|
Health page |
Computers|
Diseases |
Education |
Entertainment |
Family
Business |Fitness|
Fruits and Vegetables
|
Jobs |
General |
Personality|
Technology
|
Tourism |
Useful Tips
General Knowledge |
Biography Page|
Heroes & Incredible peoples
|
Inventions
Health Page|
Diseases and Remedies |
Articles|
List of diseases
People who speak more than one language and who develop dementia tend to do so
up to five years later than those who are monolingual, according to a study.
Scientists examined almost 650 dementia patients
and assessed when each one had been diagnosed with the condition.
They found people who spoke two or more
languages experienced a later onset of Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia
and frontotemporal dementia.
The bilingual advantage extended to illiterate
people.
The scientists said it confirmed the observed
effect was not caused by differences in formal education.
Brain training
The study was by Edinburgh University and
Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad in India.
It is the largest study so far to gauge the
impact of bilingualism on the onset of dementia, independent of a person's
education, gender, occupation and whether they live in a city or in the country,
all of which have been examined as potential factors influencing the onset of
dementia.
The team of researchers said further studies
were needed to determine the mechanism, which causes the delay in the onset of
dementia.
The researchers suggested bilingual switching
between different sounds, words, concepts, grammatical structures and social
norms constituted a form of natural brain training, which was likely to be more
effective than any artificial brain training programme.
However, studies of bilingualism are complicated
in that bilingual populations are often ethnically and culturally different from
monolingual societies.
In places like Hyderabad, bilingualism is part
of everyday life, knowledge of several languages is the norm and monolingualism
is an exception.
Thomas Bak, of Edinburgh University's school of
philosophy, psychology and language sciences said: "These findings suggest that
bilingualism might have a stronger influence on dementia than any currently
available drugs.
"This makes the study of the relationship
between bilingualism and cognition one of our highest priorities."
The study is published in Neurology, the medical
journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
( Courtesy:
BBC
)
Articles:
| |
|
