CNN
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If your parents or grandparents are asking you how to post on Instagram or how to send a birthday message to a Facebook friend, a new study suggests you might want to help them, not just to be nice, but because putting them online can help their health. cerebral. , also.
TO study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society suggested that older people who used the Internet regularly were less likely to develop dementia.
The researchers saw this association after about eight years of follow-up of 18,154 adults ages 50 to 65 who did not have dementia when the study period began.
The adults were part of the Health and Retirement Studya multidisciplinary collection of data from a representative sample of people in the US collected by the National Institute on Aging and the Social Security Administration.
Each of the participants was asked a simple question: “Do you regularly use the World Wide Web or the Internet to send and receive email or for any other purpose, such as making purchases, searching for information, or making travel reservations? ?”
People who used the Internet at the start of the study had about half the risk of dementia as people who were not regular users.
The researchers also looked at how often these adults were online, from nothing to more than eight hours a day. Those who used the Internet for about two hours or less a day had the lowest risk of dementia compared with non-Internet users, who had a “markedly higher estimated risk.”
The researchers noted that people who were online six to eight hours a day had a higher risk of dementia, but that finding was not statistically significant, they said, and more research is needed.
Scientists still don’t know what causes dementia, so the new research can’t identify the exact connection between Internet use and brain health. study co-author Dr. Virginia W. Chang have some ideas.
“Online participation can help build and maintain cognitive reserve, which in turn can offset brain aging and reduce the risk of dementia,” said Chang, an associate professor of global public health in the School of Global Public Health at New York University.
The study also didn’t look at what people were exploring online. Although the Internet is full of cat videos and Conspiracy theories, can also be intellectually stimulating, and some studies have shown that intellectual stimulation can help prevent dementia. TO study 2020 found an association between cognitively stimulating jobs and a lower risk of dementia, for example.
As people age, it’s natural for the brain’s processing speed to slow down a bit, and it can become more difficult to remember what’s in all those open browser tabs on your computer. But in a healthy brain, memory and routine knowledge remain fairly stable. people with dementia You have problems with routine brain functions, such as making new memories, solving problems, and completing normal tasks.
About 6.2 million people People 65 and older have Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number is expected to grow exponentially as baby boomers age.
“Overall, this is important research. It identifies another potentially modifiable factor that could influence dementia risk,” said Dr. Claire Sexton, senior director of scientific programs and outreach for the Alzheimer’s Association, who was not involved in the new study. “But we wouldn’t want to read too much about this study in isolation. It does not establish cause and effect.
Beyond medications, experts have been looking for ways to help people keep dementia at bay.
The Alzheimer’s Association is working on the US Pointer Study, a two-year clinical trial to identify exactly which lifestyle interventions can reduce a person’s risk of dementia.
Risk factors like family history and age can’t be changed, but scientists believe they exist some healthy behaviors that may reduce the risk of this type of cognitive decline.
Lifestyle factors like exercise, getting enough sleep, maintaining a healthy weight, managing your blood pressure, managing your blood sugar, quitting smoking, and staying engaged with others can help. Browsing the Internet is not one of the official activities listed by the CDC, but the new study adds to the growing body of evidence that suggests more research could better establish this connection.
The new research is not first find that the use of the Internet can aid reduce cognitive decline. One study 2020 found only minor cognitive decline in male Internet users. Others I have not seen a gender difference.
In the latest study, the difference in risk between regular and non-regular Internet users did not vary by gender, education level, race, or ethnicity.
Some studies have also shown a benefit for training older adults in computers and have suggested that the Internet can positively connect them with others and help them learn information or skills.
Investigation it also suggests that most older adults use the Internet more frequently for basic tasks such as email, news, or online banking. But a growing number are learning new social platforms like Be real or dancing and singing on TikTok. and learning new habilities may be protective against dementia, studies suggest.
The use of social networking sites by older adults can also increase your connections other people and reduce isolation. Some studies have shown that older people who felt lonely were three times more likely to develop dementia than those who reported feeling socially connected to others.
“We need more evidence, not just from observational studies like this, but also from intervention studies,” Sexton said. That way, doctors could one day treat people with dementia like they do heart disease: suggesting lifestyle changes in addition to medication.
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