On Monday, scientists announced the results of a randomized controlled trial, indicating the existence of a treatment that significantly contributes to reducing the risk of dementia.
The trial, the results of which were published in the journal Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Translational Research and Clinical Research, showed that this treatment is not an expensive drug, but rather a simple and inexpensive exercise for the brain, which reduces the incidence of dementia by a quarter, as stated in the study.
Although there are many games and applications aimed at training the brain and combating cognitive decline, there is little research proving their effectiveness, high quality, and extended over a long period.
But the team of American researchers who conducted the study pointed out that the study only demonstrated the effectiveness of one type of training, and this does not necessarily mean that this applies to all brain training games.
“Active” experience
The ACTIV trial began in the late 1990s. More than 2,800 people, ages 65 and older, were randomly assigned to do three different types of brain training: speed, memory, and logical thinking ability.
Initially, participants underwent a one-hour training session twice a week for five weeks.
After a year, they underwent four reinforcement sessions, and the same in the third year, and the total training time did not exceed 24 hours.
Follow-ups after five and ten years, and more recently, twenty years later, showed that speed training was “remarkably beneficial,” according to Albert.
Two decades later, Medicare records showed that the risk of dementia was reduced by 25% in people who underwent speed training and booster sessions, while the other two types of training made no statistically significant difference.
Speed exercise
The speed exercise involves clicking on images of cars and traffic lights that appear in different places on the computer screen.
Dementia is the seventh leading cause of death globally and 57 million people suffer from it, according to the World Health Organization.
