Apparently those that speak at least two languages do much better when it comes to AD. This would be a strong indication that continuing to exercise the mind by reading, doing puzzles, and thinking have real benefits.
Does igpay atinlay count? Yes. It exercises the mind by this thinking. Then smart people who would be called that presumably because they exercise their mind a lot should statistically get AD both later and less often.
A rigorous and large statistical sampling intended to filter out any such profiles would be a benfit to understanding what behavior does and does not influence it. This is all coming as the baby boomer bulge comes into full geriatric swing which begins this year with the first graduation class becoming senior citizens.
(The war ended in 1945. A few months to get home. Nine months in the oven. The first baby boomers were born in 1946. That crop turns sixty five in 2011. The greatest demographic change in modern history has started.)
The article is very clear in making the point that the benefits are a delay in symptoms, not disease prevention.
This all goes back to why we got all heated up about Jean Carper naming her book "100 Simple Things You Can do to PREVENT Alzheimer's." She's using the term "prevention" where she should be saying "delay."
Apparently, the study group were all people with AD, at a certain stage of progression. The difference between the unilinguals and the bilinguals is that, when compared by age of SYMPTOM onset, the bilinguals stayed "normal" for longer. In other words, their more complex neural network bought them some time.
This is not unlike the study which demonstrated that people who are intellectually active tend to progress more rapidly, once symptoms start. Not because the brain exercise is damaging, but because they've built up collateral circuitry which keeps them functioning, whereas most people with a comparable amount of brain damage would start showing symptoms earlier. So, once the damage builds up to a higher level--where the extra circuitry can no longer keep the wolves at bay--the changes are rapid.
Anyway, I'll be starting German once I finish this 4th semester of Japanese! (Not to worry...I've got French, Spanish and English...keeping a good balance of Axis and Allies idioms.)
I have rather mixed feelings about this article. My husband, diagnosed with AD last year at the age of 60, is bilingual. His native language is German, having been born in Austria and living there until his family emigrated to the US when he was 15. My husband learned English in high school here and it has been his professional and daily functioning language for the last 45 years. However, he has continually spoken German to his family and our children almost daily. He tells me that he still thinks in German a lot (I know he dreams in German because he speaks it in his sleep!). When he took the neuropsych tests last year, he did very poorly on picture identification. He said that he knew them in German, not English. I didn't really think that would have been an issue in the testing. But, I guess to make my point, I really don't think being bilingual delays the onset -- I first started seeing signs of dementia in my husband when he was 58. So if being bilingual delayed the onset, would he have been even younger when we first noticed problems? Who knows -- I still think developing AD is a roll of the dice!!
Yes, probably so. Especially on an individual basis. I presume though, that a statistic analysis of a large sample will show that enough people buy a few extra functional years by having additional language hardware onboard...I mean, enough to make what they call a "statistical significance."
Well, yes. My husband who has no family history of AD, began failing in his mid 50s. So...we've already defied the statistical probabilities by getting AD in the first place, haven't we?
In that vein, it's worth keeping in mind that our particular population--that is, AD spouses who post here--are, in general, the exceptions to the statistical rules. We ARE the outliers on the bell curve, so we're going to be predisposed to be dubious of studies about methods by which onset might--statistically--be delayed.
Let's see my DH has AD and he is bilingual (research shows), walked at least 2 miles a day until recently (last week's headlines), ate a full Mediterranean diet, low fat fanatic (on-going research),enjoyed a daily cocktail hour (new theory re alcohol, last few days) and on and on! I truly understand the research, trying to find some common denominator to find the cause of this dreadful disease. The genetics proved that he was not predisposed to AD. Okay roll of dice, or lets try to explore more, am I the only one that sees an increase in incidence of Autism and Alzheimers? Better diagnosing and reporting...absolutely, but also what is happening in our environment to increase the odds of these diseases? Processed foods? Air? Whatever, I do believe that we still have had some good years because of his great health habits. Whatever, we still need to ask the tough questions. We need to find the answer for the next generations.
I was visiting someone in hospital recently and one of the other patients had dementia. English was their second language and had been for years and years. Patient's dementia was at the point that he was speaking mostly in his mother tongue. Very challenging for staff and visitors to understand. Patient was getting frustrated because no one could understand him. Nurse would be calmly asking him to "Speak in English." "Tell us in English". No go of course! (The person I was visiting said that patient was probably asking nurse to speak in his language lol!!). So then nurse would start asking if he wanted food? or a drink? or go to bathroom? Often it was the latter and one doesn't want delays in figuring that one out!
So even if research was to confirm that dementia might actually be delayed in people who are bilingual, I would think that being bilingual could be difficult when a person is in later stages of dementia and reverts to speaking more in mother tongue than in English. (Unless, of course, you can afford to hire a 24 hour translator to be with person who has dementia).
The number of people with dimentia will explode over the next 15 years because the baby boomers are reaching geriatric age. The first year of that bulge turns 65 this year as I mentioned above. That is why the absolute number is starting to pick up speed. People who are bilingual will also pick up speed in getting it. At the moment that demographic would fall into EOAD. As the next 10 years evolve the question will be asked, "Why are so many more seniors getting AD?"
The answer is because there is an unprecedented number of seniors as society currently labels them. The strain on infrastructure over that time is going to be painful. Companies that feed into this infrastructure such as those that make hip replacement parts should do well.
On statistics: while the science of it is as solid as mathematics the actual art is in the question. Why are children taller? It's likely the diet; but, I can lay out solid statistics that it's the better dental hygiene or the amount of pollution because they will both corrolate well. Garbage in garbage out.
As emily said, the fact that we are here already confirms that we have been struck by the disease and so our opinion of the probability of it happening to us is set. The massive strain on western societies to cope with the rapid and very serious explosion of requirements is not something I'm looking forward to; but, also can't avoid. With absolute confidence I predict dimentia moves from off the radar to front and center for the governments well within 15 years.
The good news is that generation X and those after will benefit from the infratructure put in place and the lessons learned from the strain. Both the quality and the quantity of help available then literally must be world's better than what we face today.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that western governments will be killing themselves supporting caregivers. Whatever you give them - it's much cheaper than the alternative when you're already under enormous strain. You can put that in the bank. It's unfortunate; but, we are likely to be the last generation that has to do so much on our own. The unfortunate part is that like so many things, the government has to learn the truth of this before it will fully act. The good news is that our sacrifices and those of the generations before us are very likely not to be in vain. Maybe the baby boomers will have been good for something after all. Specifically that they will be the cause of improving end of life experiences for future generations.
My DH spoke Spanish before he spoke English. My mom spoke German before she spoke English. She reverted to German. I hopeDH does not revert to Spanish.