Researchers announced Monday that a randomized controlled trial, considered the gold standard for medical research, finally identified something capable of significantly reducing people’s risk of developing dementia.
And instead of an expensive drug, it was a simple, cheap brain training exercise that cut dementia rates by a quarter, according to the study.
“For the first time, this is a landmark study that has given us insight into what we can do to reduce the risk of developing dementia,” said study co-author Marilyn Albert of Johns Hopkins University in the United States. AFP.
Although there are a large number of brain training games and apps that claim to combat cognitive decline, there has been little high-quality, long-term research demonstrating their effectiveness.
The American team of researchers cautioned that their study, which only found that a specific type of training made a difference, does not mean that all brain training games are effective.
His trial, called ACTIVE, began in the late 1990s.
More than 2,800 participants aged 65 and older were randomly assigned to one of three different types of brain training (speed, memory or reasoning) or were part of a control group.
First, participants performed a one-hour training session twice a week for five weeks. One and three years later, they did four reinforcement sessions. In total, there were less than 24 hours of training.
During follow-ups after five, 10 and most recently 20 years, speed training was always “disproportionately beneficial,” Albert said.
After two decades, Medicare records showed that people who did the speed training and booster sessions had a 25% lower risk of developing dementia.
The researchers were surprised to find that the other two types of training did not make a statistically significant difference.
The speed training exercise involves clicking on cars and traffic signs that appear in different areas of a computer screen.
“Extraordinarily important”
So why did speed training have such an impact? Albert said investigators could only guess.
“We assume that this training affected something about the connectivity in the brain,” Albert said.
One important difference was that it was tailored to the person’s abilities, making it easier or harder as needed.
When asked about the study’s limitations, Albert said “there aren’t many.” A quarter of the participants were minorities, suggesting the results should apply to everyone.
Discovering the exact mechanism by which speed training worked could help researchers develop a new, more effective exercise in the future, Albert said.
But the finding is already “extraordinarily important,” he emphasized, noting that reducing dementia among 25% of the US population could save $100 billion in patient care.
There have been numerous previous studies suggesting that people who have a healthier lifestyle have a lower risk of dementia. However, this research has been observational, meaning it cannot directly demonstrate cause and effect, unlike randomized controlled trials.
Dementia affects 57 million people and is the seventh cause of death worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
The speed training task is called “Double Decision” and is available through the BrainHQ brain training app.
The study was published in the journal Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Research.
