In a new study from North Carolina State University, researchers found that preserving physical and mental health helps older people stave off declines in cognitive function.
They found that declines in physical and mental health were linked to stronger cognitive impairment.
There’s a lot of research showing that cognitive engagement can help older adults maintain cognitive health. However, the vast majority of that work has been done on healthy adults.
In the study, the team tested 28 older people. All of them were over 60 and had cognitive impairment. Participants came to a testing site two times, six months apart.
On each visit, researchers collected data on the physical and mental health of the participants and performed a battery of tests designed to assess cognitive ability.
Participants were also connected to a device that tracked blood pressure continuously and then asked to engage in a series of increasingly difficult cognitive tasks.
This allowed researchers to track how cognitive engagement changed as the tasks become progressively harder.
The researchers found that if a participant’s cognitive ability, physical health or mental health declined over the course of the six-month study period, that participant became less cognitively engaged as the tasks became harder.
The findings highlight the fact that well-being is holistic; physical health, mental health and cognitive function can influence each other.
In practical terms, it suggests that it may be particularly important for people to focus on mental and physical well-being during the early stages of cognitive decline.
Or, at the very least, don’t become so focused on addressing cognitive challenges that you ignore physical health, or create anxiety or emotional distress for yourself that leads to mental health problems.
If you care about cognitive decline, please read studies about walking patterns may help identify specific types of dementia and findings of common high blood pressure drugs may help lower your dementia risk.
For more information about dementia and cognitive health, please see recent studies about this common nutrient may hold the key to beating Alzheimer’s disease and results showing that how the eyes could be windows to the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
The study is published in Entropy. One author of the study is Shevaun Neupert.
Copyright © 2021 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
