Take note, those of you not “doing” Latvian!
MONTREAL, Jan 12, 2007 (AFP) - Speaking one or more languages
can stall the onset of dementia, according to a new Canadian study.
“Our study found that speaking two languages throughout one’s
life appears to be associated with a delay in the onset of symptoms
of dementia by four years compared to those who speak only one
language,” Ellen Bialystok, lead researcher and professor at York
University in Toronto, said in a statement.
Her research team examined the medical records of 184 patients
with cognitive complaints. Ninety-one spoke one language and 93 were
bilingual, speaking a combination of 25 different languages,
including Polish, Yiddish, German, Romanian and Hungarian.
They found that monolingual patients showed evidence of
Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia at 71.4 years of age on
average, while the bilingual group manifested symptoms at 75.5
years.
This difference remained even after considering the possible
effects of cultural differences, immigration, formal education,
employment and gender on the results.
“There are no pharmacological interventions that are this
dramatic,” said Morris Freedman, study co-author and an expert on
the mechanisms underlying cognitive impairment due to diseases such
as Alzheimer’s.
{Posted for educational purposes only.}
