Can doing daily crossword puzzles reduce risk?

0

The theory put forward in many studies is whether solving crosswords and sudoku puzzles daily reduces the risk of developing symptoms. So what's the current evidence on dementia and crossword puzzles?

Experts from the University of Exeter School of Medicine and King's College London analyzed data from more than 17,000 healthy people aged 50 and over, presented in an online study.

“Daily crossword puzzles are associated with a sharper mind in later life.”

Keith Wesnes, professor of cognitive neurobiology at the University of Exeter Medical School, said:

“We found a direct the relationship between the frequency of using word puzzles and the speed and accuracy of nine cognitive tasks assessing a number of aspects of function, including attention, reasoning, and memory.”

In those who reported that they were solving puzzles, performance consistently improved, and in general it gradually improved as the frequency of puzzle use increased. For example, when testing grammatical thinking speed and short-term memory accuracy, doing word puzzles was associated with an age reduction of about 10 years.

Based on their results, the researchers estimated that people who said they participated in word guessing, had brain function 10 years younger than their age on tests of grammatical thinking speed and short-term memory accuracy.

However, critics pointed out that because it was an observational study, it did not determine causality -consequential relations.