Friends With Benefits: Being Highly Social Cuts Dementia Risk by 70%

Dementia is the gradual deterioration of mental functioning, such as concentration, memory, and judgment, which affects a person’s ability to perform normal daily activities.

Dementia affects about 1 percent of people aged 60-64 years and as many as 30-50 percent of people older than 85 years. About 4-5 million people in the United States have some degree of dementia, and that number will increase over the next few decades with the aging of the population.

One way to reduce your risk of dementia is to be more social. A recent study concluded that the most social seniors had a 70 percent reduction in the rate of cognitive decline, compared with their least social peers.

Some seniors find that Bingo is a great way to increase their social network. But Bingo may be more than just a way to make new friends. Princeton University researchers now believe that a simple cognitive activity such as Bingo can be of great value to the daily management of Alzheimer's patients. Their results showed that cognitive stimulation enhanced performance on the Boston Naming Test and a Word List Recognition Task. Thus, a simple cognitive activity such as Bingo can be of great value to the daily management of Alzheimer's patients.

If you would like to learn a little more about Bingo, there are quite a few web sites that can help you. Or if you are looking for the live version go to longisland.com to find a Bingo game near you.