We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about the two questions that experts say can confirm a suspected Alzheimer’s case.
We’ve also shared the foods, exercises, and types of work that may help to ward dementia off.
Which is all well and good ― but what about more fun ways to keep the condition at bay?
Well, in his book How To Prevent Dementia, neurologist Dr. Richard Restak shared that hobbies and “obsessive” interests can be really, really good for your brain health ― and that reading in particular can build up something called “cognitive reserve.”
What’s my “cognitive reserve,” and why does it matter?
Dr. Restak compares people with a high “cognitive reserve” and those without to two people who have lost their homes in a hurricane.
One is a millionaire who barely notices the change, and the other is “wiped out” by the loss as all his assets are tied up in his house.
“As with wealth, cognitive reserves are built up over time,” the neurologist says.
“Cognitive reserve theory refers to the representation stored within the brain of the knowledge, experience, and life events that accumulate during the course of a person’s lifetime,” he adds.
The bigger your “cognitive reserve” is, the more ballast you may have against dementia, the theory suggests ― just as a high muscle mass may help to give you more defences against the side effects of chemotherapy.
“A lifetime investment in building up cognitive reserve leads to healthy cognition and thinking later in life,” Dr. Restak wrote.
So, why reading in particular?
Thanks to the brain’s plasticity, “It is never too late to build your cognitive reserve” by learning something new, or more deeply, or experiencing different things, Dr. Restak says.
No matter what age you are, he says that the best way to build a decent cognitive reserve is to “Pick something that really interests you, grips you in a visceral sort of way, and then obsess (in a good way) about it.”
But that aside, “Reading for pleasure is perhaps the single most effective activity you can engage in for increasing cognitive reserve,” he says.
This is because reading “exerts its most powerful effect on memory,” both episodic and working.
He adds, “Fiction is more brain-challenging than non-fiction because it demands your full awareness of the narrative you are currently reading, while at the same time requiring you to hold in mind the situations and characters described earlier in the book.”
The author referenced a study which found that being immersed in a book was the “magic juice” which improved participants’ cognitive ability over those who did word puzzles.
So before you dismiss your romance novel habit as trashy, remember ― you’re simply strengthening your cognitive reserve.