Being bilingual may slow the onset of dementia

Conclusion This consecutive series of people treated at a specialist dementia clinic in India found that people with dementia who are bilingual developed dementia later than people who were monolingual. It is highly plausible that activities engaged in over a lifetime that increase our cognitive ability – such as understanding two or more languages – may have a protective effect against cognitive decline. However, this study cannot prove that being bilingual is directly protective against developing dementia. This study only characterised differences within a group of people who all developed dementia, rather than looking at the whole population and seeing whether people who were bilingual were at reduced risk of developing dementia or developed dementia at an older age.  In addition, although the researchers have attempted to take into account other factors that could confound the relationship (such as educational level and occupation), it is possible that the influence of these and other factors has not been fully accounted for. It is possible that our risk of developing Alzheimer’s in particular, but also possibly other types of dementia, may be influenced by a combination of sociodemographic, health and lifestyle factors. Also, most of the information used in this study was collected from a family member said to be reliable, but it is uncertain whether this was the fact in all cases. Another important point to be aware of is that the population of people with d...
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