From the June 19, 2003 New England Journal of Medicine:

Use It or Lose It — Do Effortful Mental Activities Protect against
Dementia?
Joseph T. Coyle, M.D.

CHESS NOTES
Author(s): Harold Dondis and Patrick Wolff, Globe Correspondents
Date: August 4, 2003

When Arnold Denker, an octogenarian and a former US champion, wrote a
letter to Chess Life asserting that he had never known a grandmaster
who had developed Alzheimer's disease, it touched off a lot of
discussion.

Denker had forgotten that, by his own narration, his friend Albert
"Bring 'em Back Alive" Pincus had died with Alzheimer's. Nevertheless,
there was a general feeling that it was an exception. Dan Mayers,
another active tournament player in his 80s, wrote a letter to Chess
Life to declare that Denker was correct and that scientific
experiments were necessary to prove it.

We kidded Denker that if he were right, he should receive a Nobel
Prize in medicine. It seemed hard to believe that concentration on
chess games, albeit four to six hours at a time, could in some way
form a physical barrier against amyloid plaques, which trigger
Alzheimer's.

But now the New England Journal of Medicine has published an article
that, in effect, says Denker and Mayer could be right. The Journal
published a study by Joe Verghese and a team at Albert Einstein
College of Medicine in New York in which they followed 469 people over
age 75 beginning in 1980, screening out anyone who had signs of
dementia.

The researchers measured how often the subjects participated in
leisure activities such as reading, walking, dancing, and playing
board games. Then they checked the number who developed signs of
dementia or Alzheimer's, diseases increasingly thought to be similar.

Those who played games, particularly chess and bridge, and those who
played a musical instrument showed, respectively, a 75 percent and 64
percent lower risk of Alzheimer's or dementia.

Crossword puzzle enthusiasts showed a 38 percent lower risk while
fitness buffs, except for dancers, showed no lower risk.

In a commentary in the Journal, Joseph Coyle, a Harvard professor of
psychiatry and neuroscience, took the position that thoughts and
experiences can rewire the brain, creating new synapses and neurons.
If so, this experiment opens new avenues of research on the human
mind.

The study, of course, could be flawed, but the unusually positive
results for bridge and chess players is certainly significant and
startling. When taken with other studies showing that playing chess in
schools increases mental performance, the report makes one sit up and
take notice.

I remember something like this but I wouldn't know since I'm not a
doctor but I do know that chess has a lot of benefits when it comes to
exercising the mind. The same goes for GO too. A guy I know when he
served in the Navy he was in a submarine for a long time. He said
that the sailors who played Chess or GO did a whole lot better
mentally than those who didn't play.

EZoto

Maybe, but it can lead to a lot of other problems.

"Ralph" wrote in message
om...
From the June 19, 2003 New England Journal of Medicine:
snip

Well I suppose it'd be nice to think so, but I used to work in a home for
people with Alzheimer's - you've probably seem something like it on The
Simpsons - and one of the inmates, oops, sorry, service users had apparently
been Churchill's secretary in a past life. If you know about Alzheimer's
then you'll know what sort of state she was in, if you don't then lucky you.

This kind of question seems to me to stem from a desire for the world to be
fair. But it isn't. As the saying goes:
'Bad things happen to good people all the time and for no reason.'
Has that cheered you up?

:-)

dd

"Ralph" wrote in message
om...
From the June 19, 2003 New England Journal of Medicine:

Use It or Lose It - Do Effortful Mental Activities Protect against
Dementia?
Joseph T. Coyle, M.D.


Of course, Alzheimers-resistant brains may be more likely
to pursue intellectual activities (like chess, bridge), thus
accounting for the findings of the study. In other words,
chess doesn't prevent anything by itself. It may be that brains
that are less likely than other brains to develop Alzheimer's
"find" chess along the way.

I agree with the findings.
But some think the love of chess
is some form of dementia itself.

Jim

"Ralph" wrote in message
om...
From the June 19, 2003 New England Journal of Medicine:

Use It or Lose It - Do Effortful Mental Activities Protect against
Dementia?
Joseph T. Coyle, M.D.

CHESS NOTES
Author(s): Harold Dondis and Patrick Wolff, Globe Correspondents
Date: August 4, 2003

When Arnold Denker, an octogenarian and a former US champion, wrote a
letter to Chess Life asserting that he had never known a grandmaster
who had developed Alzheimer's disease, it touched off a lot of
discussion.

Denker had forgotten that, by his own narration, his friend Albert
"Bring 'em Back Alive" Pincus had died with Alzheimer's. Nevertheless,
there was a general feeling that it was an exception. Dan Mayers,
another active tournament player in his 80s, wrote a letter to Chess
Life to declare that Denker was correct and that scientific
experiments were necessary to prove it.

We kidded Denker that if he were right, he should receive a Nobel
Prize in medicine. It seemed hard to believe that concentration on
chess games, albeit four to six hours at a time, could in some way
form a physical barrier against amyloid plaques, which trigger
Alzheimer's.

But now the New England Journal of Medicine has published an article
that, in effect, says Denker and Mayer could be right. The Journal
published a study by Joe Verghese and a team at Albert Einstein
College of Medicine in New York in which they followed 469 people over
age 75 beginning in 1980, screening out anyone who had signs of
dementia.

The researchers measured how often the subjects participated in
leisure activities such as reading, walking, dancing, and playing
board games. Then they checked the number who developed signs of
dementia or Alzheimer's, diseases increasingly thought to be similar.

Those who played games, particularly chess and bridge, and those who
played a musical instrument showed, respectively, a 75 percent and 64
percent lower risk of Alzheimer's or dementia.

Crossword puzzle enthusiasts showed a 38 percent lower risk while
fitness buffs, except for dancers, showed no lower risk.

In a commentary in the Journal, Joseph Coyle, a Harvard professor of
psychiatry and neuroscience, took the position that thoughts and
experiences can rewire the brain, creating new synapses and neurons.
If so, this experiment opens new avenues of research on the human
mind.

The study, of course, could be flawed, but the unusually positive
results for bridge and chess players is certainly significant and
startling. When taken with other studies showing that playing chess in
schools increases mental performance, the report makes one sit up and
take notice.

"Ralph" wrote in message
om...
From the June 19, 2003 New England Journal of Medicine:

Use It or Lose It - Do Effortful Mental Activities Protect against
Dementia?
Joseph T. Coyle, M.D.

CHESS NOTES
Author(s): Harold Dondis and Patrick Wolff, Globe Correspondents
Date: August 4, 2003

When Arnold Denker, an octogenarian and a former US champion, wrote a
letter to Chess Life asserting that he had never known a grandmaster
who had developed Alzheimer's disease, it touched off a lot of
discussion.

Denker had forgotten that, by his own narration, his friend Albert
"Bring 'em Back Alive" Pincus had died with Alzheimer's.

Part of the unintended joke was that when I asked him, in one of these
newsgroups, hadn't he himself written an article, later incorporated into
his book, saying that Pinkus had died with Alzheimer's, he answered, "I
don't remember." Then someone else posted the page reference from Denker's
own book. Afterwards, Denker continued to proclaim that he'd never known
ANY serious chess player to develop Alzheimer's, and had to again be
reminded about Pinkus in a letter to Chess Life.

The study, at least as summarized in your message, could alternatively be
interpreted to mean that those with the types of brains that are
Alzheimer's-resistant to start with are naturally attracted to complex
games. I tend to accept the "protective effect" interpretation, however, as
it is known from animal studies that the brains of those given an "enriched
environment" are more resistant to aging than those not so treated.