Challenging medical dogma: Mental exercise vs drugs, supplements and physical exercise to prevent cognitive decline

Men­tal exer­cis­es may pre­vent men­tal decline in seniors (CBC News):  “A review released by the Cana­di­an Med­ical Asso­ci­a­tion Jour­nal on the pre­ven­tion of cog­ni­tive decline said that med­i­c­i­nal and non-med­i­c­i­nal prod­ucts, and phys­i­cal exer­cise did noth­ing to pre­vent the decline in healthy seniors, but men­tal exer­cis­es have been shown to be beneficial…The report was writ­ten to help aging Cana­di­ans make more informed deci­sions when faced with dete­ri­o­rat­ing men­tal fac­ul­ties and the pre­ven­ta­tive ther­a­pies avail­able to them…In some cas­es there was evi­dence of harm with cer­tain phar­ma­co­log­i­cal ther­a­pies such as estro­gen and anti-inflam­ma­to­ry drugs.”

Study: Pre­vent­ing cog­ni­tive decline in healthy old­er adults (Cana­di­an Med­ical Asso­ci­a­tion Jour­nal; requires subscription)

Relat­ed articles:

• Cog­ni­tive train­ing iden­ti­fied as pro­tec­tive fac­tor, with high­est evi­dence, in recent NIH Alzheimer’s/ cog­ni­tive decline pre­ven­tion report
• From Anti-Alzheimer’s “Mag­ic Bul­lets” to True Brain Health
• Art Kramer on Why We Need Walk­ing Book Clubs