The best brain supplement to delay memory and thinking decline: A mentally stimulating job

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Chal­leng­ing Work Tasks May Have an Upside for the Brain (new study):

“Pro­fes­sion­als whose jobs require more speak­ing, devel­op­ing strate­gies, con­flict res­o­lu­tion and man­age­r­i­al tasks may expe­ri­ence bet­ter pro­tec­tion against mem­o­ry and think­ing decline in old age than their co-work­ers, accord­ing to a new study pub­lished in the April 29, 2015, online issue of Neu­rol­o­gy, the med­ical jour­nal of the Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Neurology.

“Our study is impor­tant because it sug­gests that the type of work you do through­out your career may have even more sig­nif­i­cance on your brain health than your edu­ca­tion does,” said study author Fran­cis­ca S. Then, PhD, with the Uni­ver­si­ty of Leipzig in Germany…

The study found that peo­ple whose careers includ­ed the high­est lev­el of all three types of tasks scored high­est on the think­ing and mem­o­ry tests…Over eight years, their rate of decline was half the rate of par­tic­i­pants with a low lev­el of men­tal­ly demand­ing work tasks. Among the three types of work tasks, high lev­els of exec­u­tive and ver­bal tasks were dis­tinc­tive­ly asso­ci­at­ed with slow­er rates of mem­o­ry and think­ing decline.”

Study: Click Here to access study Dif­fer­en­tial effects of enriched envi­ron­ment at work on cog­ni­tive decline in old age (Neu­rol­o­gy)

• Objec­tives: The aim of the present study was to inves­ti­gate how dif­fer­ent men­tal­ly demand­ing work con­di­tions dur­ing the pro­fes­sion­al life—i.e., enriched envi­ron­ments at work—might influ­ence the rate of cog­ni­tive decline in old age.
• Con­clu­sions: The results sug­gest that a pro­fes­sion­al life enriched with work tasks stim­u­lat­ing ver­bal intel­li­gence and exec­u­tive func­tions may help to sus­tain a good cog­ni­tive func­tion­ing in old age (75+ years). The find­ings thus empha­size that today’s chal­leng­ing work con­di­tions may also pro­mote pos­i­tive health effects.

Learn more:

• To har­ness neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, start with enthusiasm
• The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness: How to Opti­mize Brain Health and Per­for­mance at Any Age
• Want to train your brain? Work as a physi­cian, air traf­fic con­troller, or finan­cial analyst