One type of brain training seems to be important in reducing Alzheimer’s disease risk, Elizabeth Tracey reports

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A novel study has shown that training the brain with cognitive speed training seems to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s disease expert and study author Marilyn Albert says that previous research simply compared what people who developed the disease did versus those who did not and came up with possible reasons.

Albert: We've known for a long time from observational studies that several different aspects of lifestyle might be beneficial: cognitive activity, physical activity, controlling hypertension. But in order to know how much instruction we should give people in daily lives we really need randomized controlled trials. Here we have a study where people were trained over time and then 20 years later there's a lower risk of dementia so it's really completely different from any other study I think that's ever been published.  :32

Albert predicts these results will spur new ways to protect the brain from developing Alzheimer’s disease rather than trying to treat it once it’s underway. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.