Cognitive decline may begin as early as 45
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By Stephen Lau and editing by Stacey Sexton
Friday Jan 6, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- A team of researchers from France and the U.K. said that brain’s capacity for memory, reasoning and comprehension skills could start to decline as early as 45. This was surprising, as most people believed that cognitive decline did not begin before the age of 60.
The study, led by Archana Singh-Manoux, was based on a Whitehall II prospective cohort study and published on bmj.com today.
Since medical interventions are more likely to work when individuals first start to experience mental impairment, scientists say recognizing the onset of cognitive decline is important.
They conducted their research for over ten years on 2,192 women and 5,198 men in 1997. All of the participants were aged between 45 and 70 and worked as public servants.
Cognitive functions like memory, aural and comprehension skills were tested three times over the study period, and educational background was taken into account.
The results show that categories such as memory, reasoning, phonemic and semantic fluency declined. The results were more pronounced in older people, who declined faster; there was a 3.6 per cent decline in mental reasoning in men and women aged 45-49. In those aged 65-70, there was a 9.6 percent decline in men and a 7.4 percent decline in women.
According to the authors, “what is good for our hearts is also good for our heads.” They considered that the individuals at a lower risk for heart disease were also at a lower risk for dementia. Early cognitive decline may motivate us to promote healthy lifestyles, especially as life expectancy continues to rise.
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