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I'm not sure about scientific evidence, but it's almost the case you don't need scientific evidence to know that keeping an active mind severely mitigates demen

I'm not sure about scientific evidence, but it's almost the case you don't need scientific evidence to know that keeping an active mind severely mitigates dementia. I think there's a lot of research regarding Alzheimer's, but this kind of research has huge timeframes which make hard to draw good conclusions from because of experimental design limitations.

cloverich 13y ago
> but it's almost the case you don't need scientific evidence to know that keeping an active mind severely mitigates dementia What makes you say that? There's plenty of medical phenomena that exist / don't exist despite being logically appealing.
- darkmighty 13y ago
  I meant there's limited evidence (see robbiep's post), but it seems as intuitive as 'exercise makes you physically stronger', although I've never read scientific evidence on that.
  - GravityWell 13y ago
    There is almost unlimited empirical evidence for exercise making one stronger, so I don't see how that is intuitive, a better term is common knowledge. Is it intuitive that eye exercises improve age related visual decline? (It doesn't, just an example)
  - mikeash 13y ago
    "Exercise makes you physically stronger" isn't intuitive at all. Are you stronger after you exercise? No! You're weaker than when you started. Rest makes you stronger, short-term. The increase in strength from exercise happens over a very long period of time and is tough to correlate with the exercise unless you study it fairly deeply. Furthermore, non-living objects almost universally decrease in strength from exercise. Without actually studying the question in some detail, I don't see how one could intuitively conclude that exercise increases physical strength.
    - samatman 13y ago
      Because we are human bodies, with all the intuition and wisdom that entails. It's less intuition and wisdom than many people think; gut feelings for example should be examined, though they're often telling you something important. I think it's reasonable to infer that, as we are human bodies, we would know how to make ourselves stronger. The idea that mental exercise keeps the brain sharp comes from a similar intuition; it is not surprising to see it confirmed through study.
      - mikeash 13y ago
        Why, exactly, would it be reasonable to infer that we would know how to make ourselves stronger, just because our bodies are where we live? Sure, you could say that mental exercise keeping the brain shark comes from intuition. And I could say that it's intuitive that mental exercise depletes the brain and makes things worse. I don't see how you decide which one is right without going out and studying it.
        samatman 13y ago
        One cannot, of course. It would be somewhat fatuous to be surprised that exercise makes one stronger, when it has been advocated for thousands of years as the (only) method for doing so. This is as true of mental exercise as it is of physical. It is not typical of our community norms to downvote reasonable arguments you disagree with. Just FYI.
        mikeash 13y ago
        I'm not talking about "surprised" or anything. I merely object to "intuitive", both in that I don't see how intuition supports this, and I don't think intuition is worth anything here anyway. Don't assume the person downvoting you is the person you're replying to.
        samatman 13y ago
        Indeed, that is impossible ^_^ It was an aside for whomever did so. Intuition is not a particularly valuable or precise word, is it.
  - damarquis 13y ago
    "you don't need scientific evidence to know" "but it seems as intuitive" Knowledge can come only from reasoning based upon observations. You cannot know anything by intuition. You can believe your intuitions and feel that they must be true, but you cannot know they are true.
pcrh 13y ago
In the field, what you are referring to is described as "cognitive reserve". People with higher educations levels or who have a more active lifestyle suffer less from the earlier stages of dementia, because they are better able to develop coping strategies. So, it is similar to exercise in the way that if you are fitter, then you can better weather adverse events. However, cognitive reserve doesn't delay the underlying progress of Alzheimer's disease.

cloverich 13y ago

> but it's almost the case you don't need scientific evidence to know that keeping an active mind severely mitigates dementia What makes you say that? There's plenty of medical phenomena that exist / don't exist despite being logically appealing.

darkmighty 13y ago
I meant there's limited evidence (see robbiep's post), but it seems as intuitive as 'exercise makes you physically stronger', although I've never read scientific evidence on that.
- GravityWell 13y ago
  There is almost unlimited empirical evidence for exercise making one stronger, so I don't see how that is intuitive, a better term is common knowledge. Is it intuitive that eye exercises improve age related visual decline? (It doesn't, just an example)
- mikeash 13y ago
  "Exercise makes you physically stronger" isn't intuitive at all. Are you stronger after you exercise? No! You're weaker than when you started. Rest makes you stronger, short-term. The increase in strength from exercise happens over a very long period of time and is tough to correlate with the exercise unless you study it fairly deeply. Furthermore, non-living objects almost universally decrease in strength from exercise. Without actually studying the question in some detail, I don't see how one could intuitively conclude that exercise increases physical strength.
  - samatman 13y ago
    Because we are human bodies, with all the intuition and wisdom that entails. It's less intuition and wisdom than many people think; gut feelings for example should be examined, though they're often telling you something important. I think it's reasonable to infer that, as we are human bodies, we would know how to make ourselves stronger. The idea that mental exercise keeps the brain sharp comes from a similar intuition; it is not surprising to see it confirmed through study.
    - mikeash 13y ago
      Why, exactly, would it be reasonable to infer that we would know how to make ourselves stronger, just because our bodies are where we live? Sure, you could say that mental exercise keeping the brain shark comes from intuition. And I could say that it's intuitive that mental exercise depletes the brain and makes things worse. I don't see how you decide which one is right without going out and studying it.
      - samatman 13y ago
        One cannot, of course. It would be somewhat fatuous to be surprised that exercise makes one stronger, when it has been advocated for thousands of years as the (only) method for doing so. This is as true of mental exercise as it is of physical. It is not typical of our community norms to downvote reasonable arguments you disagree with. Just FYI.
        mikeash 13y ago
        I'm not talking about "surprised" or anything. I merely object to "intuitive", both in that I don't see how intuition supports this, and I don't think intuition is worth anything here anyway. Don't assume the person downvoting you is the person you're replying to.
        samatman 13y ago
        Indeed, that is impossible ^_^ It was an aside for whomever did so. Intuition is not a particularly valuable or precise word, is it.
- damarquis 13y ago
  "you don't need scientific evidence to know" "but it seems as intuitive" Knowledge can come only from reasoning based upon observations. You cannot know anything by intuition. You can believe your intuitions and feel that they must be true, but you cannot know they are true.

pcrh 13y ago

In the field, what you are referring to is described as "cognitive reserve". People with higher educations levels or who have a more active lifestyle suffer less from the earlier stages of dementia, because they are better able to develop coping strategies. So, it is similar to exercise in the way that if you are fitter, then you can better weather adverse events. However, cognitive reserve doesn't delay the underlying progress of Alzheimer's disease.