Tool #2 in the Dementia Toolkit is "Maintain or Increase Social Activity." But is there a scientific basis for assigning importance to social activity? Absolutely, and the supporting evidence is getting stronger.
In Beating the Dementia Monster we said that I had met an Alzheimer's researcher, a neurologist with a practice of 22 years, who said that in his experience the most powerful lifestyle factor in brain health is social connection. When I said I'd heard that physical exercise is most important, he said that people who go to the gym with a friend do much better.
I had a friend named John with dementia. Our wives were friends, and I didn't meet him until he was already in serious decline. Eventually he moved into a memory care facility near our home, and I would go visit him pretty much daily. He was a very pleasant person and easy to talk to ... even when he didn't make much sense. He said he recognized me each day, but I'm not sure he did. He certainly didn't remember my name.
Over the time I visited John, I observed others in the same facility, few of whom had frequent visitors. My very subjective judgement was that I could observe some of them declining, while John did not seem to decline further.
Until covid. As soon as covid hit, the whole facility was locked down for a very long time. Residents ate in their rooms and had no other social activity. After a few months of this, John died.
I'm not a doctor, and I don't know much about how he was treated for his dementia. But I am sure that he would have lived a lot longer if his social activity hadn't been cut short.
Which brings me to an interesting study published in the journal Alzheimer's and Dementia, the journal of the Alzheimer's Association. It was entitled, "Late-life social activity and subsequent risk of dementia and mild cognitive impairment." The researchers found that maintaining social activity delays the onset of dementia by an average of five, precious years.
Here's another article on the subject.
The research was done at Rush University, where the MIND diet was developed. They studied 1,923 older adults over a period of seven years, measuring their social activity against changes in cognition. Social activities they measured included going out for meals, attending sporting events, playing bingo, taking day or overnight trips, visiting relatives and friends, attending religious services, and doing volunteer work. They controlled for age and physical health.
The researchers noted that 5-year delay in the onset of dementia is worth about $500,000 in health care costs.
One thing they didn't control for was differences in physical activity. They said it's possible, for example, that people who visit friends and family often may be more likely to get physical exercise.
So I go down the list of social activities they evaluated. We don't go to sporting events or play bingo, but we certainly go out for meals (maybe too much?), go on plenty of overnight trips to visit family in Seattle and on the East Coast, attend religious services, and do volunteer work. I'm an elder in our church, and I've been a volunteer at the food bank for eight years. And the thing I find most rewarding at the food bank is just working alongside and socializing with other men my age.
So how much of my success is due to the gym versus my social activity? Or, for that matter diet, fasting, managing stress, practicing Spanish, and sleep? It's all in the multi-domain approach. If you're serious, you'll do everything you can. And it all works.
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