Just two hours a day spent keeping the mind and body busy is as effective at warding off dementia as drug treatment, research reveals.
Simple activities such as gardening, doing crosswords or sudoku, making snacks and singing helps keep the brain healthy, and even slow the course of dementia in sufferers already diagnosed with the condition.
It confirms longstanding theories that keeping the brain active helps keep it healthy.
Researchers in Bavaria trialled a two-hour therapy session, called MAKS, in nursing homes for six days a week for a year.
Sessions began with a 10-minute “spiritual” introduction, in which the 98 participants discussed topics such as “happiness”， or sang a song or hymn.
They included gentle exercise, such as bowling or croquet, half an hour of solving puzzles in groups and 40 minutes of everyday activities such as preparing a snack, simple gardening work or doing woodwork, as well as uplifting activities such as singing.
The impact was “at least as good as” treatment with cholinesterase inhibitors, typically prescribed to treat dementia, study author Professor Elmar Graessel, from the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen, said.