Dementia Treatment: An Activity That Will Reduce Progression Of The Disease

Dementia is a disease that literally debilitates an individual. When the disease worsens, the patient may find himself experiencing a lot of undue symptoms. Those who care for the patient may also feel overwhelmed, considering the high degree of care that dementia patients require.

Health experts recommend doing activities that could abate the progression of the disease. One of these activities may be somehow surprising for you.

Music is the Key

Have you noticed how certain individuals could still play the guitar or the piano even in their old age? The answer is simple. By playing musical instruments, they are helping their brain in delaying the onset of dementia, the most common of which is Alzheimer’s disease. This means that instead of their brains deteriorating, they are actually making their brain cells work, creating connections through music.

In fact, this was the finding of a study that was published in the International Journal of Alzheimer’s Research UK. They found out that by playing an instrument, you are able to protect your brain from eventual malfunctioning, thereby delaying the risk of suffering from the condition.

One online tool Cognitive Vitality, which neuroscientists themselves created, showed that musical training increases the brain’s resiliency. It stated that playing a musical instrument would require the brain to do active engagement of a broad range of cognitive processes. These would include both sensory and motor systems.

More Studies

Exploring the link between playing musical instruments and the delay in cognitive decline, the University of Granada in Spain conducted a study that looked at the number of adults aged 60 to 85. Some of the participants had engaged in playing musical instruments throughout their lifetime, while some of them received training a bit later in life.

The study revealed that musical training during childhood showed protective effects in the brain’s cognitive functions. Musical training conducted later in life showed enhancements in cognitive functions. The only difference was that those who trained at a later part in life also lost cognitive functioning when they stopped their training.

Health experts also revealed that there is really no available cure for dementia. What you can do is to ensure that you remain healthy and adhere to the adage that what is good for the heart is also good for the brain.