Contract Bridge and its Benefits to Society

Statistics published in Alzheimer’s New Zealand (www.alzheimers.org.nz ) and according to the Dementia Economic Impact Report 2008*:

40,746 New Zealanders currently have dementia.

And it is estimated that by:

2026:         74,821 people will have dementia  
2050:         146,699 people will have dementia

For every one person in New Zealand with dementia, it takes seven pair of hands to help care for them. That's nearly 300,000 people nationwide affected by dementia. There is no cure.

Keeping your brain active is one of the most important things you can do for lessening the risk of developing dementia. Not only is good brain health important for all aspects of your life, it's also good for preventing dementia. Not only are Sudoku, Bridge, Scrabble, crosswords, word puzzles and other kinds of "brain games" important for brain health, but learning new skills at any age helps to keep the grey matter active. Learning a new language, taking up a new hobby and keeping socially active are all ways to keep the brain healthy.

Bridge and Older People

It has been proven that undertaking some form of activity that tests mental agility on a daily basis helps to protect our older population from dementia and Alzheimer’s.

There is also a body of research which demonstrates that social interaction amongst the elderly can stave off cognitive decline.

Annals of Internal Medicine, American College of Physicians http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/abstract/131/3/165

Bridge provides both mental stimulation and social engagement.

Although we know that Bridge is not a cure for dementia we do have evidence from research that it can help keep the brain healthy:

“A Nov. 2000 study by a University of California, Berkeley researcher, Marian Cleeves Diamond, found that playing contract bridge leaves people with higher numbers of immune cells.”Contract bridge was ideal for what we were after," she said. "It is the closest activity to a challenging card-sorting task that also contains multiple factors that should stimulate the dorsolateral cortex. Bridge players plan ahead, they use working memory, they deal with sequencing, initiation and numerous other higher order functions with which the dorsolateral cortex is involved."
Diamond, M. C. 2003. Bridge and its effect on the immune system. University of California, Berkeley.

Bridge and its benefits to Society

“Seniors who regularly engaged in pastimes that stretched their minds… lowered their risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and other dementias by as much as 75 percent compared with those who didn't exercise their minds….Verghese's team also solved a chicken-and-egg problem… Do mental activities really prevent dementia, or does dementia cause people to lose interest in mental activities? By screening out anyone who might have had dementia at the outset from their analysis, the researchers showed that leisure activities influenced dementia in their study, and not the other way around.”

Washington Post, 2003 reporting on; Verghese, J. 2003. The effects of mind games on Alzheimer’s and dementia. Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx. USA

Source of original article courtesy of The English Bridge Union with dementia statistics from Alzheimer’s New Zealand.

For information on joining a local Bridge Club call Roy Freeman on 817-7545, or email waitematbc@xtra.co.nz  or visit www.ourwaitakere.co.nz/waitematabridgeclub )

Published 2nd Aug 2010

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