Social engagement and reducing dementia risk
Researchers generally find that greater social engagement is associated with reduced dementia risk. Typically, social engagement is defined as the frequency and quality of people's social interactions with friends, family, and others. One of the major theories in this area is that social engagement requires a significant amount of cognitive effort, which might help to maintain brain function. Why social engagement should be related to dementia risk is a really tricky question to answer. Socialising with other people demands a lot of your brain - language processing, memory, forward planning and focused attention. You also have to follow social conventions by drawing on emotional intelligence. Socialising requires quite a lot of mental work! Additionally, you get some reward feedback for social engagement. It can be a pleasurable experience and so you do it more and more in your life. It's important to reduce isolation for those who have low social networks and social activity, rather than increasing social engagement among people who are already socially active. Whether there is an inherent value to social activity and dementia risk, independent of either cognitive activity or the reward feedback, we don't really know. We cannot yet quantify what is the best amount of social activity to provide an overt benefit to brain health. Particularly in retirement, when life can change dramatically and social networks can become restricted, it is recommended people should try and start a new past time or hobby or join an interest group. Being cognitively, socially and physically active is ideal. If you can incorporate these three approaches to your lifestyle, then you are on track to tackle important risk factors for dementia.
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