written by Sue Susskind

The key to a healthy mind in old age may lie in an active social life, a new study by Dr. Valerie C.Crooks suggests. She feels if you are socially engaged, you are at a lower risk of dementia . During her study, she followed more than 2200 women, ages 78 and older for 4 years, and it showed that those with large social networks reduced their risk of getting dementia by 26%.

Previous studies about the association between social engagement with family and friends and cognitive function in old age have yielded mixed results, she noted. For example, “there were studies that said being married is helpful, and studies that said being married is not so helpful,” she said. However, In recent studies, social contact has been generally found to be protective of cognitive functioning.

For Dr. Crooks new study, published in the July issue of the American Journal of Public Health, Crooks and her colleagues conducted telephone interviews with the women, all of who were members of the Kaiser Permanente HMO. The women were free of dementia when the study started in 2001. The team tested each woman’s cognitive status by phone and reviewed her medical records to help assess it as well. They also asked about social interactions with a spouse and/or family and friends, including how many people they interacted with and how often.

Women were also asked how many people they felt they could rely on if they needed help, and whether they had a person or persons they could talk to about personal issues. At the end of the follow-up, 268 of the women had been diagnosed with dementia . Those with larger social networks also showed reduced risk for dementia , whose most common form is Alzheimer’s disease.

In this study, it was found that marriage didn’t make a difference in terms of dementia risk,” she said. It was the social network that was protective, regardless of whether the woman was married or not. Those with daily contact or more had lower risk of dementia . The contact didn’t have to be face-to-face; email and telephone interaction counted.

It’s impossible to say how many friends and family makes up a big enough social circle to be protective. “Two or fewer is probably not a sufficient amount. You could have three really close friends (or family) and be fine,” Crooks speculated. There is no way to state what the “magic number” is.

Dr. Crooks states that her team found only an association between social networks and reduced risk of dementia which doesn’t point to a cause-and-effect relationship, necessarily. There could be a person with one person in their social network who is doing perfectly fine.

While more study is needed to zero in on exactly which aspects of social support are linked with a decrease in dementia risk, the more interaction, the more you challenge your brain.”

Tips for keeping your mind healthy:

1) Stay socially and mentally connected.

2) Keep tabs on your cholesterol level and blood pressure re...