Vergessen Sie den Fernseher und lesen Sie ein Buch: Die besten Maßnahmen zur Reduzierung des Demenzrisikos, schlägt eine Studie vor. Einige sitzende (oder sitzende) Verhaltensweisen sind besser für die kognitiven Funktionen als andere, soziale oder geistig anregende Aktivitäten wie Lesen, Musik hören, beten, basteln, Musikinstrumente spielen oder plaudern.

I’ve linked to the news release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://academic.oup.com/biomedgerontology/article/79/11/glae233/7761934

From the linked article:

Ditch TV and read a book: The best moves to reduce dementia risk

It’s that time of the year when most of us get the chance to sit back and enjoy some well-deserved down time. But whether you reach for the TV controller, or a favourite book, your choice could have implications for your long-term brain health, say researchers at the University of South Australia.

Assessing the 24-hour activity patterns of 397 older adults (aged 60+), researchers found that the context or type of activity that you engage in, matters when it comes to brain health. And specifically, that some sedentary (or sitting) behaviours are better for cognitive function than others.

When looking at different sedentary behaviours, they found that social or mentally stimulating activities such as reading, listening to music, praying, crafting, playing a musical instrument, or chatting with others are beneficial for memory and thinking abilities. Yet watching TV or playing video games are detrimental.

Researchers believe that there is likely a hierarchy of how sedentary behaviours relate to cognitive function, in that some have positive effects while others have negative effects.