Language lessons to help protect against dementia

Hardly a month passes without media reports of new wonder drugs offering glimmers of hope to patients with dementia. Unfortunately, most of these stories are misleading: as with internet scams (lottery wins, free iPads, or miraculous princes offering their inheritance), if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t true. Words such as “breakthrough” or “game changer” can serve as red flags. Given the modest progress in drug treatments for dementia, much interest has turned to factors that may either accelerate or delay its occurrence. Physical and mental activities have been associated with a later onset of dementia, and a recent study suggests that changes …