Playing one particular game may help prevent dementia and relieve depression symptoms

According to a caller study, Mahjong, a crippled that is fashionable successful Asian countries, could dilatory cognitive deterioration and alleviate depressive symptoms successful older adults with dementia

Playing 1 peculiar crippled whitethorn assistance forestall dementia and relieve depression symptoms, a caller survey has found.

Mahjong is simply a tile-based crippled that was developed successful China successful the 19th period and is fashionable passim Asian countries. It is played by 4 radical and usually involves 136 to 152 tiles which players person to instrumentality turns successful drafting and discarding until 1 of them claims triumph by presenting a definite acceptable of combinations.

Research recovered that from 2002 to 2018, astir a 4th of the Chinese colonisation said they played mahjong oregon cards successful their leisure time. Mahjong is considered an "intellectual and societal leisure activity" owed to the complexity of its rules and due to the fact that it involves aggregate players, according to the latest study.

It besides requires players to make skills specified arsenic "identifying imaginable matches, mentally retaining applicable information, deciding which tiles to discard, and predicting different players' moves," the study, published successful The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease this summer, found. The crippled has besides been recovered to person "the imaginable to concurrently heighten cognitive and intelligence outcomes successful older adults successful Asian populations," researchers added.

According to the study, emerging grounds has shown that playing Mahjong "could dilatory cognitive deterioration and alleviate depressive symptoms successful older adults with dementia." Researchers said that players aged 60 oregon supra had unchangeable oregon adjacent improved cognitive function, amended eye-hand coordination than non-players and acquisition a consciousness of being socially connected.

When it comes to the short-term benefits of playing mahjong, the survey said players tin acquisition an betterment successful slump symptoms, arsenic good arsenic intelligence distress and eye-hand coordination. Compared with older adults who ne'er played mahjong, those who did experienced "exhibited amended cognitive quality and reduced likelihood of having mild cognitive impairment," the survey added.

In the long-term, playing mahjong was recovered to beryllium associated with a reduced hazard of cognitive impairment oregon dementia, amended cognitive functioning and comparatively unchangeable oregon dilatory cognitive decline, researchers added. Players were besides recovered to beryllium little apt to acquisition loneliness and reported amended slumber quality.

Researchers noted that the benefits of playing Mahjong person been discussed successful erstwhile probe - but since studies were chiefly written successful Chinese, they person not been accessible to the wider probe assemblage and their findings person not been decently evaluated. The latest survey said much probe is needed "to beforehand our knowing of the theoretical mechanisms underlying the effects of playing mahjong."

Last month, scientists said a groundbreaking caller test that utilises lasers to observe assorted forms of dementia successful a substance of seconds has the imaginable to "revolutionise" the diagnosis of the disease. A survey led by researchers astatine University Hospital Southampton (UHS) and the University of Southampton is presently underway, which uses lasers to analyse bodily fluids specified arsenic blood, spinal fluid, oregon mucus to place individuals with dementia successful the aboriginal stages of the disease.

The existent diagnosis process for dementia tin instrumentality up to 2 years, but this innovative laser-based method is not lone much cost-effective than existing tests but besides yields results successful specified seconds. Preliminary tests person demonstrated that it tin observe Alzheimer's disease with an mean accuracy of implicit 93 per cent.

Professor Chris Kipps, a advisor neurologist astatine University Hospital Southampton, hailed the caller method arsenic "a breakthrough successful aesculapian technology" that could "change the mode we attack dementia diagnosis". He said: "This innovation is not conscionable a leap successful healthcare quality; it's a paradigm shift, redefining our attack to neurodegenerative illness successful the clinic."