Being bilingual pushes back dementia by
nearly 5 years: study
A study by the University of Edinburgh in Scotland suggests those who speak more
than one language, regardless of fluency, may have stronger protection against three
different types of dementia, including Alzheimer’s.
BY TRACY MILLER
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, November 6, 2013, 4:11 PM
SLOBODAN VASIC/GETTY IMAGES
New evidence adds strength to the idea that speaking more than one language
can help keep the brain younger for longer.
Those who speak more than one language may enjoy built-in protection against the devastating
effects of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study.
People who were bilingual or multilingual developed dementia an average of 4.5 years later
than those who spoke only one language, researchers wrote in the journal Neurology.
Dementia refers to symptoms such as memory and attention loss, communication difficulty, and
decreased visual perception that result from damage to brain cells. Alzheimer's, the most
common type of dementia, is the fifth leading cause of death for Americans over 65 and is
thought to affect 5.2 million people.
This study is the largest to examine the effects of bilingualism on dementia and the first to
demonstrate the effects not just for Alzheimer's but other types of dementia, including vascular
and frontotemporal, study author Dr. Thomas Bak of Scotland’s University of Edinburgh told the
Daily News.
Bilingual speakers "always practice a kind of brain gymnastics of having to select the correct
language and suppress the other," which stimulates many different parts of the brain throughout
their lives, Bak said.
The study, titled "Bilingualism Delays Age at Onset of Dementia, Independent of Education and
Immigration Status," took place among 648 dementia patients in the Indian city of Hyderabad, a
cultural melting pot where much of the population speaks two or more languages regardless of
class or education level. The average age of participants was 62.2 years. Slightly more than half
the study participants spoke two or more languages.
Researchers interviewed family members and caretakers to determine when the first symptoms
of dementia began to appear. For bilingual speakers, the average age was 65.6 years, while it
was 61.1 for monolingual speakers.
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The study, which focused dementia patients in the Indian city Hyderabad, found
that bi- or multilingual people developed dementia an average of 4.5 years later
than monolingual people, even if they had received no formal schooling.
Studies on bilingualism and dementia tend to look at immigrant populations — a selective group
that makes it hard to separate factors like ethnicity, diet and lifestyle, Bak said. Most of the
participants in this study had lived in Hyderabad "for generations," exposed to locally spoken
languages including Hindi, Telugu and Dakkhini.
"We can say that (the later onset of dementia) is not an effect of immigration," Bak said. "This is
something to do with languages themselves."
There was no additional benefit to speaking more than two languages, and speakers didn't have
to be fluent in all their tongues — just being able to express oneself was enough, Bak said.
"Very often you learn language in school. In India, you learn languages on the street," he said.
"We found a group of illiterates, people who did not go to school at all, and in this group we
found a difference (in when dementia symptoms started). So we can also say that the
advantage of bilingualism is not due to different levels of schooling."
Those who study a second language as adults can also be assured they're doing something
healthy for their brain. Bak likened it to swimming, an exercise that uses all the muscles of the
body.
"In a way I would say bilingualism is the mental equivalent of swimming," he said. "You have to
use different sounds; you have to be aware of different social norms. It stimulates a lot of
different parts of the brain."
tmiller@nydailynews.com