Will playing Chinese Mahjong aid in preventing and treating Senile Dementia?

So far, there are no effective treatments for Senile Dementia, but only “Vascular Dementia” can be prevented.

Vascular Dementia is similar to stroke, thus, if one wants to prevent Vascular Dementia, one can use stroke prevention methods. Examples are controlling diabetes and blood pressure, reducing the amount of alcohol and tobacco taken, changing living habits for the better and of course, having more physical exercise, etc.

There are two causes of Senile Dementia, one is caused by Alzheimer’s disease and the other by Vascular Dementia.

Alzheimer’s disease caused Dementia is the most common. The other causes include the lack of vitamin B12, endocrine disorders, brain tumors, insufficient thyroid hormones, brain injuries or brain inflammation.

Alzheimer’s disease is actually brain degradation. Some brain cells die which caused the gradually shrinking of the brain but the real cause is yet to be identified.

Fortunately, the causes of Vascular Dementia can be identified. It is similar to stroke and it is caused by minor stroke. Hence, stroke prevention methods can be used. So, playing Chinese Mahjong or Chess will be able to stimulate brain activities. And this will then help in the prevention of stroke and Vascular Dementia up to a certain extent.

As for the Alzheimer’s disease, because of its unknown causes, prevention and treatment are not yet available. But over the years of studies, it is found that the higher the educational level, the lower the possibility of suffering the Alzheimer’s disease. It is a kind of good news to the baby boomers. But there is currently no research on the baby boomers in which how many of them are suffering from the Alzheimer’s disease compared to the rest of people.

Medical researchers are currently still in the underway of researching various activities that aid in reducing the prevalence rate.

A professor from the Chinese University of Hong Kong stated that she has studied the prevalence rate of Alzheimer’s disease among the China, Europe and the United States. She found that the proportion of Chinese patients are the lowest.

In western countries and regions, people above the age of 65 that suffer from Alzheimer’s disease is an estimated 5% while the Chinese is about 4%. She stated that all this is gene related. In our genes, there is one called the Apo gene, which includes Apo E2, E3 and E4. Most people only have Apo E2 and E3. Apo E4 is the cause of Alzheimer’s disease.

Studies have shown that the possibility of the Chinese having Apo E4 is lower than the Westerners. Therefore, the probability of Chinese suffering the Alzheimer’s disease is relatively low.

More information on Baby Boomers’s Health and Fitness.

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