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Playing skill games can improve your health!
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Playing skill games can improve your health! Posted by webmaster (moderator) Nov 4 2006 10:51AM <B>Playing skill games can improve your health!</B> A June 2003 study published in the New England Journal Of Medicine found the cumulative risk of dementia significantly lower for elderly persons that played chess, checkers, backgammon or cards on a frequent basis compared to those who do not. These studies appear consistent with the reduction of the risk of Alzheimers. From the article "Fun and games help to ward off Alzheimer's" -- (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 98 March 13:3440) Researchers at Case Western Reserve Medical School in Cleveland compared the leisure time activities of more than 550 people, nearly 200 of whom went on to develop Alzheimer's. Researchers found that those who had engaged in stimulating activities throughout their life-everything from reading, doing crossword puzzles, and playing bridge, chess, or board games to visiting friends, practicing a musical instrument, and bicycling-were 2 1/2 times less likely to get Alzheimer's. The mental simulation created by playing bridge, a game comparable to gin rummy in many significant ways, was found to stimulate the immune system in a preliminary study conducted in 2001. (Marian Diamond et al, Mental Stimulation Increases Circulating CD4-positive T Lymphocytes: A Preliminary Study. 12 Cognitive Brain Research 329-331 (2001) The health benefits of skill activities such as skill games were mentioned in the study: Coyle, Joseph, "Use it or Lose it Do effortful Mental Activities Protect Agianst Dementia?", 348 N Engl J Med 2489, June 19, 2003. See also, Joe Verghese, et al, Leisure activity and the Risk of Dementia in the Elderly, 348 N Engl J Med 2508, June 19, 2003. <B>What is Skill? </B> Here's a definition of Skill from Alabama Supreme Court: "Skill" - in the context of activities ... is merely the exercise, upon known rules and fixed probabilities, of "sagacity," which is in turn defined as "quickness or acuteness of sense perceptions; keenness of discernment with soundness of judgement; shrewdness; [the] ability to see what is relevant and significant." (Webster's New International Dictionary 2ed, 1953) |
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