Are You Bilingual? Parlez Vous Francais? Oder Deutsch?

Joyeux Thanksgiving or Fröhliche Danksagung!

Keeping mentally and socially active are good ways to help ward off, or delay, the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, if that’s your destiny.  It’s supposed that such activities contribute to the ‘cognitive reserve’ which can be called into play when disease slows the more generally-used areas.  Now there’s evidence that lifelong bilingualism is another factor that a delay the onset of Alzheimer’s, possibly because it, too, enlarges the cognitive reserve.  A study of this from Toronto, where bilingualism is common, is published in the journal Neurology.

The population studied consisted of 211 patients diagnosed with probable Alzheimer’s.  Their date of diagnosis and age at onset of cognitive impairment were recorded as well as occupational history, education, and language history.  Based on the latter, 102 patients were classified as bilingual and 109 as monolingual.

The bilingual patients were diagnosed, on average, 4.3 years later and had reported the onset of symptoms 5.1 years later than the monolingual patients.  There were no gender differences between the groups, and no obvious explanations (other than bilingualism) to explain the findings.

In fact, the researchers had found a similar result in a smaller study they reported in 2007 – in that analysis, bilingualism delayed the onset of Alzheimer’s by 4 years.  Dr Craik, the lead investigator in the present study, states that the brains of bilingual people still show deterioration of the Alzheimer’s type as monolingual subjects;  this lends support to the concept that the second language helps provide compensatory skills or capacity that allows them to hold back the symptoms of Alzheimer’s – memory loss, confusion, and so on.

I wouldn’t rush to start learning a new language immediately.  It seems that a ‘lifelong’ bilingualism is more relevant than a newly acquired language skill.  Maybe concentrate on ensuring your grandchildren or children use that year or two abroad to good effect.