A randomized controlled trial, the type with the most reliable results in medical research, has found that a treatment significantly reduces the risk of dementia, scientists said Monday. This disease is the seventh leading cause of death globally, and 57 million people suffer from it, according to the World Health Organization.
Published on: 02/09/2026 - 22:44
An experiment, the results of which were reported in a study published in the journal “Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Translational Research and Clinical Research,” showed that treating dementia is not an expensive drug, but rather a simple and inexpensive exercise for the brain, which reduces the incidence of this disease by a quarter, according to the study.
The researcher who participated in the study, Marilyn Albert from Johns Hopkins University in the United States, said that it is the first time that a study with this degree of credibility provides “an idea of what can be done to reduce the risk of dementia.”
Although there are a large number of games and applications aimed at training the brain and combating cognitive decline, there is a scarcity of research that proves their effectiveness, is of high quality and extends over a long period.
However, the team of American researchers who conducted the study cautioned that it only proved the effectiveness of one type of training, and therefore does not mean that this applies to all brain training games.
Active experience
The trial, called ACTIVE, began in the late 1990s, and more than 2,800 people aged 65 and over were randomly assigned to do three different types of brain training: speed, memory, and the ability to think logically.
Initially, participants underwent a one-hour training session twice weekly for five weeks. After a year, they underwent four reinforcement sessions, and the same in the third year. The total training time did not exceed 24 hours.
Follow-ups after five and ten years, and more recently, twenty years later, showed that speed training was “remarkably beneficial,” Albert said.
Two decades later, records from the government health care program "Medicare" showed that the risk of dementia was reduced by 25 percent in people who underwent speed training and booster sessions, while the other two types of training did not make a statistically significant difference.
The speed exercise involves clicking on pictures of cars and traffic lights that appear in different places on the computer screen.
It is noteworthy that dementia is the seventh leading cause of death globally, and 57 million people suffer from it, according to the World Health Organization.
France 24/AFP
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