A new study has found that gardening can help maintain brain health and prevent dementia in later life.
Web Desk | June 24, 2024
Gardening has been found to boost brain health in older adults
New research has found that gardening may play an important role in maintaining brain health and preventing dementia in later life.
The groundbreaking study, conducted by psychologists at the University of Edinburgh, followed hundreds of Scottish people for nearly a century and found that spending time gardening could help maintain cognitive ability up to age 80, regardless of an individual's wealth or education level.
The study, published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, suggests that the mentally stimulating properties of gardening may benefit brain health in older adults.
The study is part of the long-term Lothian Birth Cohort Study, which tested the intelligence of children born in Edinburgh in 1921 and reassessed their cognitive abilities from age 79 onwards.
The study found that among 467 participants, those who gardened frequently or occasionally had better cognitive performance in old age compared to when they were younger.
In contrast, people who never or rarely gardened performed worse on the test than they did when they were younger.
Meanwhile, Alzheimer's Scotland praised the findings, highlighting the many benefits of gardening for brain health, including improved hand strength, healthy eating and social connection.
Meanwhile, lead author of the study, Dr Janie Corey, highlighted that gardening involves complex cognitive processes, supporting the 'use it or lose it' paradigm of cognition and potentially reducing the risk of cognitive decline.
Dementia affects around 100,000 people in Scotland and this research offers promising insights into how gardening can be a valuable activity to promote healthy cognitive ageing.
