Having close friends and staying in contact with family members offers a protective effect against the damaging effects of Alzheimer's disease according to research by physicians at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
Researchers studied elderly people without known dementia who are participating in the Rush Memory and Aging Project, an epidemiological and clinicopathological study of aging and Alzheimer's disease that involves over 1,100 volunteers across northeastern Illinois.
"Many elderly people who have the tangles and plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease don't clinically experience cognitive impairment or dementia," said Bennett.
To determine social network, participants were asked about the number of children they have and see monthly.
The relationship between the amount of Alzheimer's disease pathology and cognitive performance changed with the size of the social network.
In other words, for persons without much pathology, social network size had little effect on cognition.
However, as the amount of pathology increased, the apparent protective effect on cognition also increased.
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