Puzzles and crosswords delay dementia, study suggests

While there has long been speculation that "exercising" your brain could protect against Alzheimer's, there has been little evidence to back this up.

Now US researchers who followed more than 1,000 people suggest the more mentally active may delay the disease.

But once symptoms appeared, decline was quicker, the research suggested.

The team from the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago recruited 1,157 people aged over 65 in the early 1990s.

They were given a maximum of five points based on how often they engaged in a variety of activities which involved processing information, including listening to the radio or watching TV, reading a book, carrying out a crossword puzzle or jigsaw, or going to a museum.