Thursday, October 13, 2011

Bilingualism & Alzheimer’s / Bilinguisme et la maladie d'Alzheimer

Back in 2007, I wrote about new research that found that being bilingual prevented dementia.  This had to do with the use of both languages during life which appeared to delay the onset of dementia by four years .
Mon billet de 2007 portait sur la découverte que le bilinguisme retardait l’arrivée de la démence sénile. En effet, l’utilisation de deux langues pendant la vie retardait le début de la démence sénile de quatre ans. 

The Toronto Star today talks about a study of brain damage to people who are bilingual and unilingual. Again, the multilingual people seem to get Alzheimer’s later.

Le quotidien Torontois Star décrit aujourd’hui une étude des lésions cérébrales de patients bilingues et unilingues. Les patients multilingues semblent être affectés de la maladie d’Alzheimer beaucoup plus tard. 
I do not ever recall hearing my parents encouraging me to learn languages to prevent Alzheimer’s. But then, this disease was barely known. I learned the languages because the countries where I lived required their knowledge – first Czech, then French, then English. 
Je ne me souviens pas du tout du fait si mes parents m’encourageaient à apprendre une langue supplémentaire pour empêcher l’arrivée de la maladie d’Alzheimer. Il faut admettre cependant que cette maladie n’était pas bien connue alors. J’ai appris plusieurs langues parce que ma présence dans le pays où je vivais exigeait que je les parle – le Tchèque d’abord, puis le Français, puis l’Anglais. 

Learnings? Learn a second (or third) language, or maintain your knowledge of several languages and you may stave off Alzheimer for a few years. 
Morale de l’histoire? Apprenez une seconde (ou troisième) langue ou continuez à pratiquer celles que vous connaissez – cela pourrait retarder l’arrivée de la maladie d’Alzheimer.

3 comments:

Mike Bugle said...

This is a really interesting article. There is the obvious benefits of learning languages but, to say that that learning various languages can stop the onset of dementia is fascinating. I think if this knowledge was more widespread many more people would strive to learn a language.

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Svetlin Simeonov said...

This is a really interesting information. I guess that this could encourage more people to study foreign languages , not only for the obvious benefits but also for their own mental health. This is just great I've never thought of this before .