Speaking Two Languages Might Help Delay Dementia

By Amy Orciari Herman

Bilingual patients might develop dementia nearly 5 years later than their monolingual peers, according to a Neurology study.

Researchers in India studied 650 patients diagnosed with dementia; 60% spoke two or more languages fluently before diagnosis. Bilingual patients were significantly older than monolingual patients when the first symptoms of dementia emerged (65.6 vs. 61.1 years). A protective effect was seen for Alzheimer's dementia, frontotemporal dementia, and vascular dementia. A benefit was also noted among illiterate patients, "demonstrating that bilingualism effects cannot be reduced to differences in education," the authors write.

Asked to comment, Brandy Matthews, a neurologist with NEJM Journal Watch, wrote: "In light of the 'cognitive reserve hypothesis' and delay in dementia onset, the dissociation of literacy from the number of languages used is compelling and may have implications beyond the scope of neurodegenerative disease, including how languages are taught, and possibly more importantly, used around the world."