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Speaking 2 languages may delay getting Alzheimer's

sparkchaser

Administrator and Stuntman
Staff member
Speaking 2 languages may delay getting Alzheimer's

Bialystok studied 450 Alzheimer's patients, all of whom showed the same degree of impairment at the time of diagnosis. Half are bilingual — they've spoken two languages regularly for most of their lives. The rest are monolingual.

The bilingual patients had Alzheimer's symptoms and were diagnosed between four and five years later than the patients who spoke only one language, she told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Being bilingual does nothing to prevent Alzheimer's disease from striking. But once the disease does begin its silent attack, those years of robust executive control provide a buffer so that symptoms don't become apparent as quickly, Bialystok said.
 
Does this mean that those of us who speak three or more languages can actually give someone Alzheimers?

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Beer Good, Sparky,
Actually, I guess I should apologize a bit. I never knew that you, BG, spoke three languages, so I shouldn't really have said you were contagious. But the opportunity was too good to pass up. So, in the spirit of camraderie that I hope all these comments are made, you are now entitled to two zings in return. :flowers:
 
Beer Good speaks three languages:

English
Swedish
Klingon

True story.


FWIW, I am working on my third.
 
I have multi-smatterings, so I guess I'll get spotty Alzheimers.
It fits, I guess. Not knowing every other word in any language.
 
No offense. Americans are not offended by anything. :innocent:


lolLOLoLLOll

I told my cousin who is in the states that we have a fastfood here called Poutine,which is fries,sauce and mozzarella cheese and it's luscious...he could not accept that ours was better....

can you imagine if I threw religion or being against going to Iraq would have done?:D

I speak Greek and English.
French is hard but I can understand more.

Does pig Latin count?
 
I'm not entirely sure but I thought Bialystok was the one who also argues that when someone is born in, say, Japan, and then moves to the US before the age of 7 they do not have a real native language and both languages will suffer as a result.
 
No offense. Americans are not offended by anything. :innocent:

That reminded me of an old joke:

1) What do we call a person who speaks many languages? Multi-lingual. ... Good
2) What do we call a person who speaks three languages? Trilingual. ... Good
3) What do we call a person who speaks two languages? Bilingual. ... Good
4) What do we call a person who speaks one language? Hmm, hmm, ... American!

P.S. Seriously, in my case changing languages had a negative effect on intellectual development. I cannot prove this, but I am certain of it.

Ludwik
.
 
I have an older joke than that -- actually a true story -- and I'm tempted. But I resist.:cool:

Welcome to the spirit of the forum. :flowers:
 
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