In his book How To Prevent Dementia , neurologist Dr Richard Restak extolled the virtues of reading fiction.

“Cognitive reserve theory refers to the representation stored within the brain of the knowledge, experience, and life events that accumulate during the course of a person’s lifetime,” he wrote.

This “reserve,” he argues, acts as a sort of ballast against dementia – and in his words, “Reading for pleasure is perhaps the single most effective activity you can engage in for increasing cognitive reserve.”

No wonder, then, that a 14-year longitudinal study found “a reduced risk of cognitive decline” among people who read more frequently.

How much reading does it take to lower dementia risk?

In this paper, more seemed to be better .

Though reading was generally “protective” of

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