Turkish Journal of
GERIATRICS

Hacettepe Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Nöroloji Anabilim Dalı, ANKARA Several clinicopathological studies over the past two decades have shown that many elderly people with extensive pathology of Alzheimer's disease do not clinically manifest cognitive impairment. This ability to tolerate the pathology of this disease without obvious clinical consequences is increasingly referred to as cognitive reserve. Identification of factors associated with cognitive reserve has important implications for disease prevention. For example, one such factor is education. Another potential factors that could modify this relation are mental activities, physical exercises and social networks. Several prospective, population-based studies also shown that person wiht light-to-moderate consumption of alcohol have a lower risk of dementia than do person who abstain or have heavy alcohol use. In the second part of this review, the preventive effects of education, mental activities, phisical exercises, social networks and alcohol will be discussed under the light of the recent literature. Keywords : Dementia, Alzheimer's disease, Mental activity, Physical activity, Social network, Alcohol