article_snippet: Going to the cinema once or twice a week could hold the key to preventing dementia, researchers claim.
article_snippet: Dr Carare, an Associate Professor in Cerebrovascular Ageing, cited the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, starring Dame Judi Dench and Bill Nighy, as an ideal film.
article_snippet: It tells the story of seven pensioners spending their retirement in a hotel in India Patients would easily be able to relate the characters who are not dissimilar in age and it is both funny and intellectually stimulating.
article_snippet: However, she said The films were not ideal, as patients may lose concentration and find patients difficult to believe.
article_snippet: Dr Carare’s study is due to begin this summer and will involve 40 elderly patients who have mild memory and concentration problems, but have not been diagnosed with dementia.
article_snippet: All patients will also undergo memory and concentration assessments once or twice a month to see if the films are improving the function of the films brains.
article_snippet: An estimated 850,000 people in Britain have dementia and 1 in 3 of us will develop the illness during us lifetime.