The health benefits of Bridge

Bridge, a partnership card game that originated in the Middle East in the 19th century, can sharpen your wits, help ward off Alzheimer’s, and even make you physically healthier.

Players must remember each player’s cards, which builds memory skills. They must plan ahead, strategize, and use logic, all of which challenge and stimulate the brain. Plus Bridge is played in groups. According to a study of adults 50 and older published in the Journal of Gerontology, social interaction markedly decreased intellectual decline.

In a study published in the June 19, 2003 issue of New England Journal of Medicine, researchers followed the leisure activities of 469 senior citizens for five years. Those who regularly played cards showed a greatly reduced incidence of dementia, while those who exercised exhibited little change from the normal population.

Immunity booster

A more bridge-specific University of California, Berkeley, study in 2000, coordinated by Marian Cleeves Diamond, a professor of integrative biology there, shows that playing bridge increases the number of immune cells.

The study, which Diamond presented at a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, suggests that brain activity might be able to stimulate the immune system.