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“I was just looking for a place to play bridge,” says Bill Canfield, a retired entrepreneur. While in Naples, Florida, he visited the city’s bridge center and thought, “Why don’t we have this in St. Louis?” After a lot of hard work, he eventually merged several separate St. Louis bridge groups into one center, now known as the St. Louis Bridge Center (1270 N. Price). But, as research is showing, Canfield’s love of the complex card game might provide him with more than a hobby.
Studies reveal that with age comes an overall decline of problem-solving, reasoning, and memory processing, says Denise Head, associate professor of psychological & brain sciences at Washington University St. Louis. She emphasizes that this decline can vary from person to person, depending on factors like overall health and genetics.
“Games like bridge may help keep memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease at bay,” says Dr. Richard Lazaroff, a retired pediatrician and a board member at St. Louis Bridge Center. Bridge may help with three aspects of brain functioning.
First is cognition which is the learning of a skill through study. In bridge, it’s learning the bidding conventions and play of the hand. Second is executive functioning which is about “planning” with frequent changes in the data. When the play begins, every bid and every discard during the play of the hand requires all players to readjust their strategy and plan to make the hand as declarer or defend. And finally, is memory. “‘Counting to 13’ is a saying in bridge, because you are always counting cards to account for every card in the deck,” Lazaroff says. “Bridge helps build neurological pathways, causing [the players] to be more resilient to memory loss.”
Although some observational studies suggest that engaging in cognitively stimulating activities may slow cognitive decline, the correlation between the two is less clear in randomized clinical trials. “These studies appear to show when participants engage in cognitive training tasks like playing bridge, you improve at bridge, but you may not necessarily get better in memory and reasoning in your daily life,” Head states.
Even though the effectiveness of engaging only in cognitive stimulating exercises to prevent Alzheimer’s and dementia is mixed, both Head and Lazaroff agree that bridge can combat social isolation which can be problematic among aging adults. Data links social isolation with many health issues including depression, weakened immune system, dementia, and death. Head wants to stress that “it’s possible to be alone and not be lonely. Loneliness is about the perception of being isolated versus the number of people you interact with.”
After its inception, Canfield’s bridge center saw attendance grow 10 percent; now it’s up 30 percent. On weekdays, about 150 members come out to play. They’ve relocated after outgrowing their first location. A part of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), the center has also donated over a quarter of a million dollars to Alzheimer’s research. Whether it’s directly giving its players a few more years is still being debated. But, one thing stands: It’s “one big family,” Canfield says. “It’s an amazing family and support group.”
