Disturbing information that I'm not sure what to do with: Study links daydreaming, Alzheimer's.

I'm ALL ABOUT the musing and daydreaming. And the one thing that scares me the most about aging is the possibility of developing Alzheimer's or some other kind of degenerative brain disease.

I don't know what the answer is but I can already see some parents trying to stop their kids from daydreaming. (For the record, I don't think it's possible.) Does it mean that the humorless automatons who go on "standby" when they're not actually working are protected? What do I do with this?

I'm a scientist, and I realize I should be equipped to deal with this kind of information. But it seems like sometimes all you hear is "never eat sugar, never eat anything with fat in it, when you're not working spend your time exercising" and now "don't daydream, it'll give you Alzheimer's." I think sometimes a little information is not a very helpful thing. (Actually, when I tried to read the actual journal article - you can only get the abstract on-line - they don't actually say "daydreaming," they say something like "neutral default state." But then again - I'm one of those people who notices that my brain "runs fast idle" - it's ALWAYS running, I'm never thinking "nothing." So I don't know.)

For what it's worth, my grandmother made it to 92, and a great-uncle made it to 100 and both still had their minds (if not their bodies) intact to the end. And I have a nearly 90 year old aunt who is still very with-it. But still - this is going to be something that's probably going to cause me a few sleepless nights. Oh, wait, does that count as daydreaming? Crap.

Wait - possible epiphany and link - when I'm knitting, my brain doesn't "idle" as frantically. And when I'm doing yoga or crossword puzzles or reading or writing it doesn't. And aren't all of those things that are supposed to protect against Alzheimer's? Perhaps the whole thing is a "wearing out" of the idle on your brain, and if you can train your brain to idle slower (by doing something meditative), maybe that has a protective effect. Or at least that's going to be my story and I'll stick to it.