More than a card game

Can a game help you live longer or live healthier? That possibility occurred to me while reading Ezekiel Emanuel’s book, “Eat Your Ice Cream.” In the book, Emanuel describes six simple wellness behaviors that benefit your life: avoid self-destruction, maintain social relationships, stay mentally sharp, eat healthy, exercise and sleep. So how does playing bridge fit in?

First, playing bridge at a bridge club is a social activity. In his book, Emanuel cites the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which concluded that “good relationships are the single strongest predictor of both a happy life and a long life.” A similar study in China found a strong association between social activities and longevity. Participation in organized social activities is associated with a longer lifespan.

When you play bridge at a club, you typically have a regular partner and often play against many of the same people. Before and after games, there is plenty of social interaction. At a good bridge club, gatherings and celebrations provide even more opportunities to connect. Since retiring, some of my favorite people on Hilton Head Island have come from the Hilton Head Island Bridge Club. That includes my bridge partner, whom I socialize with outside the club as well.

The second wellness behavior that bridge supports is staying mentally sharp. Cognitive decline occurs as we age. We may retain crystallized intelligence, the knowledge accumulated over a lifetime, but fluid intelligence, the ability to think critically and develop new skills, tends to decline with age and can contribute to dementia. An unengaged retirement lifestyle reduces the need to use fluid intelligence, while learning new activities and hobbies can help delay cognitive decline.

Some might argue that learning bridge, like learning any card game, eventually relies only on crystallized intelligence and does little to challenge fluid intelligence. That is not the case with bridge. It is a game that offers continuous opportunities to learn. You may master the basics in a weekend, but there are countless approaches to bidding and play that most people will never fully explore.

These approaches, known as conventions, are bids with artificial meanings. Thousands of conventions exist. In addition, players have access to magazines, podcasts and thousands of books devoted to improving their game. If that is not enough, hands played at a bridge club can be reviewed on the club’s website, allowing players to compare their results with others and identify opportunities for improvement.

I enjoy analyzing data, so after a bridge game I often spend hours reviewing hands and discussing them with my partner to determine how we can improve next time. Players can also track their progress by earning masterpoints and achieving higher ranks within the bridge community.

Bridge provides lifelong mental exercise that can help maintain fluid intelligence and potentially delay cognitive decline. It is also a lot of fun.

Tom Haller is a resident of Palmetto Hall, Hilton Head Island and is a board member of the Hilton Head Island Bridge Club located at 95 Matthews Rd, Store A8, Port Royal Plaza Center. The club can be reached at 843-342-7529 or at www.bridgewebs.com/hiltonheadisland.