If you studied a foreign language in high school, someone probably told you it could be a real asset later in life.

Now, it seems there was more truth to that statement than anyone realized.

According to researchers in India, people who spoke two or more languages were twice as likely to emerge from a stroke without cognitive impairment, compared with those who spoke only one language.

The study involved about 600 adults who’d had an ischemic [iss-KEE-mick] stroke. These strokes occur when a blood clot impairs the normal flow of blood to some part of the brain.

Almost 80 percent of the study patients were men. About 250 of them spoke one language, while the other 350 spoke two or more. Those numbers aren’t unusual because multilingualism is common in India.

The researchers investigated two factors.

First, they checked the average age of the patients when the stroke occurred. Here, multilingualism made no difference in patient outcomes.

Then the researchers focused on the patients’ cognitive status.

It turned out that 40 percent of the multilingual stroke patients were classified as normal, meaning their cognitive skills were undamaged. Among patients who spoke one language, only 20 percent were classified as normal.

The percentage of multilingual patients diagnosed with mild to moderate cognitive impairment was about 50 percent, compared with 70 percent of patients who spoke one language.

Scientists believe that multilingualism improves the brain’s ability to engage in high-level cognitive functioning … and that extra ability may protect the brain from stroke-related impairment.

Overall, it sounds like a great reason for today’s students to study foreign languages, and maybe an even better reason for older people to dust off the books.

As they say in latin, carpe diem.