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| Baby Boomers |
• A panel of 30 experts from the United States and Europe recently issued a consensus statement on what we do know about maintaining brain fitness (which includes not only memory but also reasoning, attention, and speed of processing). The verdict was that three things are crucial: physical exercise, mental challenges, and good health habits in general.
• A trail in the journal Nature by Dr. Arthur Kramer, a neuroscientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, found not just slower declines but actual improvements in working memory, attention, and executive skills in older adults (average age 72) after six months of aerobic exercise programs – specifically, 45 minutes to an hour of walking, three times a week
• Exercise increases blood flow, encourages the formation of new synapses, and reverses some of the age-related declines in brain volume.
• As neuroscientists like to say, what’s good for the heart is good for the brain. That would include maintaining healthy blood sugar and blood pressure levels. A study last December in the Annals of Neurology showed that controlling blood sugar, even in non-diabetic adults, can help prevent deterioration in a part of the brain that’s necessary for memory formation
• Another paper published in the Archives of Neurology in February by scientists a Columbia University found that eating a heart-healthy Mediterranean diet – rich in fish, vegetables, whole grains fruits, legumes, and unsaturated fats – lowered the risk of mild cognitive impairment over 4 1/2 years by as much as 28 percent.
• The brain is a use-it-or-lose I type of organ. Synaptic connections that aren’t firing will weaken. “If you want lots of improvement, you have to do mental cross-training,” said Dr. K. Warner Schaie, a professor of psychology at Pennsylvania State University. In short, engage in many types of mental activity. Do crosswords, Sudoku, acrostics, play bridge, read books, join clubs, get into debates – anything to keep the mind alive and engaged in new and interesting tasks. If the activity includes social interaction, so much the better. Or take up a new hobby, a new language, or a new instrument that will challenge the brain in an entirely different way, preferably for years.
How about participating in a Tai Chi group and joining a Chinese language class?
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"Do crosswords, Sudoku, acrostics, play bridge, read books, join clubs, get into debates – anything to keep the mind alive and engaged..." I couldn't agree more. Things that you can do to challenge the brain will always have long term positive effects.
ReplyDeleteI'm having a blast working on the internet. There's always something new to learn! It often feels like working on a logic problem to figure out a new tech problem. Hopefully that means good things for my mind as well. :)
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