Healthy Brain - Questions & Answers: Main Page Question Categories  About Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia  Risk Factors for Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias  About The Healthy Brain  Body - Maintenance (Supplements and Medications)  Body - Nutrition  Mind (Mental Fitness)  Spirit (Lifestyle)  Alzheimer Society of British Columbia

MIND (MENTAL FITNESS)

What is a ‘brain tune-up’?

A ‘brain tune-up’ means giving yourself mental exercise and stimulus to ensure that your brain is alert and performing well. The brain training exercises Healthy Brain section of the Alzheimer Society’s website are a good place to start.

Click here to learn more about maintaining a healthy brain.

Memory Techniques:

• Are there any techniques you can recommend to help me remember people’s names after I’ve been introduced?
• I can often visualize someone but not his or her name - any advice?
• Why do we have ‘mental blocks’ - ie forget something then remember shortly after? Is it caused by stress?

We remember things better when we concentrate - which helps us remember things we are interested in more readily.

Really focus on what you’re doing, and don’t allow your brain to wander.

When it comes to meeting people and remembering their names, some people find it helpful to visualize something about the person when they first meet them. They then consciously associate this feature in their mind with the name, and find recalling it later much easier.

About Brain Exercises:

• What can people who do not speak English as their first language do to stimulate their brain - especially if they live by themselves?
• What mental activities work to stimulate the renewal of brain cells?
• What are the best brain exercises to do as you grow older?
• What can someone who is legally blind and confined to a wheelchair do, beyond listening to audio books and music?
• I have heard that playing the piano uses more of the brain than any other activity - do you agree?

In the information we offer about maintaining a healthy brain, we offer ways to stimulate the growth of connections between brain cells. These can be done regardless of age, physical ability, language or ethnicity. The key is to do new and varied things.

Click here to learn more about maintaining a healthy brain.

Here are some examples:

• Puzzles and games - Sudoku puzzles do not require language skills; other games like card games and Mahjong are both challenging and social.
• Listening to stories - Listening to the radio or audio books, or being read to, requires your brain to form images in your mind about what’s being read. That is why listening and reading are better for the brain than watching TV or movies.
• New language - Learning a new language is an excellent way to stimulate the formation of neural pathways because it requires a strenuous mental workout.
• Music - Learning to play a musical instrument is also likely to be very beneficial because the brain needs to work hard to learn the new skills and to coordinate new hand-brain movements.

Doing any of these activities in a social setting meets Gold Points in the brain health objectives. Don’t forget the other aspects of brain health - it is a Mind/Body/Spirit approach.

Click here to print the Healthy Brain worksheet.

Additional links:

• The Vancouver Public Library site may help you to find audio books and multi-lingual resources.
• The Greater Victoria Public Library Service has multi-language resources on line.
• Braille games and aids for people who are blind are available for order on line.

I know of several university professors who, despite being very intellectually active, developed Alzheimer’s disease. Why did this happen?

There is evidence that higher levels of education seem to protect the brain from Alzheimer’s disease. However, higher education is not a guarantee against the disease and, as yet, we have no explanation.

In terms of defending your brain against dementia, the research does show how important it is to keep the brain active and burning new neural pathways through life.

Can you comment on the computer program Brain Age for brain training?

Created for the Nintendo DS gaming system, Brain Age is a game that primarily challenges reaction time. This covered only one aspect of brain fitness, however –it is not the complete answer to brain health! For details, visit brainage.com.

Why is bridge so helpful for helping to maintain brain health, and why do younger people learn to play games, like bridge, so much more easily?

When we’re young we learn new skills more quickly because the area of the brain that deals with learning skills is sharper. We can still learn new skills as we age. The compensation we get when we’re older is that we get wiser because learning skills are sharper.

The main body of scientific opinion is that playing Bridge or similar card games challenges the brain and creates new neural pathways. Games like Bridge require memory skills and the ability to recognize patterns, as well as the challenge of predicting what might happen next. It is also important to recognize that unlike games like Patience or Solo, Bridge is a social game - it is played in groups and thus gets Gold Points in our model of brain health!

Is there any evidence that working later in life helps maintain brain fitness?

Whether working later in life helps maintain brain fitness depends on a number of factors:

• Level of challenge
• Mental stimulation, and
• Personal job satisfaction.

There is some evidence that complete retirement can lead to mental stagnation; it’s important that you replace work with other stimulating mental activities and physical exercise.

Are there any free computer games or websites that provide good general brain exercises?

There are a lot of free games available on the web; we suggest you try different things to see what you find challenging and interesting.

Some examples of places to find games online:

• Sudoku: www.websudoku.com
• Puzzles: www.edhelper.com/puzzles.htm

Where can I get more information about the Posit Science brain fitness program?

The Posit Science Brain Fitness Program is a series of computer-based listening exercises. For more information, visit www.positscience.com.

I’ve read some info on a book called Neurobics, by Lawrence C. Katz and Manning Rubin. Can you please comment on it?

This book emphasizes the need to create new neural pathways and gives suggestions for do so.