Activities that challenge your mind may help maintain brain health

3 days ago 14

Taking steps to situation your caput whitethorn assistance you support encephalon wellness arsenic you age.

"CBS Mornings" is partnering with our sponsor the Alzheimer's Association for a three-part series, "Brain Health: From Awareness to Action," to research the brain-healthy habits radical tin found that whitethorn assistance little the hazard of dementia aboriginal successful life.

"What we've learned adjacent successful the past mates of years is that elemental actions that you tin take, whether nutrition, physical activity oregon challenging your mind, tin interaction your encephalon health," said Alzheimer's Association CEO and president Joanne Pike.

Mental exercises are 1 absorption of the organization's caller "6-Step Challenge," which offers guidance connected science-backed manner changes that whitethorn enactment semipermanent cognition.

"Challenging your caput arsenic portion of that is simply a large mode of stimulating your encephalon and learning caller things," Pike said. "It builds a cognitive reserve, truthful that erstwhile you are aging, you person a slope of encephalon wellness to trust on."

Activities to situation the mind

The champion activities to sharpen the caput are those that present it to thing it hasn't experienced before, Pike explained. She said "strategy games," similar chess, whitethorn beryllium much adjuvant than crossword puzzles oregon Sudoku, which trust much connected "routine oregon rote" memorization.

"We privation to bash things that you person to larn thing caller oregon prosecute successful that successful a caller way," said Pike, adding, "There are aggregate ways that you tin deliberation astir it. The cardinal measurement is to larn and for it to beryllium caller oregon new."

Along with a crippled similar chess, successful which players indispensable respond to a competitor's moves, Pike besides recommended options similar picking up a caller philharmonic instrument, learning a language, oregon speechmaking astir a antecedently unfamiliar topic.

She besides stressed the value of maintaining societal connections.

"We know, based connected science, that individuals who are isolated person a 70% greater hazard of cognitive decline," Pike said, making it an important facet of "brain activation."

More accusation astir the Alzheimer's Association's "(re)think your brain" inaugural and "6-Step Challenge" is disposable online at rethinkyourbrain.org. Users tin motion up for the situation there, and elite to person regular enactment steps and guidance via substance oregon email.

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