Brain training to fight Alzheimer’s
Alzheimer’s is another terrible age related disease, it causes a deterioration of mental abilities, including eventually the ability to take care of oneself on a daily basis, it may also involve personality changes. The risk of developing the disease doubles every 5 years past the age of 65, and some studies estimate that up to 50% of people 85 years and older have Alzheimer’s. But there are various steps you can take to reduce the risk getting Alzheimer’s.
- Engage in intellectually stimulating activities.
- Engage in social activity.
- Exercise regularly.
- Keep your cholesterol and homocysteine levels low.
- If your blood pressure is high, take measures to reduce it.
- If you have diabetes make sure it is controlled well.
For the research which led to these steps please go to the National Institute of Aging, the rest of this article will focus on the first point. There are many different methods to go about finding intellectually stimulating activities. Many people have already discovered the advantages of these types of activities, for example Brain Age, a set of numerical and analytical games for the Nintendo ds, has sold over 3 millions copies only 15 months after launch. Alternatively there are free sites which provide different challenges for you to master. One pointer from the studies is for there to be variety, and for novelty, for the greatest benefit. Here is a list of some activities to start you off:
- Close your eyes and navigate to another rooms in your house by touch alone.
- Use your other hand with your mouse
- Enrol in a course at your local college, choose something you would never ordinarily do.
- Learn your local neighbourhood, can you name all the streets within one mile?
- Next time you go to the supermarket, add up all your purchases as you go along and see how closely you got the the total at checkout.
- Star estimating numbers of objects as you go about your daily business, how many windows you can see.
- Try and guess what people are thinking as you are walking around.
- Go to epicurious and find a recipe you have never tried before and make it.
- Learn to draw
- Make a new list of 10 activities to do.
