Fighting Off Dementia
Dementia in any form is a punishing disease for people, as it takes a brutal toll on not only those suffering from it, but everybody around them too. As it stands there is no one prevention or cure for dementia, it is, however, still being researched every day to try to find a way to help ward off this.
For the moment, there have been a few great studies which have all pointed towards increased brain activity to help ward off the onset of dementia. While these studies have not given enough certain evidence to be considered effective, there is no harm in keeping an active brain, and it may just help in the long run.
Types Of Cognitive Training
When looking at exercises to keep your brain active, there are 3 main categories to consider:
- Memory training – Training your brain to be able to retain information. While it may seem straight forward, how you take in and information will have a lot to do with information processing and could be one of the more difficult kinds of brain training available. Memory training is often considered to be of the most beneficial when trying to ward off dementia related illness.
- Reasoning – Reasoning is a skill you will likely most frequently use in everyday life. While reasoning is closely related to memory and information processing, reasoning will dictate your course of action with information you take in. It may sound like the language interpretations that were a part of high school language classes, but every time you think or make a plan, you are to some extent flexing your reasoning muscles.
- Information processing – Often overlooked in favour of memory or reasoning training, how quickly and effectively you take in and process information will be vital to your memory and reasoning. Information can only be stored or used if taken in appropriately. This is more reminiscent of the comprehension and is to some extent used more than any other of our main brain functions.
Training Your Brain
There are many types of training one could partake in. Below, we will list a few interesting avenues that are great cognitive training that anybody could partake in.
- Puzzles – Puzzles are a great way to exercise your brain. From normal built puzzles which aid in your reasoning skills to puzzle games on pretty much any platform which, depending on the game, can train every aspect we have discussed.
- Hobbies – Learning a new hobby like pottery, painting or a musical instrument will be a great way to exercise your brain. Not only will you be practising the above-mentioned categories, but the enjoyment factor will greatly aid in the repetition needed to keep up your training regime. Remember to mix it up. Try leaning a new language as well, when practising one hobby long enough it could become almost muscle memory, in which case it can have diminishing returns.
- Social connection – We may not always consider it, but social connection goes a great way in strengthening our minds. Place a few Lucky Creek bets with friends or have a small themed party together.
Is It Worth It?
While there have been studies which favour mental exercise as a suppressant to dementia, the results at this time are just not conclusive. There have not been large enough studies, and the smaller studies have not yielded good enough results to say for certain that cognitive training can aid in the suppression of dementia.
That said, you only stand to gain from mental exercise, even if it may not help as much as we had hoped in warding off dementia, there is no downside to being mentally sharper as you age.