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September 19, 2012 Leave a Comment

Foods to Avoid for a Sharper Brain

Burger and Fries

As you probably know, there are certain foods that are good for the brain. These brain foods should be eaten and enjoyed as often as possible.  Click the link for a great list of these healthy and delicious foods and, remember, what’s good for the brain is good for the heart – so you’re doing your body as much good as you are your mind.

What many people may not realize is that there are foods that are as bad for our brains as certain foods are good – foods that do untold damage to our minds as well as our bodies.  These are the foods we should avoid with every ounce of willpower we can muster.

Junk food, fast food, and overly sugary foods and drinks aren’t just harmful for our waistlines and hearts, they’re damaging to our brains.  Many experts attribute the alarming rise in Alzheimer’s cases to the American diet.  Many restaurants and food manufacturers are trying to turn the tide, but it’ll only be as successful as each individual (that’s you and me, kid!) allows it to be.

Make healthy switches in your daily diet and you’ll reap benefits in your body and mind. You’ll find that instances of “brain fog” fade away and you’ll feel sharper almost as soon as you make the healthy changes.  In the long run, if you replace junk food with healthier choices, you’ll be taking great strides in preventing memory loss and different types of dementia, including Alzheimer’s Disease.

Below are just a few ideas for you to incorporate into your daily life:

  • Completely swear off fast food breakfasts. These are some of the unhealthiest meals imaginable. Eat oatmeal or cereal at home, with berries (your brain loves berries!) added for extra oomph.
  • Fall in love with fruit smoothies and green smoothies. I’ve replaced my typical breakfasts with green smoothies and find that I no longer snack before lunch.  The nutrients in the greens, vegetables, and fruit in these smoothies aren’t just great for your brain’s health long-term, they help keep you sharp today.
  • For lunch, replace burgers and fries with healthier wraps, salads, and soup.
  • When eating out, always choose grilled, baked, or blackened over fried. Try to equate the word fried with “fried brain cells.”

If you try to quit fast food and junk food cold turkey, you probably aren’t going to be very successful in the long run. That’s why you need to find foods and drinks that can serve as viable replacements. Experiment until you find restaurants that have salads, wraps, grilled chicken, soups, and other healthy options that you LOVE.   Zaxby’s, Cracker Barrel, Subway, Panera Bread, and Beef O’ Brady’s have wonderful salads and other healthy options.

It won’t take you long to realize that healthy foods are 10 times more delicious than unhealthy foods.

Make each moment (and bite!) count double,
~ Joi

Filed Under: Brain Food, Improve Your Memory, Prevent Alzheimer's Disease, Prevent Memory Loss Tagged: , ,
March 29, 2012 Leave a Comment

Stimulate Your Mind and Keep Alzheimer’s Off Your Doorstep

Willis Tower 3D Puzzle

First things first. What are information-processing activities?  Basically, this is a fancy way of referring to anything that makes you think.  Reading an Agatha Christie novel, an article online, a newspaper, or a romance novel are all information-processing activities.

Listening to the radio, watching an educational program on the Discovery Channel, and visiting historical sites and museums are also information-processing activities.

You get the picture. Anything that makes your brain cells sit up, take notice, and feel alive.

A National Institute on Aging study has found that people who most often participate in information-processing activities are 47% less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than those who participated least often in these same activities.

“If you sit around and don’t exercise a muscle, it atrophies — and the same goes for the brain,” says Dr. Kimford Meador, MD, fellow with the American Academy of Neurology and professor of neurology at the University of Florida. The phrase use it or lose it comes to mind.

Below are more ways to stimulate your mind.

  • Read older novels. Your mind has to really stay on its toes to “translate” the language into today’s verbiage.
  • Paint by Numbers. A lot of people are more creative than they realize
  • Play cards. Learn as many card games as possible, then become the best player you know!
  • Visit museums.  Make it a point to visit all the museums in your state. Then branch out further.
  • Take up bird watching. Learn to identify birds in your region by sight and sound.
  • Pick up a new craft. Learn to knit, crochet, make soap, make candles, etc. Master one, then move on to the next.
  • Work several puzzles each day. Whether it’s Sudoku, crossword puzzles, or word scrambles – make them a part of your daily routine.
  • Work jigsaw puzzles regularly. Start simple, then move on to the challenging ones.
  • Buy a telescope and learn about the stars. New hobbies are rewarding in so many ways!
  • Choose an author you like and read every book he or she has written.  
  • Write your own novel!

A reminder: Don’t do the same activities over and over again – thinking that you’re hitting the ball out of the park.  There are different parts of your brain (some people think of them in terms of regions), and each part is stimulated differently.  The area of your brain that’s stimulated by a game of cards might not respond at all to painting by numbers.  Use a wide range of activities that encourage a wide range of benefits. Use art-based activities to encourage creativity, take up hobbies that encourage concentration and focus, frequently play games that require memorization, etc.

  The greater the variety of activities, the greater the benefits.

Photo Credit: The Willis Tower 3D Puzzle, shown at the top of the article is from Marbles: The Brain Store.

Product Description:
This museum quality 3D puzzle stands over 24 inches tall and boasts authentic details and sturdy construction. Whether you opt to call it Willis or Sears Tower, assembling this 51-piece puzzle will help you fine-tune your motor and visual perception skills.

Filed Under: Improve Your Memory, Motivational, Prevent Alzheimer's Disease, Prevent Memory Loss Tagged: , , , ,
March 28, 2012 Leave a Comment

Brain Games: The Fun Way to Improve Your Memory and Prevent Memory Loss and Alzheimer’s

Memory GameA lot of brain fitness and health advice is good old fashioned common sense:

  • Eat lots of fruits and vegetables
  • Get plenty of rest
  • Reduce the amount of stress in your life
  • Be active

We’re familiar with these healthy tips because we’ve been reading them for more years than we’d care to count. These 4 rules are the core of every disease-prevention tool box out there.  Diabetes, cancer, heart disease, obesity, and so on – none of these tend to favor the individual who eats a healthy diet, gets plenty of activity in their life, gets around 7 hours of sleep each night, and manages stress (rather than the other way around).

The fact that we’re so familiar with them is what concerns me.  Sometimes we take them for granted. They become like the old standards:

  • If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all.
  • Wash your hands before eating.
  • Brush your teeth 3x a day.
  • Always say PLEASE and THANK YOU.
  • etc…

I don’t have to point out how few of these we adhere to religiously. Don’t tell my dentist, but I can’t remember the time I brushed my teeth 3x a day.

When we hear things so often (or read them, for that matter), we get to the place where they don’t even register.  How many times have you read an article about health and fitness and just glanced over the paragraph about trans fats as you thought, “Yeah, yeah, tell me something I don’t know.”?

When advice can help us live longer and live better, we need to stop glancing and start advancing.  Our heart and our brains desperately need for us to eat healthier, stress less, get more activity, and sleep 7 hours each night. Don’t wait until problems creep up before you give your life a healthy overhaul – do it before any problems are even thought about.

One of the Most Important Necessities of Brain Strengthening

In addition to the healthy advice above that we’re all going to start LIVING OUT rather than LEAVING OUT, an equally important part of brain strengthening, improving your memory, and preventing Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia is this:  Work out and challenge your brain each and every single day.  Yes, you should read a variety of subjects.  But if you want to really challenge your brain and flex your mental muscles, you need to fall in love with brain training games.

These brain training games can improve your memory, train you to think faster, help you focus, and make your confidence soar.  Some games that you may have on your shelves qualify: Scrabble, Monopoly, Pictionary, Checkers, LIFE, etc.

As someone pretty much… make that very much… obsessed with the subjects of brain health, fighting memory loss, and preventing dementia (including Alzheimer’s), I’d love to see people collecting and using brain training and strengthening games as faithfully as resistance bands and dumbbells.  A pet peeve is when people put their ALL into their physical health without thinking about their mental health whatsoever.  Certainly, many things that improve our physical health also improve our mental health – but it takes more.  And, seriously, what’s the use of a strong body if one has a weak mind?  Our brains are our control centers. They deserve more of our attention!

For optimum brain strength and health, we have to challenge our mind and work it out as we do the rest of our bodies.

That’s where brain games can be golden. And fun!  The game shown at the top of this article is a perfect example. This game is the Name 5 Game and it should, in my humble opinion, be the first brain game added to a growing collection.   Why? Because it meets the criteria:

  1. It’s fun! You’ll play regularly – for fun without even thinking about it’s function.
  2. It’s effective. The Marble Store’s Brain expert puts it this way: “Activate your frontal cortex as you think critically and make decisions during this game.” What they said.
  3. Games such as this train you to think fast on your feet. Remember in school when the teacher asked a question and your hand darted up? Or when you completed homework in 20 minutes because your bike was waiting for you? We can train our brain to work faster again. The great thing is, it’ll be as fun as a bike ride!

I hope you’ll click through and check out this exciting game, as well as the countless others in Marbles: The Brain Store. You might want to start with their 2012 Marbles Sweet 16.  WHERE you start isn’t nearly as important as THAT you start.

Make each moment count double!
~ Joi

Filed Under: Brain Games, Improve Your Memory, Prevent Alzheimer's Disease, Prevent Memory Loss Tagged: , , , ,
March 25, 2012 Leave a Comment

Antioxidants: A Tasty Weapon in the Battle Against Memory Loss and Alzheimer’s Disease

Experts agree that when it comes to preventing cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease, certain foods have superhero powers.  The power lies in the food’s antioxidants.  Antioxidants can slow cognitive decline and memory loss and can even help prevent Alzheimer’s.

The brain-saving power of antioxidants have been proven with in labs, with animals, and with humans.

In what I believe is one of the most thorough, useful, even vital books ever written, 100 Simple Things You Can Do to Prevent Alzheimer’s and Age-Related Memory Loss, author Jean Carper explains why antioxidants are so important:

Every time you breathe, you take in oxygen, which sparks formation of free-radical chemicals.  These chemicals can run amok, ripping cell membranes, mutating DNA, blocking synapses, and disrupting neural communication networks.  Such devastation is called “oxidative damage” or “molecular rust.”  Your brain is a prime target of free radicals because it is fatty and burns so much oxygen.  When oxidized, the fat in your brain literally becomes rancid, like spoiled meat.  Such ongoing damage accelerates cognitive dysfunction and possibly Alzheimer’s.

That’s where molecular soldiers called antioxidants come in.  They zip around the brain, capturing and snuffing out rampaging free radicals.  These determined terminators, always on patrol, create a formidable and versatile defense system against brain degeneration.  And where do you recruit antioxidants?  From specific foods, mostly fruits and vegetables.  Tests at Tufts University noted that blood antioxidant capacity surged after test subjects ate ten ounces of fresh spinach or eight ounces of strawberries.

Never underestimate the power of two or three carrots, broccoli florets, or spinach leaves.  Among a group of older people, eating three servings of vegetables a day slowed the rate of memory decline by 40 percent, compared to eating less than one serving of vegetables a day, according to researchers at Chicago’s Rush Institute for Healthy Aging.  A Harvard study of aging women found particular cognitive-function-preserving antioxidant power in green leafy vegetables (spinach, kale, and lettuce) and cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts).  Columbia University researchers found that the best anti-Alzheimer’s foods are antioxidant heavy-hitters, including tomatoes, cruciferous vegetables, dark and green leafy vegetables, fruits, salad dressings, nuts, and fish.  New Yorkers over age sixty-five who ate the most of these foods, and the least high-fat dairy products, red meat, organ meat, and butter, were 38 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer’s.  – Pages 29 – 30, 100 Simple Things You Can Do to Prevent Alzheimer’s and Age-Related Memory Loss

On my self help blog, as well as here on my mental fitness blog, I always (strongly) encourage readers to add some sort of fruit and vegetable to each meal. Freshly squeezed juice, mixed fruit, a salad, steamed veggies – there are simply too many delicious ways to add fruits and vegetables to your diet NOT to.  For example, just yesterday I added strawberries to French Toast by cooking fresh, sliced strawberries with a little sugar and white cooking wine.  When the strawberries were poured over the stuffed French toast, magic happened!

Toss fruit into cereal, oatmeal, and yogurt and on top of pancakes, ice cream, and even peanut butter sandwiches.  Add vegetables to salads, pastas, sandwiches, dips, etc.  Make it a challenge to find as many different ways to enjoy and “sneak in” fruits and vegetables each meal.

Below are, in order, 30 fruits and vegetables with the greatest antioxidant capacity (based on weight). These are from a 2010 analysis of 326 foods by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  And, remember, just because a fruit or veggie isn’t on the list, doesn’t mean it doesn’t have powerful antioxidants. Eat your favorites, just try to add some of the heavy-hitters into your diet as well.

Prevent Alzheimer's with Blueberries

Brain Foods:

  1. Black raspberries
  2. Elderberries
  3. Golden Raisins
  4. Wild Blueberries
  5. Artichokes
  6. Cranberries
  7. Dried Plums (prunes)
  8. Black Currants
  9. Plums
  10. Blackberries
  11. Garlic
  12. Red Raspberries
  13. Cultivated Blueberries
  14. Strawberries
  15. Dates
  16. Cherries
  17. Raw Figs
  18. Red Cabbage
  19. Apples, with peel
  20. Leaf Lettuce, Red
  21. Pears, with peel
  22. Asparagus
  23. Sweet Potatoes
  24. Broccoli Rabe and Florets
  25. Oranges
  26. Beet Greens
  27. Avocados
  28. Red Grapes
  29. Radishes
  30. Spinach

Finally, I 100 percent recommend 100 Simple Things You Can Do to Prevent Alzheimer’s and Age-Related Memory Loss. You can buy a copy on Amazon (which is where I bought mine) for less than $15. Trust me, this book is worth a heck of a lot more than that!

Filed Under: Mental Fitness Tagged: , , ,
March 6, 2012 Leave a Comment

Fun Ways to Stay Sharp with Each Passing Birthday

An apple a day keeps your memory from going away!Some people seem surprised, astounded even, by the thought of age-related memory loss. But, if you think about it, it makes sense.  For one thing, as we grow older, we have more and more memories to keep track of!  An 80 year old will, obviously, have more trouble remembering his 5th grade teacher’s name than a 40 year old and the 40 year old will have more trouble remembering their 5th grade teacher’s name than a 20 year old.

I once heard a teenager bragging that she could remember half the students in her 5th grade class. I imagine so!  Fewer years mean fewer places for the memories to get lost or sidetracked.  Ask a 40 year old to name half the students in her 5th grade class and watch her face twist up in agony.

A relentless and unkind truth of life is that every inch of our bodies is affected by the aging process. Things just, shall we say, slow down. I think of it as God’s way of protecting us. If we moved around NOW as fast and often as we did when we were 15, we’d surely break something. Maybe even 2 somethings.

Our minds are affected by age as well. They slow down a bit – but that doesn’t mean they have to stop. Far from it! If we make the right changes in our lifestyle (eat healthy food, avoid unhealthy food, get a little exercise each day, eliminate stress, continually challenge our minds…), there’s no reason you can’t stay as sharp as a tack, well into your golden years.

Butterfly

My advice for individuals who are concerned about age-related memory loss? Here it is in a nutshell:

  1. Don’t become preoccupied with negative thoughts and don’t focus on fear.  Worrying and fretting about things only compound the problem.  Here’s an illustration.  See the butterfly above?  Stare at her for 40 seconds. I’ll wait right here.  For the first few seconds, you probably noticed how beautiful the butterfly was.  Then you probably made a note of how vivid the gorgeous flowers are.  By the end of the 4o seconds, few things existed in the room other than the butterfly and her flower.  You focused so intently on them that everything else disappeared.  When we focus on positive things, this really isn’t that big of a deal but when we focus on negative things, it’s a huge deal.
  2. Stay mentally active.  Keep your brain active and challenged.  While reading is wonderful, the benefits wane if you read the same type of material over and over.  Branch out into new areas and keep challenging yourself. Learn new things – that’s where the magic lives.
  3. What’s good for your heart is good for your brain.  Eating right doesn’t just promote good heart health, it promotes good brain health.  Eat fruits and vegetables daily… plural. Have fish several times a week and consider taking a fish oil supplement.  Also, don’t forget to get some sort of activity for at least 30 minutes each day (at least 5 times a week).  Cleaning your house, garage, or vehicle counts as activity as long as you keep at it for 30 minutes.

Here’s a link to an article I think you’ll enjoy.  It’s geared toward “seniors” but people of all ages will get a lot out of it.  It’s all about entertaining activities that aid in memory retention.

Filed Under: Prevent Memory Loss Tagged:
October 4, 2011 1 Comment

Why You Should Be Eating More Vegetables!

Vegetables can prevent cognitive decline and help with preventing Alzheimer's Disease and dementia.

Your mom was right (again).  You should be eating your fruits, vegetables, and wearing clean underwear.  But let’s focus on the veggies for now. They’re excellent for you, head to toe, and it turns out they’re very important for your brain’s health.

Do you think you’re eating enough vegetables for your brain’s health? You may be surprised… grab a couple of carrots and read on.

A new study shows that people who eat 3 servings or more of vegetables daily have a slower rate of cognitive decline as they grow older.  There are plenty of things we can do to lessen our odds of getting dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease, or memory loss.  You’ve read about many of them here on Out of Bounds.

Eating vegetables is a delicious addition to the preventative list, so make a point of working more vegetables into your daily routine. Below are a few tips to get you started.

  1. Don’t just make a sandwich – make a healthy Dagwood sandwich. Add spinach or dark leafy lettuce, red onion, red peppers, and even cucumbers. The extra crunch makes the sandwich funner as well as tastier and healthier.
  2. Make salads and/or vegetable soup a frequent guest at lunch.  When having a salad, don’t stop at lettuce and tomatoes. The more vegetables you pack in, the more servings you’re getting.
  3. When it comes to noshing during football, baseball, soccer, or basketball games (we all do it, after all) – try trays of fresh baby vegetables. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and watch them disappear. If you MUST, have a little ranch dressing for dipping. I won’t tell anyone.
  4. Fill omelets or scrambled eggs with red and green peppers, red or green onions, tomatoes, broccoli (trust me, broccoli and eggs are outstanding together), asparagus, chopped spinach, etc.  Up the veggies, up the servings.
  5. Steamed baby carrots with a little butter and honey are never anything but delectable.
  6. Keep chopped vegetables in a container in the refrigerator for when the munchies hit.

Here’s a link to a delicious roasted cauliflower recipe. It’s Bob Blumer’s Popcorn Cauliflower and you won’t feel anything less than mad love for it.

 

Filed Under: Brain Food, Mental Fitness, Prevent Alzheimer's Disease Tagged: , ,
August 23, 2011 1 Comment

Too Much Salt in Your Diet and Too Little Activity in Your Day Can Lead to Cognitive Decline

It’s imperative to get a little exercise each day to prevent cognitive decline and memory loss.

A study led by researchers at Baycrest in Toronto – in collaboration with colleagues at the Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, McGill University and the Université de Sherbrooke has found that older adults who have too much salt in their diet and too little exercise in their day are at a greater risk of cognitive decline. Naturally, they’d be candidates for more than just mental problems, they’re also at risk for a host of heart problems.

Researchers found evidence that high-salt diets coupled with low physical activity can be detrimental to cognitive health.

The finding, which appears online in the journal Neurobiology of Aging, ahead of print publication emphasizes the truth of what we often point out here on the mental fitness blog, what affects the heart (positively or negatively) affects the brain.

The study followed the sodium consumption and physical activity levels of 1,262 healthy older men and women (ages 67 – 84) residing in Quebec, Canada, over three years. The adults were recruited from a large pool of participants in the Quebec Longitudinal Study on Nutrition and Successful Aging (NuAge).

“We have generated important evidence that sodium intake not only impacts heart health, but brain health as well,” said Dr. Alexandra Fiocco, a scientist with Baycrest’s Kunin-Lunenfeld Applied and Evaluative Research Unit (KLAERU) and the study’s lead investigator.

“The results of our study showed that a diet high in sodium, combined with little exercise, was especially detrimental to the cognitive performance of older adults,” said Dr. Fiocco.

“But the good news is that sedentary older adults showed no cognitive decline over the three years that we followed them if they had low sodium intake.”

“These data are especially relevant as we know that munching on high-salt processed snacks when engaged in sedentary activities, such as watching TV or playing in front of the computer, is a frequent pastime for many adults,” said Dr. Carol Greenwood, a senior author on the study and internationally-renowned scientist in the field of nutrition and cognitive function in late life.

“This study addresses an additional risk associated with lifestyles that are highly apparent in North American populations.”

As the boomer demographic ages, experts expect to see more problems with cognitive decline (memory loss, dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease), but they hope that educating the public about lifestyle changes that can help delay or prevent normal, age-related cognitive decline. Adopting a healthy lifestyle which includes lots of healthy fruit and vegetables, daily activity, stress management, and making smart dietary decision (such as cutting back on salt and red meat) can help protect us long term.

By all means, adopt these lifestyle changes for yourself, your spouse, and your children – but also look out for your parents and grandparents. Maybe introduce Mrs. Dash seasonings to them as an alternative to so much salt. Also, if they’re health allows it, go for walks with them, even if it’s just around a store or the mall.

The more I read about brain fitness and cognitive decline, the more I realize just how much lies in our own hands. We have to make smart choices and keep on making them!

More “Salt-y Information”
“Those neurofibrillary tangles associated with Alzheimer’s Disease contain aluminum (an element that makes up 14 percent of the earth’s crust). While there’s no evidence suggesting that aluminum causes memory problems, it’s better to try to avoid it. One way to reduce the aluminum you absorb: Use sea salt instead of table salt, which is processed with aluminum to avoid caking. Other things that contain aluminum include nondairy creamers, antacids, cans, certain cookware, and antiperspirants.” – From You Staying Young by Dr. Oz and Dr. Roizen

 ** Don’t forget the salt content in foods and drinks. The amount of sodium in diet sodas, for example, is staggering.

Filed Under: Brain Food, Mental Fitness, Prevent Alzheimer's Disease Tagged: , , , ,
May 17, 2011 Leave a Comment

Vitamin B12 and Protein: Vital for Mental Health

B12 Vital for Mental Health

Vitamin B12 is one of the most powerful tools in the Prevent Alzheimer’s and dementia arsenal. I know that, you know that, even my cats know that. To me, the real importance of the study is that it deals one more body blow to modern diet recommendations, which tell us that protein and fat are the enemies of good health.

However, mental fitness experts point out that protein is where nature meant us to get our B12 from. And, let’s face it, nature knows what its doing.

The only natural food sources of vitamin B12 are animal products like fish, meat and eggs.

Research proves that protein keeps you healthy and strong.  Recently I was doing a great deal of research on skin health – as it relates to aging as well as components of a healthy skin diet.  Source after source after source pointed out the importance of protein. Basically, my research showed that protein is VITAL for healthy skin and a healthy complexion.  If you’re interested in keeping your skin looking as young as possible (and who isn’t?!), protein is a secret weapon.

Even more importantly,  in addition to being necessary for good heart health, protein prevents serious problems (even more serious than wrinkles!) like depression and Alzheimer’s.  Even a slight deficiency in B12 can lead to anemia, fatigue, and depression.  Even more frightening, a long term deficiency in B12 can potentially cause permanent damage to the brain.

 

Here are some food sources of vitamin B12:

  • Eggs (here’s something that might shock you – you’d have to eat almost half a chicken to get the same amount of B12 you can get in just one egg)
  • Chicken
  • Fish
  • Beef
  • Cheese
  • Crab
  • Lobster
  • Liver

As with other vitamins and nutrients, don’t rely on supplements. Get your vitamins from the food you eat.  You have more riding on it than you can afford to lose.

Make each moment count double!

~ Joi

     

     

    Filed Under: Brain Food, Depression, Mental Fitness, Prevent Alzheimer's Disease Tagged: , , , , ,
    March 22, 2011 3 Comments

    Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease with the Internet

    Sudoku Puzzles keep your mind sharp!

    Below is a guest post by freelance writer Kathleen Hessing. The information and advice is the sort of thing we’re committed to here on Out of Bounds – keeping your brain sharp, strengthening your mind, preventing memory loss, and preventing Alzheimer’s Disease. The information is truly priceless.

    Although the disease is incurable once it occurs, there are steps we can take to help prevent the development of Alzheimer’s. Keeping your brain alert has been proved to do just that.

    Even if you have the busiest of schedules, you can work small things into your day to help you stay sharp. One way to do this is to use your non-dominant hand for everyday tasks like eating and opening doors. By doing this, you exercise the opposite side of your brain.

    Mind-engaging puzzles like Sudoku and crosswords can increase brain activity as well. Several websites offer games and puzzles to entertain and challenge you. Here are a few to get you started:

    • WebSudoku.com – This website claims to offer billions of  Sudoku puzzles. That should keep you busy for quite a while!
    • BoatloadPuzzles.com – When they say boatload, they aren’t kidding. You’ll find 40,000 free crossword puzzles on this site.
    • JigZone.com – Like jigsaw puzzles, but don’t have the space to lay them out and solve them? This site allows you to put together jigsaw puzzles made up of 6 to 247 pieces. You can play against a clock for more of a challenge, too.

    Many local newspapers and magazines publish all kinds of puzzles, from Sudoku and crosswords, to word finds, acrostics, and Kakuro, which is similar to Sudoku, but involves math rather than just number placement.

    Reading exercises your brain, too. Do it often. Experts say you should frequently switch up the topics you read so you’ll experience changes in vocabulary, thereby stimulating more areas of your brain.

    Video games can actually benefit your brain in a big way, too. Instead of zoning out to TV shows or movies for hours on end, try playing a game. It can help improve your memory, your development of logic skills, increase your creativity, increase your mental speed, and improve your hand-eye coordination.

    There are plenty of free gaming websites out there. For starters, try these:

    • Bored.com – This site boasts tons of games in categories such as puzzles, strategy, action, and arcade.
    • AddictingGames.com –  You can either play games on your own, or get a friend to play a two-player game with you on the same computer. There are also games to play with friends via Facebook.
    • PlayedOnline.com – Play classics such as Super Mario World and Pac-Man, as well as many new games.
    • Pogo.com – Pogo has some of the most popular online games like Bejeweled, as well as classics such as Scrabble, Yahtzee, Risk, and Monopoly.
    • FreeOnlineGames.com – Not only can you play games on this site, you can get free games to install on your own website.

    If you want to step up the quality of your games and interaction, consider spending some money on a video game console for your home. You can even play games on your cell phone if it has such capabilities.

    Another brain-building activity you can try is learning a foreign language. You don’t have to spend any money on this—everything you need is at your local library. You can check out instructional books, CDs, DVDs, and tapes there. You don’t need to go for total fluency. Just learning some words and phrases is enough to get your brain working.

    While all these activities can help keep your brain sharp, and can potentially help prevent Alzheimer’s, they can’t cure it. Once a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s is made, it’s important to learn about the disease to be able to cope with it to the best of your ability.

    If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, check out the Alzheimer’s Association website for information about the disease and its treatments. Researchers are always looking for ways to improve the lives of those suffering from Alzheimer’s. The site allows you to browse through the various medications that have Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval so you can talk to your doctor about which one is right for you or your loved one.

    Caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease can become a heavy burden over time. It requires a lot of patience, but even then, it can be one of the hardest things to do in life. Taking care of a loved one with Alzheimer’s is an admirable endeavor, but it can become more difficult as time and the disease progress. If you ever find yourself unable to continue as a caretaker, consider looking into an elderly care facility that specializes in Alzheimer’s care. It’s a difficult decision to make, but you’ll feel better knowing your loved one is receiving the best care available.

    Kathleen Hessing is a freelance writer who enjoys finding new ways to improve her life, and sharing them with others through her writing.

    

    Filed Under: Education, Improve Your Memory, Mental Fitness, Prevent Alzheimer's Disease Tagged: , ,
    March 1, 2011 4 Comments

    Coffee or Green Tea? For Brain Health, Go with Both!

    Coffee Beans

    If, like me, you’re a rock star when it comes to drinking coffee and green tea, go ahead and pat yourself on the back.  We aren’t just doing our taste buds a favor when we drink coffee and we aren’t just doing something healthy for our bodies when we drink green tea.   Both of these drinks are great for brain health.

    A study in Neurology that found drinking three cups of coffee a day reduces your risk of mental decline by more than 50 percent.  More than 50 percent.  Amazing!

    Green tea is no slouch, itself, when it comes to mental benefits.  Of course, green tea is known for the many health benefits it offers – from cancer prevention and heart health to weight control and weight loss.  However, did you know that green tea is also very, very healthy for your brain?

    Green tea contains antioxidants called catechins that play a role in keeping the brain sharp and fresh. These catechins also promote healthy blood flow to the brain.

    While there are tons of delicious bottled green teas on the market, you should try to drink freshly brewed green tea as often as possible.

    Your body, mind, and soul will thank you for it!

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