You know that physical exercise is good for your health. But did you know that exercising your brain should be part of your regular routine, too?
The field of brain health is exploding. If you take mass transit to work, you see people doing crossword puzzles and Sudoku and playing hand-held brain games. And they are baby boomers and older. You’ve probably seen ads on TV for Nintendo’s Brain Age games. The popularity of these games has gained as scientific studies continue to show that brains can generate neurons and change over a lifetime. Neuro-imaging of the brain and well-documented clinical studies show that planned brain exercise can keep the brain healthy as we age.
And staying healthy not only improves the quality of your life, but also keeps your health care costs down. And in this economy, we’re all looking for ways large and small to reduce our expenses.
How to select the right electronic program
So, if you want to tone up your neurons, what’s important in selecting a program?
Sharpbrains.com a market research and advisory company in the cognitive health and brain fitness market offers 10 questions to ask when you buy or use a brain health product.
1. Are there scientists (ideally neuropsychologists) and a scientific advisory board behind the program? Neuropsychologists are neuroscientists with a specialization in measuring and understanding human cognition and bran structure and function.
2. Are there published, peer-reviewed scientific papers written by those scientists? How many? Check out PubMed (http://www.ncbinlm.nih.gov) which provides citations from science journals.
3. What are the specific benefits claimed for using this program? Make sure the results described are measurable.
4. Does the program tell you what part of the brain or cognitive skill you are exercising and can you see your progress?
5. Is the program structured with guidance on how frequently you should use it?
6. Do the exercises vary and teach something new? Doing the same exercises over and over isn’t what you are looking for. In order for the brain to grow, you need to be continually challenged.
7. Does the program challenge or motivate you, or does it feel like it will become easy once you have learned it. It’s not all that different than weight training – continually increasing difficulty improves performance.
8. Does the program fit your personal goals? Different programs work better for different goals. For example, do you want to manage anxiety, improve your short-term memory, listen better, or improve concentration levels? Find a program that fits your goals.
9. Does the program fit your lifestyle? Some of the questions you might want to ask are: How much time does it take; how frequently do you need to exercise; and, is it portable?
10. Are you ready and willing to begin and stick with the program? If it’s going to add additional stress, it’s probably not the right time to start. Stress can reduce the creation of new neurons.
Not interested in electronic games? Then try crossword puzzles or Sudoku. Or use chop sticks occasionally? Anything that engages your brain and makes it work a bit harder will help keep you sharp.
