Brain health and dementia
Brain games
Keeping your brain active is one of the most important things you can do for lessening the risk of developing dementia. Not only is good brain health important for all aspects of your life, it's also good for preventing dementia. Not only are Sudoku, Bridge, Scrabble, crosswords, word puzzles and other kinds of "brain games" important for brain health, but learning new skills at any age helps to keep the grey matter active. Learning a new language, taking up a new hobby and keeping socially active are all ways to keep the brain healthy.
New hobbies
Taking up quilting was one activity offered at a trial at the National Institute of Aging in the United States to determine whether taking up a new task in older age slows mental decline, writes Anne Underwood on the New York Times' New Old Age Blog. "Quilting is a very abstract task," says trial leader, cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Denise Park. "You have to picture what the pattern will look like, match fabrics, manipulate geometric forms and mentally rotate objects." Read more here.
