Keeping your brain sharp gets more important as we age. Age takes a toll on too many things. One of the key valuable human assets that diminish with time – is your Mind. The ability of the brain to process, record and analyze information. There’s been a lot of research into old age and the disabilities that it brings. The simplest way to stay young is to keep your mind active and alert. For if you give up on life… Life gives up on you!
Looking through this research, we see that seniors who are not mentally active are 2.6 times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s and Dementia. The long lasting benefits of good mental health are pretty significant. Other studies in the Journal of American Geriatrics, and by the Lumosity research team revealed that cognitive exercises help aging minds hold on to improvements in their reasoning skills and processing speed for up to 10 years. A more recent study by Lumosity says the benefits could last a lifetime!
As I said, anyone can have a brilliant mind; all it takes is a bit of effort. You know, IQ is not a fixed number either – you can increase or even decrease your IQ based upon what you do. Naturally, the real benefit lies in increasing your intelligence not reducing it.
I’ve made a brief catalogue of online and offline games that can help grow your mind.
Offline:
- Chess
- Scrabble
- Othello
- Mahjong
- Dominos
- Bridge
Online:
- Lumosity: I use this myself. And I ensure that my family uses it too. It’s one of the best out there – keeping your brain sharp, brilliant and effective.
- AARP BrainHQ: Developed by a team of top neuroscientists, BrainHQ has games ranging from memory exercise to navigation exercise. These games are both – fun and also extremely effective in helping brain activity. Over the past few years, there have been dozens of published studies that show the real and lasting improvements in brain function as a result of doing BrainHQ exercise.
- Braingle: This free site has more than 20,000 brain teasers, riddles, logic problems, puzzles and more to choose from. All of the games are ranked by users so you can easily find the best and most effective exercises for your brain.
- SharpBrains: SharpBrains is an independent market research firm tracking health and wellness applications of brain science, so they know what works. Valuable, definitely, in keeping your brain sharp! Their site not only includes more than 50 brain teasers to select from, they also have a variety of articles around the brain for those interested in learning more.
I hope to see you remain super-sharp at all times! Live long and prosper ?