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By Root 695 0

when you consider, for instance, that physical health is related to dementia. We might see an increase in the rates of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Right now, a conservative estimate is that a quarter of the population over eighty will get Alzheimer’s. Reports show that by midcentury as many as fifty million older Americans may get the disease. While research is under way to prevent or postpone Alzheimer’s, scientists already know that people in their sixties can reduce their risk of Alzheimer’s—by half!—through exercise. This is why, when I work out, I am not just thinking about my body; I’m also thinking about my brain. I want to do everything I can to maintain it, so that if I am one of the fifty million Americans who will get Alzheimer’s, it won’t happen until I am ninety or older, as opposed to when I am eighty-two.

Challenge the Brain

Dr. Denise Park says that “if you are living a life with a high degree of engagement in activities that are cognitively demanding, it may delay the onset of Alzheimer’s a little bit—delay it, not change it. You might still be diagnosed, but putting it off by a couple of years extends your quality of life and benefits you, your family, and even our health care system.”

When it comes to cognitive function—or brain health—education plays a strong role. This is partly because early education positively affects brain circuitry. Also, a well-educated person will tend to engage more in mentally stimulating activities such as reading, chess, and ongoing learning. Higher incomes and mentally challenging types of work also contribute to maintaining one’s cognitive ability.

At a seminar on longevity, Dr. Park explained,

tasks will improve cognition if they continually challenge the cognitive system by making sustained demands on executive function over a prolonged period of time and are relatively novel for the individual performing the task. Just like the person who has had a stroke has to use a different hand to perform tasks to develop new neural networks, it is plausible that performing other novel tasks will do the same for a healthy aging brain. As an example, we think learning to quilt could be stimulating for someone who never sewed before. If you are already an expert quilter, I would suggest learning a musical instrument or some other skill that you find both challenging and fun. It is critical to keep learning and adapting new sequences of complex behaviors. Have fun and try a new domain that broadly stimulates some new neural networks.

“The other thing that people underestimate,” continued Dr. Park,

is the unique demands of social interactions. In a social situation, it’s really inappropriate not to remember someone’s name, or what they told you the day before about their grandchildren, and there is thus actually quite a bit of cognitive demand. I would put social interaction as an important element of stimulation. To enhance cognition, you need to be productively engaged in activities that demonstrate sustained activation of your working memory, reasoning, and other higher-order cognitive functions. These are all primarily frontal cortex functions—the most flexible, plastic area of the brain you have to be using those areas of the brain. Think of a guy who is multitasking at work. He’s on the phone; he’s at the computer; he is planning for his upcoming meeting. This would be very demanding of neural function, and I would venture to guess that this productive engagement would enhance cognition (as long as the stress level did not become destructively high). The couple that’s familiar with each other, sitting around and having a great time at the beach, chatting and telling old stories, are probably not facilitating their cognition very much.

Here are some examples of brain exercises you might consider:

learn anything new: a new language, a new hobby, a musical instrument;

meet new people who involve you in conversation;

memorize poetry;

learn new words every day;

…and, as I have said, get physically active. All of these activities can be successfully begun anytime,