Mental Reserves Keep Brains Agile

- Novelty is crucial to providing stimulation for the
aging brain. The brain requires continued stresses to maintain or enhance its
strength.
- Those who pursued the most
leisure activities of an intellectual or social nature had a lower risk of developing dementia. The more activities, the lower the
risk.
- Continued
social interactions helped protect against dementia. The more extensive
an older person’s social network, the better the brain is likely to
work. Especially helpful are productive or
mentally stimulating activities pursued with other people, like
community gardening, taking classes, volunteering or participating in a
play-reading group.
- Physical exercise improves ‘executive function,’ which is the set of
abilities that allows you to select behavior that’s appropriate to the
situation, inhibit inappropriate behavior and focus on the job at hand
in spite of distractions. Executive function includes basic functions
like processing speed, response speed and working memory, the type used
to remember a house number while walking from the car to a party. Just walking fast for 30 to 60 minutes several times a week can
help.

From The New York Times