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Mental Excercise Improvers Memory
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Older adults are advised to exercise their brain if they want to think clearly in old age. Exercises to improve thinking ability and memory can pay off in the long run, say researchers in a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
It is estimated that up to one third of adults will experience a gradual decline in memory, attention, language, and problem solving as they age. Older adults who lose the ability to perform daily household tasks may require ongoing medical care, or even hospitalization. Minimizing mental decline will become more important as increasing numbers of people head into their 80s and 90s, when the risk is greatest.
To examine whether interventions can prevent or delay mental decline, researchers enrolled more than 2,800 adults who lived independently and who showed normal mental functioning. They were randomly assigned to 10 1-hour training sessions over 6 weeks in one of memory, reasoning, or speed of processing. The memory drills included organizing a 15-item grocery list into different food groups like dairy and vegetables and reasoning exercises to see patterns in things like bus schedules and taking medicines.
Immediately following the training, most people had an improvement in tests that measure cognitive function. The effects of the training session lasted many years. Patients assigned mental exercises aimed at improving reasoning had the greatest improvement.
The researchers say these improvements may counteract the expected decline in cognitive performance in older, otherwise healthy people. However, the effect of the training on the ability to handle everyday tasks was modest.
Overall, while the results are promising more research is needed to help determine how these results should translate into concrete recommendations to prevent memory decline. However, performing daily tasks like cross word puzzles and sudoku may help.
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