Alzheimer’s is a disease that can impact anyone and severely impact the brain. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, “More than 6 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's”. Though this is only around 2 percent of the U.S. population, this number is expected to triple by the year 2060. This number also increases when the rest of the world is added; that’s a quite a large number that unfortunately continues to grow.
The good news is that there are ways we can reduce our risk of Alzheimer’s! One way is to focus on training our brains and what better way to train them than while having fun with some mental games! We will list some examples below but first, let’s look at why it’s important to play them.
Keeping the brain active through cognitive activities helps to build and maintain healthy brain cells and their connections to each other. Keeping the brain active is also important because it builds cognitive reserve. Cognitive reserve is defined as, “the brain’s ability to stave off symptoms of degenerative brain changes associated with dementia or other brain diseases.”
The brain games one can do to be mentally active are easy and many are found in our daily life. One of the most important things to remember when playing these games is that we must stimulate the brain. You can do this through engaging in activities in which we learn a new skill, language, or behavior. If the game requires an element of social interaction or physical activity it further helps keep the brain (and the body) active. Brain games not only benefit patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease, but they can also help to reduce the risk of these conditions for younger generations.
You can check some brain games at Brain HQ, a U.S. platform that has the mission of applying breakthroughs in brain research to enhance human performance and promote brain health.
Here we also suggest you some brain games that you can try to train your brain and keep it active!
SUDOKU
If you are a fan of numbers, this will be a good brain game to start! Sudoku is very easy to do and can be found in multiple mediums such as books or even on the internet (you can print them out too!). The game is set up in a large square, made of 9 small boxes, which have 9 even smaller boxes. Inside the grid, you use the numbers 1 to 9 and fill it out without repeating numbers. Oh, and the sum of every single row, column, and box must equal 45. Good luck!
Free Sudoku by The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/puzzles/sudoku/easy
Sudoku Online: https://sudoku.com/
LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE
It is never late to learn and what better way than learning a new language that can help you discover the world! To help make learning a new language challenging yet fun, there are resources online where you can learn languages and earn badges along the way. An example of an application to help learn languages is Duolingo.
Duolingo advances users in steps and unlocks new lessons as you pass each level. You can even earn gifts that allow you to unlock new features of the app. The best of it is that you can earn a “streak” which counts the continuous days that you have been practicing the language, which keeps you engaged to continue learning. Compete with your friends to see who can keep the highest streak!
PUZZLES
Puzzles are a great choice because searching for and finding the pieces keeps your brain active! Another great thing about puzzles is that you can find puzzles with many different sizes of pieces, different topics/themes, and at great prices. You can really challenge yourself by doing them by yourself or invite some people to join (the more the merrier!). This game also activates your brain because you must make sense of the pieces so they fit together, and the best part is you can keep and frame the final result. Happy puzzling!
CROSSWORDS
Crosswords are an amazing way to learn! They come with different topics and challenge you to think with the hints they give to you to find the word. There are crosswords in most newspapers and you can also play it online. An example of new, online crossword is Wordle 5. Wordle requires you to guess a word in six tries or less. This game is engaging since there is a new Wordle every day. Play with your family every day and see who can guess the new Wordle first!
Like these games, there are other mediums that you can also try such as reading a book, learning new recipes to cook, painting, or going to museums!
The importance of brain games is to keep your brain active, healthy, and in a learning mode, while we have some fun!
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