General health, exercise and good sleep habits — not mental gymnastics — are the best tools for brain health.
It’s a daily ritual for millions of people. You wake up, pour a cup of coffee, and eventually make your way to one or more crossword puzzles, word games and other brain twisters.
I’m not out to crush the spirits of Angulo, Galvan or anyone else who labors daily at the kitchen table, pencil or digital device in hand, but nailing Sudoku or reaching genius level in the Spelling Bee might not be as beneficial as you might think. One more benefit, Ances said, is that because some crosswords get harder as the week goes on, it’s useful for a doctor to know that you used to make it to the end of the week but now lose your way by Wednesday or Thursday.Debra Cherry, a clinical psychologist and executive vice president of Alzheimer’s Los Angeles, said there’s no strong evidence to support widespread faith in the value of word games and other brain enhancement products.
of Laguna Woods residents 90 and older. But “a healthy lifestyle involves physical and cognitive activities, period.”says humans did not evolve in order to sit around playing word games. Going back 75,000 years, he said, they had to solve tough physical and social challenges to survive. Because of where we came from, a brisk off-trail walk in the woods is better for us than a stroll through a park, Grafton said, and “the cognitive challenge in the former drives brain health in profound ways.
That’s why I was particularly interested in an email from Michael Suttle, a Dana Point resident who shared a success story.
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