Dementia and Alzheimer Resources

Brain Fitness

We have provided suggestions for keeping the brain fit in our Brain Gym section, but here we discuss brain fitness as it relates to people with dementia or those (like us children of dementia) who are concerned about their chances of developing a dementia causing condition...

'Interestingly this research has found that memory loss in people who are in the very early stages of the condition may be delayed by ordinary activities that engage the brain whether they were well educated in early life or not.

This research suggests that exercising your brain as well as your body may play a role in the fight against dementia. With one million people set to develop dementia in the next ten years, we must invest more in research to defeat this devastating condition.'

Dr Susanne Sorensen
Head of Research
Alzheimer's Society

We are constantly reading in the news, that exercising your brain can help slow down or stave off dementia, yet it is absolutely true that you can exerise your brain like crazy and still get or have dementia. Plenty of very intelligent people have dementia afterall (our father included!).

However in our experience, after Dad was diagnosed it has been very important to keep encouraging him to exercise his brain, as the difference was apparent whenever he or we didn't take the time. So, our personal belief is that exercising the brain, whilst not a cure all, is important if you are trying to hold onto your faculties as best you can, and so it also makes sense, that it can delay onset.

But what kind of brain training is beneficial? Why is it that Dad, who was originally a mainframe computer programmer and then later went on to be a CEO of the company he worked for, who was constantly required to use his brain, still developed dementia and was diagnosed at age fifty-four? How can it be that a former President of the United States of America (and rumours persist that a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom...) developed dementia? No matter what your opinion is/was of their politics, surely they are good examples of people who constantly exercised their brains and on a daily basis? It seems that the answer is in the detail, or in this case, the effects brain exercises have on the chemicals in the brain:

From the Mindsparke website:

"The area of the brain known as the nucleus basalis works by releasing acetylcholine while a person performs tasks that require focus and attention. The release of acetylcholine is the trigger that tells the brain to pay attention; it helps the brain "fix" memories as they form. (Even mild cognitive impairment is associated with imperceptibly low levels of acetylcholine in the nucleus basalis.) When we're focused on a mental activity that also challenges and rewards us, acetylcholine works together with dopamine (the 'happy' chemical) to stimulate changes in the brain's function and structure -- this is the chemical basis of brain plasticity.

Cognitive training for mature adults should therefore consist of demanding exercises that require focused attention and engage the participant in a rewarding activity (to maintain attention and stimulate the release of dopamine). The exercises should train those mental processes that are in decline so that the changes in brain structure are purposeful and useful. Since aging takes a toll on memory, attention, mental speed and agility, and overall mental capacity (it's easier to 'overload'), effective brain-training exercises should ideally strengthen aural and visual processing speed and accuracy, multi-tasking ability, right- and left-brain interaction, and working-memory. Further, to remain effective, the training needs to deliver increasingly difficult exercises as our thinking improves...".

So the key words there seem to be, 'requires focused attention', 'engages the participant', 'rewarding activity', 'target mental processes in decline'. We know with Dad, at least, that despite him having to use his brain a lot in his daily life before dementia, often he wasn't enjoying it, there was no 'happy' chemical being released, and it was definitely not stretching his capabilities where they were weak! Thus it was with these key words in mind, that we searched the web in order to locate brain fitness activities that can help you. It is up to you to decide which ones you think might release your 'happy chemical'...

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