Health Tip: Exercise Memory & Mind

Posted by Jerry Lopper Dec 21, 2006

A five-year study of over 2800 seniors indicates that mental exercises through cognitive training can slow age-related mental decline. The seniors, mean age 74, received one of three different types of mind exercise training depending on the one of four groups to which they were assigned: training in reasoning, memory training, speed of processing training, and no training for the fourth, or control group.

Participants in reasoning training reported significantly less difficulty in the activities of daily living compared with the control group. The study's general conclusions are, "Reasoning training resulted in less functional decline in self-reported IADL (instrumental activities of daily living).

Compared with the control group, cognitive training resulted in improved cognitive abilities specific to the abilities trained that continued 5 years after the initiation of the intervention."

Reasoning training involved learning strategies for finding the pattern in a letter or word series and identifying the next item in the series.

You can find this type of mind exercise every week right here on the Personal Development page of Suite101.com. A recent example is here.

Source: WebMD.com Medical News and The Journal of the American Medical Association, Dec. 20, 2006