Pilot study finds regular brain exercises key to healthy ageing
Just two hours of brain exercises a week can markedly improve a person’s mental capacity and help fight age-related memory loss according to a recent study by Alzheimer’s Australia WA.
The “Brain Fitness Pilot Project” involved people aged in their 60s, 70s and 80s from retirement villages and seniors fitness centres, taking part in a structured brain fitness program two hours per week over an eight-week period.
The program consisted of a series of computer-based hearing exercises aimed at sharpening a person’s ability to take in speech so that the brain can hear and remember more details.
While a majority of participants reported an improvement in their train of thought and could remember names and shopping lists better, another 70 percent found an improvement in their hearing and their ability to follow and remember conversations.
Alzheimer’s Australia WA chief executive officer Frank Schaper said the study demonstrated that a regular program of brain exercises will reduce the impact of cognitive decline as a person grows older and can lead to healthy ageing.
“Research now shows that much of age-related memory decline in later life is the result of negative lifestyle choices. Taking positive steps to ‘train the brain’ work in the same way physical exercise benefits the body,” Schaper said.
“It may also help to reduce the risk of a person developing dementia later in life.”
Brain fitness is based on the idea that the brain is ‘plastic’ and has the ability to change in response to new learning and stimuli. It challenges the notion that we are predisposed to inevitable mental decline as we grow older.
Proactive brain fitness training for adults is now recognised internationally as a way to enhance healthy ageing and delay cognitive decline.
However Schaper said there has not been a focus on such training in Australia, despite the nation’s rapidly ageing population and the predicted impact that age-related cognitive decline will have on our social, health and economic structures.
“If two hours a week can have such significant benefits, imagine the benefits if people undertake brain fitness routines 30 minutes each day,” Schaper said.
The study was funded by Lotterywest and was conducted with the support of the Council of the Ageing WA’s Living Longer, Living Stronger program.
Study participants Wendy Brown, 62, and her mother Vicky Eyre, 84, both reported improvements in their memory after completing the brain fitness program.
“I am able to remember number sequences a lot better and that is already benefiting me in my work,” said Brown who runs her own training and consultancy business.
“There have been less instances of me entering a room and forgetting what I was there to do while mum is now able to recall words much better than before.”
Another study participant Leila Kaulkriuter, 62, said since completing the program, she found she was able to remember a lot more in her daily activities.
“I now remember what I need to buy from the shops which means I don’t need as many lists as before,’ she said.
“Words come to me much more easily in conversations and I can recall characters in books and on TV.”
For more information about brain fitness, visit: www.brainfitnessaustralia.org.au
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