Stay sharp with brain exercises and video games
Earlier research had suggested that such activities as crossword puzzles and reading can help keep the brain sharp as people get older. The new research indicates that classroom activity, computer work and gaming can have similar positive effects on mind health.
(SPM Wire)

Not all exercise makes you sweat. We all know that physical exercise can help many people's hearts, circulation and bones, but now two new studies have found that brief "brain training" can have long-term benefits for seniors.

In a study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), researchers have concluded that ten short sessions of mental exercises in hour-long memory and reasoning classes can help seniors keep their minds sharp for up to five year afterwards and lessen the decline in their ability to perform daily activities.

And if classes aren't your thing, try wresting control of those video games from your grandchildren. According to psychology experts at Canada's McMaster University, seniors who partake of action video games for just four hours a week improve on a host of mental and physical skills - including improved short-term memory, better reaction times, and even more awareness of their environs.

Declines in cognitive abilities among older Americans have been shown to lead to an increased risk of difficulty in performing activities of daily living that, in-turn, can lead to increased use of costly hospital, outpatient, home health and nursing home services.

"[This] study is the first large-scale, randomized trial to show that cognitive training improves cognitive function in well-functioning older adults and that this improvement lasts up to five years from the beginning of the intervention," the JAMA researchers said.

The JAMA study included approximately three thousand men and women with an average age between 73 and 74. The subjects lived in six different cities throughout the country and were observed from 1998 to 2004.