Contributing editor Melina Papadakis checks out an online venue for strengthening your brain - with games!
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As we age, it's no surprise that our physical needs change. It becomes increasingly more important to take care of our overall health – including our brain fitness. We need to work our mental 'muscles' to keep our minds sharp. Happy Neuron brain games - www.happy-neuron.com - offer online exercises designed to help you train your brain.
Just as working your entire body and not just a few parts during physical training is important, so is stimulating more than just one area of the brain. While similar brain games exist, including crossword puzzles and brain teasers, they stimulate only certain areas of the brain. Happy Neuron games were developed by a cognitive psychologist to target the five main cognitive functions: Memory, Attention, Language, Visual/Spatial and Executive Functions.
Not only can these mental exercises help keep your mind more nimble, there is also the possibility that they can fend off disease. While there is currently no cure for Alzheimer's, increasing scientific evidence shows that actively participating in appropriately designed brain fitness workouts can defer the onset of this disease and other signs of aging on the brain.
To gauge your progress and identify possible areas of weakness, Happy Neuron provides players with a virtual coach who compares your results to others of a similar age, gender and education and then designs customized workouts based on performance. So visit Happy Neuron online and give their games a try. They'll even let you enjoy a free seven-day trial period to check out what they have to offer.
Please note: If you enroll for the seven-day free trial, you will need to give them credit card information. You can cancel your membership at any time within the seven-day trial period without charges to your credit card by visiting 'My Order History', un-checking 'Auto Renew' and clicking 'Submit'. If you do not cancel before the trial period is up, you will be automatically enrolled for membership to Happy Neuron and your credit card will be charged. Your subscription will be automatically renewed at the beginning of each billing period.
What mental challenges do you enjoy on a regular basis? Chess? Sudoku? Tell us what you do to give yourself a cerebral workout!
I tried some of the games. They were fun and pretty challenging. For example, in one, you were given categorized groups of different halves of words, and you had to pair them up.
For example, in the CLOTHES category, trou + sers = trousers, or ny + lon = nylon. When I first saw 'lon' and 'ny', I thought: lonny? Is that the name of a clothes designer...?
It's a great website and I recommend it for anyone looking for an exciting mental workout! :-)
Posted by: Mark McLaughlin | March 10, 2008 at 04:44 PM
The brain's job is to mind the body; ours is to keep it strong.
An excellent resource for those who prefer working off-line is "Age Smart - How to Age Well, Stay Fit and Be Happy," available at bookstores, Amazon and www.agesmart.us.
The book clues readers into the power they have to control the way they age and explains how to use it.
The Mental Fitness Workouts offer effective, stimulating, fun-to-do exercises that strengthen the brain and sharpen mental acuity.
It's never too late to start, nor too soon to begin.
Posted by: Harriet Vines, Ph.D. | March 11, 2008 at 05:01 PM
You can experience five Happy Neuron games even before signing up for the free trial of the whole program.
Check out the games at http://www.happy-neuron.com/games
Posted by: Laura | March 20, 2008 at 08:16 PM
Brains need exercise--particularly older brains.
An Israeli study of one thousand people who continued to work at the age of 70 and beyond found that this group was 2.5 times as likely to be alive at the age of 82 than those who had retired and weren't working at the beginning of the study.
According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, "Research has shown that remaining challenged, especially cognitively challenged, can provide a boost to longevity." The article goes on to quote Dr. Michael DeBakey, who at 96 said, "Work can block out the unpleasant things we have to deal with every day. When you concentrate, you are not distracted by the things that are bothering you."
To continue exercising your brain,
RetiredBrains.com connects older workers with employers interested in hiring them. It is a free site offering information on a great many subjects of interest to retirees and people planning retirement.
Posted by: Arthur Koff | March 21, 2008 at 09:30 AM