Every day more people worry about the deterioration of memory and other brain functions that may appear associated with aging. We live longer, but we don’t want to live just any way. We want to grow old healthy in body and mind. But how to achieve it? Well it seems that one of the ways to achieve this is by training our brain with certain exercises. And the best thing is that, according to the latest studies, the positive effects of cognitive training can be maintained even up to 10 years after having done it.
As George W. Rebok and his colleagues recently described in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society , some of the improvements due to training today may be sustained into the future. Their study, known as ACTIVE (Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly) began 10 years earlier with the participation of more than 2,800 older people who lived independently. All of them underwent periodic evaluations with both cognitive tests and tests that aimed to assess their ability to cope with daily activities without help , such as shopping, keeping bank accounts or maintaining an adequate level of personal hygiene.
The participants were divided into four groups, three of which received a training session of 10 sessions over 5-6 weeks , and another that did not receive any type of intervention and that acted as a control group. Of the groups that received intervention, one was trained in memory, another in reasoning, and another in processing speed. In addition, a selection of participants were given 4 review sessions per year and also 3 years into the initial program.
The results could be summarized as follows:
1. Training the brain is good . All interventions achieved immediate improvements in trained mental capacity.
2. Profits are maintained . Those who trained in reasoning and processing speed maintained the improvement at ten years, and the results were close to those in the memory training group. Specifically, 73% and 70% of those who received reasoning and speed sessions respectively maintained the improvement achieved with training when they were evaluated 10 years later.
3. Continuous review or training is helpful . The review sessions from time to time had an impact on the reasoning and speed groups.
4. Exercising your mental functions makes your life easier. All intervention groups said they had less difficulty doing daily activities when compared to the control group, when asked ten years later.
Surely you have already convinced yourself that training your brain is a good habit, and what better way than to start as soon as possible. Take care of your brain today to live better tomorrow.
Marisa Fernández, Senior Neuropsychologist, Unobrain
