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More seniors are using the computer to maintain mental acuity
By GLENDA SANDERS, DAILY SUN
THE VILLAGES — Villages resident Chris Lipp was deciding whether to be a good guy or a bad guy.
As a boy growing up in the Medieval period, he’d learned the use of weaponry. Now, in the next phase of “Fable: The Lost Chapters,” he was forced to make tough decisions about how to use his fighting skills.
While not taking on the persona of a Medieval lad on the brink of manhood through “Fable,” Lipp often flies planes on the computer using Microsoft’s Flight Simulator 2004.
“It’s pretty neat, actually,” Lipp said. “It’s always a challenge. You can fly anywhere in the world with all conditions. There are a lot of challenges to keep your mind sharp.”
Keeping the brain sharp has become a real-life quest for many seniors hoping to maintain mental acuity through the technology of computers.
In an informal poll on the Senior Health Center page on mayoclinic.com, 75 percent of the respondents indicated that they regularly do brainteasers or other activities to keep their minds agile and active.
Crossword puzzles have long been touted as an antidote for the loss of mental acuity in the aging process, and taking on the crossword, scrambles and other riddle-type games in the daily newspaper is part of the morning routine of many seniors.
Computers have taken the puzzle page a step further, offering a greater diversity and availability of games that challenge the brain and require the type of complex thought processes that are supposed to slow or prevent mental decline once believed to be an inevitable effect of advancing age.
As researchers put the dementia of Alzheimer’s disease under the microscope, more and more often the theory that the brain needs to be maintained like any other part of the body comes to the fore.
Sherry Clark, who teaches “Maintain Your Brain,” an hour-long workshop for the Central and North Florida Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, said part of maintaining the brain is using it.
In addition to maintaining a generally heart-healthy lifestyle that includes a balanced diet and regular exercise, Clark said “doing mentally stimulating things” is part of the curriculum for brain fitness.
The old fitness adage, “use it or lose it,” is turning out to be as true of the brain as it is for the rest of the body.
According to a the Helpguide.org Web site dealing with aging issues:
Brain cells may die as we age, but research shows that mental and social activities promote new connections between cells.
Recent studies confirm older people can improve their memory and problem-solving skills with practice.
On the same Web site, exercising the mind to keep your brain in tone was included in a list of lifestyle changes that present the “best hope” for preventing or slowing down Alzheimer’s.
Brain stimulation like that offered in challenging video games, according to the site, can be instrumental in increasing “the number of brain cells and the connections between the brain cells” and in strengthening “current brain cells and connections between them.”
Playing memory games “to improve or train your memory” was listed as a means of exercising the brain.
“The notion of brain plasticity is getting more and more support in scientific studies,” the site reports. “Animal studies have shown that mental and physical stimulation actually increases the number of neurons in the brain: keeping your mind active may counteract the tendency to lose brain cells as you get older. In addition, new forms of mental stimulation build new neural pathways.”
Sites targeted at senior citizens often include a variety of puzzles and brain-teasers to challenge the mind. The AARP Web site, aarp.org/games, offers a daily sudoku, crossword puzzle, word search, “Rootonym,” jigsaw puzzle, trivia game and “Play Four,” with the option to access puzzles for about a month. The site also includes a Two-Week Boot Camp for the brain.
Two other Web sites, 50plus.com and 50plusfun.com, offer a similar variety of games and activities to challenge the mind.
For those who enjoy computers and want to keep their brain fit, the choice of games to stimulate and challenge is limited only by how quickly they can move the mouse.
Glenda Sanders is a features writer for the Daily Sun. She can be reached at 753-1119, ext. 9245, or glenda.sanders@thevillagesmedia.com.
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