Brain exercise
Health & Fitness By KEMI ILORI
Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Did I hear anyone say "which one is brain exercise again?!!" Well, you are required to exercise your brain just like you exercise your body. There are now brain exercise games (like you have the Commonwealth Games. There was a Brain Exercise Games Summit in Frankfurt recently!). Just like physical fitness; your brain fitness can be determined. A whole new industry has evolved, which is based on exercising the brain.

This is based on the fact that exercising your brain — protects your brain against decline in memory, concentration and information processing.

Research has found that the more education people had, and the more their minds were occupied, the less they suffered from age-related decline. Most age-related losses in memory or motor skills simply result from inactivity and a lack of mental exercise and stimulation. In other words, use it or lose it. I remember distinctly that in the brief interim before the late business mogul died; one of the few remarks made by the late Chief MKO Abiola was that he kept himself mentally alert during his incarceration by solving mathematical equations.

We cannot all go about solving mathematical equations, but there are enjoyable hobbies, which can help to keep the brain well tuned and alert right into ripe old age.

What is brain fitness? Brain fitness is the state of having quick, efficient, and flexible cognitive processing. It is the ability to assimilate information, comprehend relationships, and develop reasonable conclusions and plans. To put it in plain language, it is the ability to live your life normally by reacting to your environment properly.

This may seem simple, but as people go through life, various things may affect their brain fitness. We all know that old age sometimes brings on dementia, Alzheimer’s and other such brain degenerating diseases. Some of the other factors that affect brain fitness include, chronic stress, anxiety, depression, decreasing estrogen, inadequate sleep and poor nutrition. These factors affect not only brain fitness but general health as well.

New technology has made it possible for scientists to study the brain, like they never did before. Special machines are able to take photographs, thereby imaging the brain to show what is happening there. It has been shown that active brain function results in an increase in blood flow to the areas of the brain involved in carrying out the task, bringing with it oxygen and nutrients for the cells. These nutrients nourish the brain, keeping the cells healthy.

Why exercise the brain? The human brain can continue to grow and improve with exercise. I am sure you have heard this phrase before: "You are never too old to learn." But now you know that learning even in old age is good for you. It is important to challenge your brain to learn new and novel tasks, especially processes that you have never done before. A lot of enjoyable things stimulate the brain, e.g. dancing, traveling, etc.

With regards to traveling, it seemed to have helped our ancestors, ‘the homo sapiens’, a lot. The nomadic lifestyle provided a tremendous stimulation for their brains that led to the development of superior tools and survival skills. If you are static, definitely the rot will set in.

Brain exercises: For some of us, brain exercise is part of our normal life. This is because we indulge in activities that challenge our brain everyday. Dr Amir Soas, a neurologist in Cleveland University Medical School had this to say: ‘Consider your brain a muscle, and find opportunities to flex it. "Read, read, read,". Normal games that help to exercise the brain include, Scrabble, chess, crossword puzzles, bingo, etc. You may find it amusing to know that watching television does not help your brain.

This is because you are not stimulated to think. Dr Soas said "watch less television, because "your brain goes into neutral,". Now there are Virtual Brain Gymnasiums, Neurobics, different types of Brain Trainers, etc. All these are aimed at exercising the brain. It is also interesting to note that since the surge in awareness of brain exercises, a lot of people have developed brain teasers which they either copyrighted or patented. Nintendo is a popular game that has a lot of Brain Exercise versions. There are also Logic tests, Maths Tests, etc.

All these are part of the growing Brain Exercise Game market. There are cartoon graphics for children e.g. the Big Brain Academy - an institution which specialises in measuring cleverness. You do not need to be intimidated by all of these. Just encourage your children to read and you should try to do same. Cultivating a reading habit before the age of 18 is a key-predictor of cognitive resilience. I believe that reading is wonderful. It challenges your imagination. The only thing is that it is sedentary, i.e. you are stationary. You need to combine it with some form of physical exercise.

Walking is brilliant because it does not compete with the brain for oxygen. Unlike sports that are strenuous and demand a lot of oxygen for burning energy, walking allows you to think. That is one of the reasons walking helps to "clear the head".

Children and brain exercise: Children with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism and other cognitive problems benefit immensely from brain exercises. Brain exercises can develop thinking skills that will help children in school. These ailments are now being diagnosed here. Ironically, a few years back, I had an interesting conversation with a medical doctor friend of mine.

She still practices in the United Kingdom. Her perspective was that a good spanking would correct these disorders and they were not found among our own children. I know a lot of people would be up in arms against this line of thinking. Either way, brain exercises are beneficial to all. For interested parents with such children, www.braintrain.com is a helpful website.

For adults who are looking for brain exercises, a helpful website is www.mybraintrainer.com. For those who are involved in much mental work and innovative thinking keep up the good work. You do not need any of the above.