As people age, changes occur in all parts of the body, including the brain. Certain parts of the brain shrink, especially those important to learning and other multiple mental activities. Cognitive function serves a critical role in social life. The ability to clearly think, learn, and remember is an important component of performing everyday activities. The decline of cognitive function is an important issue related to aging. In old age many of our cognitive abilities start to slowly decline. Some people may realize that they don't remember information as well as they did, or they forget the names of people or title of movie or drama very quickly.
Creative thinking is always a good way to keep our mind active. The older people can use their creative skills in different ways like art and crafts, gardening, writing, playing outside and visiting places. Many older adults have a tendency to avoid socialization as they age or their memory starts to fade. Specific interventions such as keeping socially, mentally, and physically active in addition to adopting correct diet plan can slow down cognitive decline in older adults.
Brain games and puzzles serve as mental exercise that reduces the risk of Alzheimer's disease and cognitive decline. Brain exercises provide a simple way to improve memory and problem-solving skills. There are a number of factors that make certain games ideal for older adults, such as playing chess or doing crosswords or seniors can look for numeric patterns Sorting sizes, shapes, and colors, matching games and puzzles with multiple levels of difficulty keep their brains active. This in turn, improves cognitive skills and problem-solving abilities. Playing the game requires coordination of hands and brain by means of light physical exercise. This approach is based on studies showing that both physical exercise and game play have positive effects on older adults.
Trivia games are fun and popular activities for people of all ages, but playing trivia is just one of the many ways older adults can strengthen their memory. They can be especially helpful for seniors who want to exercise their recall skills and engage with family or friends. These games encourage seniors to think back to past events or facts they have learned throughout their lives. Trivia offers participants a change of scene and the opportunity to socialize with friends. Games are relatively inexpensive enjoyable, and may yield greater compliance than other kinds of beneficial interventions because they are fun.
A study carried out by UOC, University, USA and published in the scientific journal, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, revealed that playing video games causes structural changes to the brain, with increases to the size of certain areas, and functional changes, such as activation of areas responsible for attention and visual-spatial skills, making them more efficient.
There is considerable evidence that adopting mentally stimulating activities and healthy life styles can potentially protect people against the development of mild cognitive impairment. It's normal to forget things once in a while in old age. People with some forgetful ness can use a variety of techniques that may help them stay healthy and deal with changes in their memory and mental skills like planning tasks, making to do lists, use calendar, fix the place for keeping keys, glasses, cell phone etc.
Some older adults have a mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, they have more memory or other thinking problems than other people of their age. People with MCI can usually take care of themselves and do their normal activities. MCI may be an early sign of Alzheimer`s disease but it is not necessary that everyone with MCI will develop Alzheimer's.
If anyone has serious memory problems like remembering recent events, thinking clearly, or disrupts daily work and social activities, he or she should consult the doctor to determine the source of memory problems. Memory and thinking problems have many reasons including an infection, depression or medication side effects. Sometimes, the problem can be treated, and cognition improves, or the problem can be a brain disorder, such as Alzheimer`s disease. It is a specific brain disease. Alzheimer's disease first affects the part of the brain associated with learning, so early symptoms often include changes in memory, thinking and reasoning skills.