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Cognitive health, or the ability to remember, learn, and adopt new things, is an essential part of our everyday activities. Therefore, it should be taken care of the same way we take care of our lungs or kidneys, for example. It’s a part of your brain health along with motor functions, emotional functions, and tactile functions.
Several things can affect our brain health. Different traumas and injuries can undoubtedly cause brain damage and have an impact on cognitive health. However, the most common cause of cognitive health loss would be age. The older we are, the less we’re able to memorize new things and think quickly. Luckily, recent studies proved that having proper training can help preserve our cognitive health for longer.
Applying cognitive training along with some other healthy behaviors such as taking care of physical health, eating healthy, keeping your mind active, engaging in different social activities, and managing stress can help reduce the risks of Alzheimer’s disease.
What Is Cognitive Training and Does It Work?
Cognitive training involves practicing a set of tasks related to memory, attention, and other brain functions. There are different variants of cognitive training – it can be focused on a single cognitive domain, such as memory, or several cognitive tasks at once. The training itself can be performed on the computer, interacting with another person, playing board games, using memory cards, etc.
According to several studies done over time, cognitive training does help older individuals to preserve their memory, problem-solving skills, think quicker, learn new things, and pay more attention to details.
Examples of Brain Exercises
Here we will list a couple of brain exercises that can be a part of your cognitive training routine:
1. Playing Games
Here’s one way to socialize and preserve your mental health at the same time. A couple of years ago, a study by Jama Network found a connection between playing games and improving cognitive skills. Regardless of your age, playing games such as matching words, images, sounds, or memory card games can never be boring. Also, it’s a fantastic way to preserve your mental health and make sure you’ll be as active in your old age as you are now.
2. Memory Card Games
We’d like to point out memory card games are a great way to practice cognitive skills. Recently, we’ve found out about a new method of playing memory card games. Instead of simply opening cards and connecting the two of them together, you can now practice your memory using the playball (see below). There’s a therapy to roll the ball towards the cards and press it once you find two matching cards. Instead of practicing only your memory, you will have a chance to preserve your physical health as well, which we already mentioned to be a significant part of Alzheimer’s prevention.
3. Solving puzzles
Whether you enjoy classic puzzles, crosswords, sudoku, jigsaw puzzles, or similar, it will help you improve your cognitive skills. Again, besides standard practice, you have a chance to enroll in playball therapy and use the ball to match words, opposites, and more.
Combining Brain exercises with Physical activities
A new innovative cognitive practice is aimed to combine together physical and cognitive training. An example is 'PLAYBALL' which is a smart therapy ball that allows you to play fun interactive games while performing a variety of hand-ball exercises. The smart ball comes with a series of cognitive games that are played on an Ipad and controlled by the pressure and movement applied on the ball with your hands. In this way, you can enhance your practice and be even more engaged, and improving both your physical and cognitive skills.
Instead of waiting for the time to pass, work on your brain health from an early age. Take care of your mental health and work on it to keep your brain healthy!
To learn more about the PLAYBALL system visit >>> www.playwork.me
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