Great News! Brain Training Turns Time Backwards!

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Dr. Allison Lamont, Brain and Memory Foundation.

Great news has just been published by the American Geriatrics Society. Brain training works!

A 10-year study of 2,832 people with an average age of 73 at the beginning of the study, found that older adults who learnt brain training skills retained the benefits 10 years later, showing that learning brain and memory skills can help stave off impairments of ageing that robs seniors of independence.

Astonishingly, 74% of these people were performing reasoning tasks 10 years later ABOVE the level they displayed before the trial! (National Institute on Aging study). The scientists involved in the study said it unquestionably shows that older adults who receiving brain training were able to maintain those skills over the long term.

 
Even more than just maintaining their skills, the study coauthor, Sharon Tennstedt said that brain training helped participants carry out everyday activities as if they were about 10 years younger, allowing someone at 80 to function more like a typical 70 year-old. While it is not a way to prevent dementia, Sharon emphasised that it is a way to delay dementia.

In this study, participants participated in 10 sessions of brain training, each lasting about an hour. Effects were measured immediately after each session and again at various intervals for 10 years. They had four booster sessions of brain training after one year and again after three years.

Denise Park, a University of Texas brain researcher who was not involved in the study, remarked that the study was well designed and clearly demonstrated that seniors trained in specific brain-related tasks can maintain that skill for at least a decade.

This is indeed exciting news!

If you live in the Auckland or Whangarei areas, Brain Fit for Life courses are available. These consist of five workshop sessions of brain training to teach you the skills to build brain and memory resilience and to give you confidence and the skills to maintain independent living.

If you want to know more about Brain Fit for Life, contact Gillian Eadie of the Brain and Memory Foundation. You can email her at: healthymemory@gmail.com. Alternatively, Gillian's telephone number is: (09) 528 7393.

Dr. Allison Lamont is founder and clinician at the Auckland Memory Clinic. Allison, and her sister Gillian, formed the Brain and Memory Foundation after care-giving their mother, Jeanie, who developed Alzheimer's Disease in her last years. If you would lie to contact Dr. Allison email her at: Dr.Lamont@memoryclinic.co.nz and visit her clinic website for information on memory.