Updated January 29, 2024
Brain Fitness
What this section covers:
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You have control over many of the factors that contribute to brain fitness.
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Your memory can be improved over time with brain training, and can be sharpened immediately with memory tips that will be discussed.
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Brain exercises we will talk about — “mental aerobics” — also help to increase thinking flexibility, reasoning, and speed of processing information.
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Your diet substantially affects your brain’s function. In fact, what mothers have been saying for generations, that fish is “brain food,” is true!
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Physical exercise has a big role in maintaining your brain’s fitness.
MEMORY ASSESSMENT
Assess Your Memory, Part I
I am going to give you 3 words that I would like you to remember. I will ask you in a few minutes what the words were. No peeking back!
Piano
Mailbox
Donkey
This is an objective test of memory, the kind of thing we would do if you came to the clinic for evaluation.
​​Assess Your Memory, Part II
Before I ask you for those words, let’s look at some examples of questions we would ask you in the clinic to assess your subjective experience of your own memory function.
How often do you have trouble…
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Remembering where you put things?
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Finding words in conversation?
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Getting lost on a familiar route?
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Recalling whether you have told someone something?
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The truth is that everyone has trouble with these things, at least occasionally. These are the kinds of things that can improve very significantly with a brain fitness program, and with some of the memory tricks we’ll be talking about.
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NOW: WHAT WERE THOSE WORDS I WANTED YOU TO REMEMBER, FROM THE LAST SECTION?
piano, mailbox, donkey
How did you do? Did you use any kind of strategy to remember the words? If so, good for you! If not, read on because we’ll talk further about strategies.
Fitness Program Part I:
Tips to Aid Your Memory Now
Now I’m going to show you a picture. I want you to look at it for a few seconds.
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Now, without looking back at that picture, let’s see if you can answer a few questions about what you saw.
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What were the dogs wearing?
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Were all the dogs wearing the same colors?
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Were all three dogs themselves the same color?
If you came up blank on that exercise, join the club! What you will learn as you start to work with brain fitness is that, if you want to recall something, you have to pay attention! In fact, you have to pay attention actively.
Here’s a real-life example that you have probably encountered yourself.
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Here, Joe Singer (in blue) is meeting Nelson Bates for the first time. Joe is really looking at Nelson, but Nelson is not really seeing Joe. Joe says Nelson’s name out loud several times during their meeting. Joe is going to remember Nelson Bates’ name because he paid attention and rehearsed Nelson’s name right after meeting him. And then Joe did something else. He said to himself, “He looks like Nelson Rockefeller, all right! But maybe not so rich!” Then he pictures Nelson baiting a fishhook.
Here, Joe is demonstrating the snapshot technique to form an image in his brain. Look to the right for some other examples.
Needless to say, these kinds of memory devices are often best kept to yourself!
So far, we’ve talked about 3 tips to improve your memory right now:
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Active attention
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Rehearsing
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Snapshots
Mnemonics
Now we’re going to talk about another technique, and that involves the creation of mnemonics to aid recall. That’s a funny word, and if you want to say it out loud, just leave off the first “m” and you’ll do fine.
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Mnemonics are memory devices that help us recall rules or information at a later time, when we need them. You may already know some mnemonics:
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“i” before “e” except after “c”
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lefty-loosey, righty-tighty
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30 days hath September…
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Here’s one to remember the order of the Great Lakes, from west to east:
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Sergeant Major Hates Eating Onions
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Superior
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Michigan
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Huron
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Erie
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Ontario
Feel free to make up your own mnemonics, for whatever you need to remember. The value of mnemonics is not that they help you memorize things faster -- they don’t -- but that the memories persist so that months or years later, you can call them up at will. It works!
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Here is another memory trick that some people have used to very good advantage.
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The keys are in the basket by the door.
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The wallet is in the nightstand.
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The glasses are on the arm of the reading chair. ​
The idea is to get organized!
​Reminders
There’s no shame in using notes to remind yourself! If you have a cell phone, you could use an alarm on the phone to signal an upcoming appointment, or “drop a pin” in your location when you get out of the car to tell you where you parked.
Write it Down
This seems obvious, of course, but the truth is that people often fail to make use of it. Think about the medical intern’s rule: either do it now or write it down.
You may be thinking, if I write things down, everybody will think that I have memory problems. In response to that, let me say that when you jot things down, most people think you’re busy and organized. When you forget what you didn’t write down, then they think you have memory problems.
Gadgets
There’s a whole new industry devoted to helping you find things that you may have misplaced! If you have a cell phone, you can use an app (software program) to find that phone. You need to set this up in advance with a buddy’s phone. You can also use it to find a laptop or a connected watch. For things like keys or wallet, you can use a device like Tile, shown here, or another of the location finders on the market. When connected to an app on your phone, these devices will ring when you get close. Newer models work up to several hundred feet, with a louder ring and a light that appears when you move closer.
So far, we’ve talked about eight tips to improve your memory functions now:
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Active attention
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Rehearsing
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Snapshots
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Mnemonics
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Getting organized
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Reminders
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Writing things down
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Gadgets
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Now we’re going to move on to Part II of Brain Fitness, which will cover brain exercises for maintaining fitness over the longer term.
Fitness Program Part II:
Mental Aerobics for Brain Training
Memory isn’t the only skill that improves with brain training. Mental flexibility, reasoning, and processing speed can also improve.
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Dr. Ryuta Kawashima at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan has done extensive research in brain imaging during different activities, and here are some reconstructions from his work. Although he has found that meditation (which he calls reflection) and very complex math problems activate very specific parts of the brain involving frontal areas, he has focused on tasks that activate widespread brain areas, like simple math and reading out loud.
These are 3D reconstructions of brain activity shown from the left and right sides. The areas in red are those activated.
This contrasts with the limited brain activation seen in the part of the brain responsible for vision when a person is passively watching television, as shown on the MRI scans to the right.
According to the Law of Use it or Lose it, those who actively engage in diverse activities will benefit from this kind of brain stimulation. Moreover, some activities seem to be better than others, and it may surprise you which ones are the best. Dr. Kawashima confirmed his results using simple math tasks on larger subject samples, and developed a series of workbooks that have made his brain exercises available for others to use.
This tablet shows one of Dr.Kawashima’s computer-based programs on simple math.
The idea is to work through the problems as quickly as possible, and to do the exercises daily. It’s a good brain workout, and more than one participant said they couldn’t put it down!
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Now let’s look at a couple of other brain-activating exercises, the kinds of things people have called brain teasers. The one just below is called the Stroop Test.
In this exercise, what you see is the name of a color printed in a different-color type. For example, the color name blue is printed in red type.
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The object is to go down each row, saying out loud the color you see in each block, and this requires you to ignore the word. Try it! See how fast you can go and how long you can last.
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This is a kind of mental gymnastics. It forces your right brain hemisphere (attuned to colors) to override your left brain hemisphere (attuned to words). It’s that left hemisphere that is usually trying to call all the shots.
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Here’s another kind of brain teaser, a word scramble. The idea here is to rearrange the letters on each line to form a word. The circled letters then form a final word(s). In this case, the final words are “captain’s log” (or maybe “Captain Slog”).
Each one of these exercises is like part of a gym workout, with repetitions building muscle. You can build “mental muscle" just like you can build body muscle.
Here’s something different, a visual brain teaser.
There are nine images of people hidden in the picture at right.
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How many can you see?
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This task requires you to shift perspective, and to use parts of your brain that may now be underused.
Maybe you've heard of WORDLE, a game available online from the New York Times. There's a reason it has gotten so popular. Check it out, it's free!
There are thousands of these kinds of brain teasers available to you online and in libraries and bookstores.
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Often, the question comes up: which type of puzzle is best? Wordle? Sudoku? The crossword?
This brings us to an important point about brain stimulation exercises: you only develop mental muscle in the area that you’re working. For example:
Language skills with crosswords and word searches
Basic math skills with Sudoku and Ken-Ken
Scanning with Bingo (if a machine doesn’t scan for you!)
For this reason, it’s best to do a variety of exercises to challenge yourself in different skill sets. What many people find is that this kind of across-the-board mental exercise is very enjoyable.
How about revisiting something you used to enjoy… like playing the piano, knitting, gardening, or building model airplanes? This could wake up brain areas that may have been dormant for years. Many of these activities involve right brain hemisphere functions, which may be underused by many of us.
Several brain stimulation activities are worthy of special mention.
One is stepping up your social interactions.
We evolved as social animals, and it’s not surprising that social interaction turns out to be a powerful brain stimulator.
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Another is getting yourself on the web.
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As a cognitively stimulating activity, there are few things better than learning how to use a computer and exploring what the web has to offer. This opens a whole new world of learning opportunities.
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Here are some interesting educational websites to check out:
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TED: Ideas Worth Spreading https://www.ted.com/talks
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The Khan Academy https://www.khanacademy.org/signup
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Open Culture (free language learning online) https://www.openculture.com/%20freelanguagelessons
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The Open University https://www.open.ac.uk
Our section on brain stimulation wouldn’t be complete without mention of the huge number of resources made available online since the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s now possible to visit the world’s great museums and historic sites, to travel to most places on the globe, to fly with drones over foreign lands, and to hear some of the world’s great concerts online, many for free. Check it out!
Fitness Program Part III:
Diet for a Healthy Brain
Have you noticed as you’ve gotten older that your waistline has started to disappear? That you’ve gotten rounder? For many people, that means that they’ve accumulated fat inside the abdomen. This is a dangerous kind of fat, much worse than the fat you see elsewhere on your body. This kind of fat secretes hormones that cause inflammation -- in the brain and elsewhere -- and inflammation is a major driver of brain aging.
A you might expect, the accumulation of abdominal fat is dependent on diet and exercise. So… it turns out that what you eat is another critical determinant of brain fitness.
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Here are the basic principles of the diet for a healthy brain:
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Eat fewer calories
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Eat more omega 3-rich foods
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Eat more antioxidant-rich foods
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Eat low glycemic-index carbohydrates
Eat fewer calories
It’s better for your brain to eat 5 or 6 small meals a day than 2 to 3 large meals.
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If you stay ahead of your hunger, you won’t do so much snacking. Snacking is a problem because most snack foods are high-fat, salty, or sugary.
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Eat more omega-3-rich foods
Nutritional experts agree that omega-3 fats are good for you. They have anti-inflammatory effects, and so not only do they protect your brain, but they reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke, help with arthritis, and contribute to maintaining vision into old age.
Omega-3-rich foods include fatty fish such as salmon, herring, sardines, and trout, as well as flaxseed, walnuts, and canola oil. It used to be that wild-caught fish were higher in omega-3 fats than farm-raised fish, but in most cases, that is no longer true. Other good fats are found in olive oil, peanut oil, peanut butter, almond butter, almonds, cashews, peanuts, pecans, pistachios, and avocado.
At the same time, try to reduce your intake of other types of fats that are not so healthy. These include fatty cuts of beef, pork, and lamb, poultry skin, chicken wings, full-fat dairy products, tropical oils (coconut oil, palm oil), lard,vegetable shortening, margarine, mayonnaise, fried foods, and heavily processed foods like crackers, cookies, and pastries.
Eat more antioxidant-rich foods
Like our bodies, our brains age by a process of oxidative stress. Oxidants in the environment are everywhere: in water, in the air, in our own bodies (from normal metabolism). Antioxidants from food have been found to lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Prunes lead the list in antioxidant power! Green tea is also very good. Fruits and vegetables are generally high in antioxidants. It might interest you to know that frozen strawberries and blueberries have been shown to have higher antioxidant power than fresh berries.
Eat low glycemic-index carbohydrates
When you eat, your blood sugar rises, and this signals your pancreas to secrete insulin. Insulin helps the body move sugar from the bloodstream into cells where it’s needed. Some foods cause a sharp spike in blood sugar, which overworks the pancreas.
Over the years, this can result in a condition in which the body can’t use insulin effectively. This is diabetes, which you want to avoid if you’re interested in brain fitness, because diabetes can be associated with poor circulation to the brain and poor brain function.
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The bottom line? Avoid foods that cause these blood sugar spikes, those with a high glycemic index.
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This index is a function of how sweet the food is and how fast it’s absorbed. Information on the glycemic index of different foods is readily available on the web.
The Mediterranean diet
Dr. Walter Willett of Harvard University has been advocating for years that the traditional USDA food pyramid be replaced by one that more closely reflects the science of good nutrition. The food pyramid that he has proposed is shown above.
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Notice that daily exercise is at the bottom of this pyramid, along with weight control. Other recommendations include:
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eat more whole grains
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eat lots of vegetables and fruits
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eat nuts and beans every day
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substitute fish and poultry for red meat
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take in calcium (from a supplement, if necessary)
It is no coincidence that these recommendations are in line with those of the Mediterranean diet. More information about the diet can also be found on the web.
Fitness Program Part IV:
Physical Fitness
Physical exercise is a very significant contributor to brain fitness. Good physical condition not only improves your brain fitness now, but also protects your brain from Alzheimer-type changes down the road.
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Assess your fitness
Have you noticed changes in your physical ability to perform your usual activities?
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The Silver Sneakers Program offers a fitness test for seniors involving six at-home tests that help you identify your strengths and weaknesses. They recommend that you write down your results and repeat the exercises every six to eight weeks to chart your progress. Here’s the link: https://www.silversneakers.com/blog/fitness-test/ .
Guidelines for physical fitness were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2018.
For older adults, the new guidelines recommend the following:
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150 minutes (2.5 hours) to 300 minutes (5 hours) a week of moderate intensity physical activity or
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75 minutes (1.25 hours) to 150 minutes (2.5 hours) of vigorous intensity aerobic physical activity
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This physical activity should include balance training, aerobics, and muscle- strengthening exercises.
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Those unable to do 150 minutes because of chronic medical conditions should be as physically active as possible.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
Key Points
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You can improve your recall now using tips discussed here.
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Mental aerobics improve memory and other brain functions over the longer term, and are protective against Alzheimer-type changes.
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Diets such as the Mediterranean diet significantly improve brain function.
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Exercises greatly increases brain fitness.