My father-in-law has pretty much lost his mind. He’s 90 years old and after a bad “episode” last Halloween (which I wrote about here) he spends most of his time at the Veteran’s Home sitting in his wheelchair staring into space.
You can imagine. It’s heartbreaking.
This week his Veteran’s Home brought in a speaker, Heather McKay, MS, OT/L to train the staff on how to work with people with Dementia. They also offered a special session for families. My husband and I attended.
Heather did a thorough and thoughtful job explaining the deterioration of a brain beset with the disease of Dementia. It’s horrifying to see the stark physical differences between a healthy 80 year old brain and the shrunken, deformed brain of an 80 year old Alzheimer’s patient.
Almost the first question after she finished her presentation was “How do we keep our brains healthy?” Precisely! How do we avoid the trauma our loved ones are going through?
Heather gave a list of 10 things we can do. I did 2 Periscopes about it here if you want to see them. For you readers…here’s what she recommended. (With my additional #1 mentioned first.)
- Cut the Sugar, Flour and Eat Whole Foods. I must admit this is my #1 because I’ve read the work of Dr. Daniel Amen and Dr. David Perlmutter and others who have done extensive research into the relationship between what you put in your body and how your brain works on that fuel. Universally, their #1 recommendation is to eliminate sugar and grains from your diet. It’s not easy, but a worthwhile goal for your best brain health. In the interest of full disclosure and transparency, I’ve struggled with my sugar/flour addiction for more than 10 years…I still haven’t found my own personal solution…I’ll keep you posted on that one. 🙂
- Read. Books. Oh my! I did a little happy dance in my chair when Heather said this. Sugar is hard. Books are easy. Read chapter books. Something like 80% of Americans read less than 10 books a year. How are you doing with your reading? Situational memory is stimulated when you read, put down the book, do something else and then come back to the book. As you “get back into the book” your brain works it’s situational memory activities and strengthens those brain cells.
- Keep a Journal. If you already do this, you’re on the right track. If not, Heather suggested something simple to get started – create a “Done List” at the end of each day. We are all familiar with “To Do” lists, and this is the same but in reverse. Go back over your day and remember all the things that happened. Process them and plan ahead for the next day. Situational memory is activated and brain activity increased. All good.
- Use Your Non-Dominant Hand. Something magical happens inside your brain when you switch things up. Simple things like opening the door or brushing your teeth with your opposite hand will trigger your brain to get busy and get working.
- Work Crossword Puzzles. My husband did the happy dance on this one. I cringed. Heather assured us that even those of us who struggle with these puzzles can start easy and work up. I put “find crossword puzzle for babies” on my list. I’ll get started on this right away. Really! 🙂
- Find ways to add vocabulary to your knowledge bank. Crazy, right? I think if you are reading good stuff, you’ll find new words. Also, it sounds silly, but keep an old-fashioned dictionary at your desk and in between projects, pull it out and thumb through. Then try to use a new word in a sentence or email sometime that day. Oh, and I think crosswords work for this too.
- Games. Do more of them. Strategy and name and face games are best. When you are struggling to remember a name of someone, let your brain run and try to remember it. The brain is searching for a file (names are stored a different place than faces (images) are)…so let your brain search. It can be frustrating, but the more you allow it to search, the stronger the ability will get. Make a game out of it and it will be even more helpful.
- Exercise your body. (You know this already!!)
- Learn a foreign language. Interestingly, the year I spent teaching english in Hungary I had the most vivid dreams of my life. Scientists tell us dreams are the way we process all the stimulation of the day. My mind was in overdrive during the day, and rebooting furiously during the night. I’d say that year brought not only personal growth, but brain growth as well.
- Learn to play a musical instrument. Ok. Put it on the list.
Bottom line as I run through these suggestions is for us to keep our brains working. Any time we bring something new to our brains they do a happy dance. And the more we do it, the happier they are!
I have a feeling I could write on each of these 10 individually – they are all so full of opportunity. Each one of them is a choice. I was challenged to at least recognize that I have some control now over how my brain might turn out later.
How are you strengthening your brain? Shoot me a quick tweet or leave a comment here. I love hearing from you!
Love ya,
Christy 🙂
Hi Christy, thank you for caring for others enough to share this in formation, I am 59 and my memory is so bad, but will put in practice what you shared here in the hope that I can strengthen my brain. Thank you and God blesses you