Exercise your mind as well as your body. Mind exercises can help you retain and improve your mental capacity, possibly delaying or preventing old-age dementia.

Are there mental exercises we can do to stay sharp mentally as we age? Or are we destined to mentally deteriorate as a natural and unavoidable result of living too long? Is an instance of loss of short term memory a precursor to Alzheimer's and dementia? Fortunately, there are mind exercises we can do to sharpen and retain our mind's capabilities and avoid mental deterioration.

I had a high school math teacher who would preface the start of class problem-solving by saying something like, "Lets do some mental gymnastics." Although we moaned and groaned in typical teenager fashion, we quickly became energized and involved in the problem he presented.

It turns out this teacher might have been way ahead of his time and was doing us a big favor. Researchers tell us that mental gymnastics, consciously exercising our mental facilities, are exactly what we should do to remain sharp as we age.

Losing mental acuity can be frightening. You've probably had the experience of walking purposefully into a room only to arrive and realize you have no idea what you came for. And admit it, your next thought was that was the first step toward Alzheimer's disease.

Now we know that "use it or lose it" applies not only to physical capability, but also to mental competence. Research is showing that there are steps we can take to sustain and even improve our mental acuity. Just as we build muscle through physical exercise, we build brainpower through mental exercise.

It turns out that the 30 minutes of physical activity we do each day (we are doing that aren't we?) not only builds a healthy heart, it builds a healthy brain too. So the first step in keeping sharp mentally is exercise; 30 minutes a day of active exercise, such as housework, walking, gardening, or aerobics pays off with a healthier body and mind.

In addition to physical exercise, add some mental exercise to each day. Though researchers don't fully understand the mechanism at this time, mental activity does appear to help people retain mental sharpness. The commonly held belief that we lose brain cells as we age has been disproved. It simply isn't true. What seems to be true is that our brains get rusty with disuse, just as our muscles wither without exercise.

Personal development is the commitment to be the best you can be. Staying sharp mentally is certainly an important component of personal development. Your daily to-do list should include healthy eating, physical activity, and mental gymnastics.

Some possible mental gymnastics to consider are:

• Personal Development's weekly Mind Exercise mind teaser
• Personal Development's weekly Sharpen Your Mind series
• Crossword puzzles
• The number puzzle Sudoku
• Scrabble, which combines social interaction and mental exercise
• Learn something new, such as a craft, a new computer tool, a second language, etc.
• Read books on topics that cause you to think, such as other religions, different cultures, philosophy, mystery stories.
• Limit TV to those few shows that cause you to think about them afterward. Lost is an example (did they actually survive the plane crash?)

More related material under Mind & Attitude in the Index

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Health Tip: Exercise Memory & Mind

Warning Signs of Dementia

Prevent Dementia: Keep Brain Young

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