Tips and Tricks to Train Your Brain

 “Psychologists have been trying to come up with ways to increase intelligence for a very long time,” said D. Zachary Hambrick, a professor of psychology at Michigan State University. “We’ve been interested in increasing intelligence for almost as long as we’ve studied intelligence, which is over a century”³.

These days, companies worldwide are taking advantage of both technology and our desire for a higher IQ by offering brain training games, which are marketed as offering cognitive benefits that can boost our brain power. And while we may not find ourselves suddenly worthy of MENSA membership, our brains can certainly benefit from a workout now and then.

Could a Crossword a Day Keep Dementia Away?

Keeping our brains active can keep them younger, experts say. According to a 2011 study by researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, doing crossword puzzles may delay the onset of accelerated memory decline for those in the beginning stages of dementia by more than two years¹.

The Alzheimer’s Association has long recommended keeping your brain active as a way to ward off dementia, and your newspaper’s daily crossword puzzle may be a perfect solution for a stagnant brain.

The mental gymnastics of keeping your brain active may not only strengthen the connections between brain cells, but it may also generate new ones, creating a savings account to protect against potential losses in the future².

When It Comes to Brain Games, the Jury Is Out

So, what about those brain game sites that tout themselves as a simple little home gym designed specifically to boost brain power?

According to psychologist Randall Engle, memory games can make it easier to learn difficult subjects, solve problems, and pay attention, but they don't really boost intelligence³.

“This idea that intelligence can be trained would be a great thing if it were true,” Engle said.

Still, that’s no reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater, other experts say. Just don’t expect to see your IQ suddenly shoot through the roof by playing a few games.

“I am not totally negative about the potential for brain training,” said psychologist David Meyer, director of the University of Michigan’s Brain, Cognition, and Action Laboratory. “What the brain-training games do is help you to get better at particular, relatively limited kinds of tasks that in effect are exercised by the game. The implication is that somehow, you’re going to get better at everything that is mental, and there is no evidence to show that”³.

But even a small improvement is better than none when it comes to intelligence, right?

A 2008 study from a team of scientists from the University of Michigan and the University of Bern in Switzerland found that spending 10 hours using brain-training tests that combine two different types of tasks, such as auditory and visual, did show some improvements in intelligence, and performed better at a reasoning task after the training session.

“The longer you train, the bigger the impact is,” said study coauthor Martin Buschkuehl, now the director of education research at the nonprofit MIND Research Institute³.

Games, Tips, Tricks, and Advice for a Better Brain

Given the many reasons why brain training can benefit you not only now, but also in later years, there’s no reason not to get started challenging ourselves with a few simple measures as soon as possible.

We’ve put together a few ideas to get you started:

Play brain games: As we said, the jury might not be out on whether or not brain games really do help boost your brain power. Either way, though, they’re fun and challenging – and more stimulating than other less engaging activities such as watching reality TV.

Nutrition for the brain: Think Sharp is a potent supplement containing natural ingredients with excellent clinical data supporting their efficacy for improving memory and attention and reducing the damage caused by the oxidation, cell death, and brain shrinkage associated with the problems of aging.  In addition, the DHA in fish oil is also one of the most important nutrients to help nourish your brain. 

Go online and look for a class: Some studies have shown that low levels of education might lead to an earlier onset of Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia. Getting in a little mental stimulation now – learn to play the guitar, build a birdhouse, master Julia Child’s famous boeuf bourguignon recipe, or delve into the works of Shakespeare – could help protect against memory loss for longer⁴.

Learn the words to a song:  This test of memory will boost your ability to retain information and recall it. Choosing something tricky – something technical with complex lyrics will fit the bill - as it requires close focus and works several different parts of the brain⁵.

Exercise: According to a 2009 study conducted by the University of Western Australia, aerobic exercise – which boosts oxygen to the brain - is a key factor in keeping the brain healthy. Researchers found that those who exercised moderately to vigorously once each week – much less than experts recommend for overall health – were 30 percent more likely to maintain cognitive function than those who didn’t exercise at all⁶.