Emerging research from the field of neuroscience reveals that people as young as 30 should engage in regular brain activity to stave off the early onset of diseases such as Alzheimer's and dementia.
Carmelita Yates, 73, has taken that advice to heart.
The 73-year-old has long since retired, but she's committed to keeping her mind sharp by working Sudoku and crossword puzzles and online games like solitaire and mahjong.
So far, it's worked, she said.
"We don't have a history of these diseases in my family, but I don't want to be the first one to get them, either," Yates said.
Manufacturers of video games, including Nintendo and Sony, have jumped aboard this bandwagon, too. Both companies have released games with this research in mind and specifically targeted people like Yates who are determined not to get Alzheimer's disease or dementia.
Nintendo's Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree challenges two players of any age to work quickly and accurately to answer questions involving math, science and even sports. It also incorporates a controller. Unlike the Wii - pronounced "we" - Sony has released a hand-held game called Brain Age: Test Your Brain in Minutes A Day that, once the questions have been answered, gives players the age of their brains and challenges them to best it on the next go round.
Publicity material from Nintendo said that the game was "inspired by the research of Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, a Japanese neuroscientist," whose studies evaluated the impact of performing certain reading and mathematical exercises to help stimulate the brain.
Further, that same research indicates that the brain is no different than any other muscle in the body that must be exercised in order to stay fit, a sort of use-it-or-lose-it idea.
"We can do a great deal to maintain and even improve our mental abilities," said Dr. Elizabeth Zelinski, dean and executive director for the University of Southern California Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. "Aging is about taking on new challenges for our minds."
Even those who have a genetic predisposition to developing Alzheimer's or dementia can stave off the early effects of the disease through regular brain work-outs.
"It's not just about misplacing your keys. The more you make your brain work, the more you save the cells and the connections they make," said Dr. Badr Sultan, a neurologist with an office in Florence. "It's well known that when autopsies were performed on patients with high levels of education, we found more connections between the brain cells than of some patients of a similar age but with a lower level of education."
And, even though an early retirement might seem like the cure for high blood pressure and other heart-related diseases, Sultan said it's not the best thing for the brain.
"When you retire early, you no longer make your brain work as hard as it was before retirement," he said, and, although engaging in brain games is good, any kind of mental activity that challenges you is better than nothing at all.
Yates agrees, especially when it comes to crypto quotes.
She can be found most nights engaged in a battle with the puzzle because she said she's the "type of person who, if I don't get it the first time, will put it down and pick it back up later."
And, 99 percent of the time, she solves it, she said. But when she's not doing her nightly puzzle, she has something else - such as cross-stitching, reading and photography - to keep her brain busy and healthy.
"Of course, I go to the doctor for regular check-ups, but I haven't talked about (dementia or Alzheimer's), I haven't had to," she said adding that maybe all this brain activity is doing the trick.
Michelle Rupe Eubanks can be reached at 740-5745 or michelle.eubanks@timesdaily.com.
