What happens to a pencil if you don’t sharpen it regularly? It becomes dull and blunt after a period of time. The same thing happens to our brain. If we don’t sharpen our brain often, our cognitive abilities become dull, just like the neglected pencil.

Our ability to retain information is one of the brain functions that become affected if we don’t exercise our mental capacities sufficiently. One study published in Psychological Science revealed that it is not enough to merely exercise our brain; we need to challenge it. According to the researcher Dr. Denise Park of the University of Texas, brain games and crossword puzzles are good, but they are not enough to really sharpen our cognition and fight neurodegenerative diseases, such as dementia. Continue reading →

Having a sharp memory has a host of benefits, both for work and in our personal lives. However, there are many factors that can affect our memory, including our lifestyle choices. From what we eat to how we stimulate our brains, all of these things can either help or diminish our ability to remember information when we want or need to.

These same lifestyle choices can also affect our chances of developing neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia, and specifically, Alzheimer’s disease.

On a positive note, there are also ways to strengthen our brain health and lower our risk for memory loss and cognition decline as we age.

Here are different lifestyle choices that can either benefit or cause damage to our memory: Continue reading →