Activities To Keep Your Senior Loved One Mentally Agile

It’s common to experience a decline in mental health or memory loss as you get older. As you grow old, your brain’s volume gradually shrinks which causes some of the nerve cells in the brain to shrink or lose connections with other nerve cells. Also, blood flow within your brain slows somewhat with age. It’s important to find ways to help keep the minds of older adults stimulated and engaged in order for their brains to remain active and healthy. There are lapses in memory periodically, but significant memory loss isn’t a normal part of getting older. Consult your healthcare provider if you or a loved one is experiencing memory loss and other cognitive symptoms that stands in the way of normal activities and relationships.

Affect Of Dementia On Cognitive Skills:

According to the National Institute On Aging, dementia happens when the brain’s nerve cells stop working, lose connections with other brain cells, and die; dementia is as having two or more core functions, such as memory, visual perception, language skills, etc.- that are impaired. Besides, cognitive skills like the ability to reason and solve problems may also be impaired.

Some of the causes of dementia includes Alzheimer’s disease (the most common cause), vascular dementia (a decline in thinking skills caused by cerebrovascular disease), Lewy Body Dementia (the third most common cause that is caused by abnormal protein deposits that buildup inside nerve cells, forming clumps called Lewy bodies), frontotemporal dementia (the most common form of dementia for people under 60 years of age), and other types of dementia.

For Dementia or Alzheimer’s care for your senior loved one, it’s better you consider an assisted facility for the best form of care and support. These are some of the senior health challenges Anthem Senior Living in Phoenix works with. We are an award-winning Anthem assisted living facility in the region.

Steps that can help keep your mind sharp as you age:

1. Don’t smoke or drink in excess.
2. Keep your blood pressure and cholesterol levels in check.
3. Eat a healthy diet.
4. Exercise regularly.
5. Educate yourself on Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
6. Socialize more.
7. Reduce chronic stress.
8. Get adequate sleep.
9. Mindfulness meditation.
10. Stimulate your brain by engaging in mentally stimulating activities which may help build cognitive reserve (ability of brain to use connections between nerve cells to enable to continue to perform cognitive tasks despite damaging brain changes).

Here’s a list of some useful activities:

Crosswords- It is one of the most effective activities to help keep the mind sharp that involves individuals with each clue to remember names, places, and words, boosting your memory.

Reading– Reading can actually be an excellent way to keep the mind sharp as it can offer significant cognitive stimulation by providing new stories to experience and facts to learn.

Music And Dance– One way to help stimulate your loved one’s auditory memory and cardiovascular system are through music and dancing where the former can help seniors remember their past experiences and even develop new memories through songs, whereas the latter encourages feel-good emotions (crucial for senior health and wellness), and also jogging their mind to remember dance steps can help blood flow to the brain.

Travel– There are no two ways about the fact that travel can offer wonderful, stimulating experiences, which can be as simple as a weekend getaway. Travel breaks the monotony of life and offers fresh new experiences which is ideal for individuals of any age. Your loved one besides enjoying a new adventure, may even make a friend or two that opens up possibilities of pen friends to further keep the mind sharp.