Senior Moment Reduction

Aging boomers are turning to video games to keep their wits agile.

People worried about "senior moments" can now turn to an explosion of brain-asisting video games, such as Nintendo's Brain Age; puzzles that are said to ward off dementia, such as crosswords; and online tips that claim to train the brain.

Many boomers have watched their parents struggle with Alzheimer's and an estimated 10 million of them are now expected to develop the disease, according to a recent report from the Alzheimer's Association.

"People are worried," says Dr. John Hart Jr., medical science director of the Center for Brain-Health at the University of Texas at Dallas.  "You have a large group of the population getting to the age where they are sort of vulnerable to degenerative neurological diseases that seem to be prevalent."

Hart says there is "reasonable evidence" that challenging your brain by learning new things can stave off the cognitive decline that comes with aging.  But brain fitness programs differ from traditional learning by focusing on drills for specific cognitive abilities, such as concentration and retaining information.  Hart says there is no one brain "exercise" that is guaranteed to work for everyone.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2008

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