Chores: Stop using convenience tools. Use your hands, arms and legs to clean the house, garden, clear the garage, trim the hedge and more

Languages: Don’t be satisfied only knowing one language… learn a second or even a third

Tumeric: Research shows tumeric maybe a powerful preventative against dementia

Puzzles: Have fun with puzzles and change them frequently because your brain adapts so quickly to new challenges

Walk: Keep walking… your goal is 10,000 steps a day

Fish: Easy to prepare, cook and cleanup. Delicious too! Add it to your weekly menus x3/week

Nuts: Keep a bowl of walnuts or almonds handy for snacking

Green Tea: Every afternoon with cucumber sandwiches

Sing: Join a choir, sing to the radio or your IPod, sing in public or privately, sing for your brain

Brain: The most important structure in your body

Spirituality: Believe in a higher power, meditate

Physical: Keep moving

Mental: Maintain a high level of brain stimulation

Nutrition: Go five star when it comes to food choices

Community: Be social, practice inter-generational living

Bonus – Resistance Training: Recently shown to be the #1 physical exercise for brain health

One of the biggest and increasing risks to maintaining a healthy brain is S T R E S S caused by what some see as an obsession with technology.

The primary area of the brain that deals with stress is its limbic system. Because of its enormous influence on emotions and memory, the limbic system is often referred to as the emotional brain.

As research is published about the impact of stress and its consequences on overall brain performance, the picture is far from rosy. A chronic overreaction to stress overloads the brain with powerful hormones that are intended only for short-term duty in emergency situations. Their cumulative effect damages and kills brain cells.

Our everyday lives are being driven more and more by technology. We are all experiencing the reality of being hooked-into technology 24/7 that produces previously unimaginable amounts of information and expectations for on-going connectivity.

Our brains are under the influence of an ever- expanding world of new technology: multichannel television, video games, MP3 players, the internet, wireless networks, Bluetooth links – the list goes on and on.

Email floods in every minute of each day. Just recently I’ve noticed an increase in “weekend” email from organizations I don’t know who are attempting to engage me in whatever they are offering.

With smaller devices and Google at our fingertips we can find answers more quickly to almost anything without a second thought. Some are even questioning the future capability of children’s brains as they are being introduced to basic technology at younger and younger ages. Texting has become the popular communications link for teens and is becoming so with their parents. There is a sense of immediacy for each communication.

Social networks are increasing the number of “friends” which in turn can diminish the positive aspects and time spent in true and meaningful community relationships that are shown to benefit our overall health.

No one is suggesting we ditch technology but there is an urgent need for a greater awareness of our time spent with technology, its social impact and its impact on our brains.

10 new habits for less stress and improved brain health:

• Deliberately monitor the environment you are spending time in… your brain is spending time in that same environment
• Consciously monitor your anxiety levels – turn the technology off when feeling overwhelmed
• Carve out space in a specific time period when usage of technology is either limited or eliminated
• Practice best habits when using cell phones in public areas such as restaurants and during events
• Create spaces in your home that are designated technology free as you might do when smoking is a concern
• Have a separate email address for family members. Stop monitoring other addresses at specific times like weekends
• Unsubscribe to distribution lists of little interest
• Create friendly auto-response messages that tell senders you will not respond for a given time. Your stress level will be reduced and their expectations qualified
• Design interests that are focused on creativity – a great stress reducer and powerful influence in maintaining a healthy brain
• Spend time in what I call the Mediterranean style of community – family, conversation,  breaking bread with several generations participating and of course a glass of wine

Devices will continue to get smaller, be more transportable and offer more. But that doesn’t mean they have to be with us or turned on all of the time. Life without technology can actually be a lot of fun and our brains will thank us by serving us better, longer.

“If music be the food of love, play on.” The Duke Orsino of Illyria, presiding over the merry, mixed-up world of Twelfth Night, opens the play with these festive sentiments.

“If music be the food of the brain, play on.” I coined this modern version of Shakespeare’s writings as I listened to Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance. I don’t think I could call myself an ardent follower of light opera but the P of P and Trial by Jury are favourites of mine. As I sit here with the rain pouring down outside I have to admit that my mood is livened by this music… I am actually singing and whistling along. No embarrassment as I am alone!

There is a real tie-in here to several other passions of mine. First, the growing recognition that exposure to the arts, particularly music, can help dementia sufferers to reconnect with themselves and even slow their rate of cognitive decline.

Secondly, I am spearheading a new non-profit, the Sing for Your Life Foundation. It brings participatory singing and music making into the lives of elders aging at home. We have completed a pilot project and now we are poised to continue and expand our programs into the lives of many more elders and even to those with a wide range of cognitive capacities living in retirement residences

There have been incredible advances in the understanding of dementia. Yes, the projected high levels of diagnoses world-wide are frightening (one person is diagnosed world-wide every four seconds) but researchers are finding ways for earlier detection that will enable intervention therapies to be introduced sooner that will hopefully delay mental decline.

But music has also been shown to be beneficial to those without the dementia gene. It certainly betters my mood. Those people who may have a tendency towards depression find it elevating mentally. Some of our foundation’s volunteers come from barber-shop style groups and I notice their facial expressions are always beaming as they sing. Can you think of a healthier outcome to something so simple to access?

As for our participant singers and music makers (some of whom are functioning at relatively high levels of cognition) these activities bring them alive, bolster the communities they interact with and provide new hope. Music allows for their personalities to shine.

Helena Muller, founder of the Lost Chord in theUK, says: “Music unlocks that door behind which a frightened, intimidated and humiliated person hides.”

My work with elders and starting to work in residential homes has given me a new respect for the golden age. To see music breathe new life into our souls is nothing short of inspiring. It washes away the complicated and fractious places that surround us all.

A final note (no pun intended) – you don’t have to sing in tune or be able to read music. Just open your mouth. The bottom line to all these studies: music has a profound impact on other skills including speech and language, memory and attention, and even the ability to convey emotions vocally.

For more information about the power of song or the international Sing for Your Life organization contact me directly.

There’s always a start date to something new. I chose Sundays because it is the start of a new week. Read my SMARTS Brain Fitness Journal on Fridays and then plan to implement the best ideas for one week starting on Sunday. Create this habit and your neurons will love you more!

I started Sunday Brain Fitness Days (SBFD) a few weeks ago having completed a virtual brain coaching program with another 70 people in more than 20 countries. Those kinds of participation levels confirm the expediential interest people have in knowing more about their brain. The brain (muscle) needs a workout just like the ones you can see in the mirror every morning.

I had always kept a physical fitness journal so it was easy to design and add a brain fitness section. The reason I keep the journal is mostly about motivation and challenge. Effective brain fitness programs have to be challenging. Your brain adapts to doing the same old thing very quickly… you wouldn’t just keep lifting the same old five pound weights.

These are the four pillars of designing an effective program:

• Healthy Nutrition
• Aerobic Exercise
• Stress Management
• Mental Stimulation

On Sunday’s I introduce a few different nutritional choices. The key focus for me is to reduce plate sizes. Research shows that great things can happen when we eat only 80 percent of our normal plate sizes. I love food but I never miss the 20 percent I don’t consume and it keeps me smiling when I check in on the weight scales. I also keep a couple of bowls of almonds and walnuts close by for nibbling at.

Many of us like to get active on Sundays. Some of the chores we have to complete can be considered as aerobic. Skip the power tools to get the heart beating faster thereby increasing the blood flow to the brain. No chores, put your walking shoes on and count off six thousand fast paced steps.

Ah… the stress of everyday life. Those aggravating things that go wrong in the day and those irritating things that go bump in the night – disrupting routines and interrupting sleep – all have a cumulative effect on your brain, especially its ability to remember and learn. As science gains greater insight into the consequences of stress on the brain, the picture that emerges is not a pretty one. A chronic overreaction to stress overloads the brain with powerful hormones that are intended only for short-term duty in emergency situations. Their cumulative effect damages and kills brain cells.

Sundays are avoid-a-stress days when I plan to avoid as much stress as possible. Creativity, its one of the few activities that engages both sides of the brain, is also great for stress relief. In preparation for Sunday make a list of the things you can be more creative at. We all get stuck in a rut of doing things a certain way. There’s always another way of doing something… think them through and do them differently.

Instead of going to the gym and working out all those other muscles find something challenging to stimulate the brain. It can be anything providing it qualifies as being new and complex. Playing chess, scrabble or doing Sudoku incessantly does not count. If all else fails Google brain games and try one out. If your brain feels tired afterwards you have likely given it a good workout.

More on last week’s posting Hanging Up the Keys… the AAA introduces new brain training program for its members http://tinyurl.com/6o776au

The human brain contains about a hundred billion neurons.  Each neuron, on average, is connected to seven thousand other neurons.  That’s hundreds of trillions of connections.  And somehow, all we are – all we know, and feel and remember – is encoded in those trillions of neurons and synapses – the human Connectome.  In his new book, neuroscientist Sebastian Seung describes the ultimate plan for decoding, understanding, and perhaps one day duplicating the Connectome.

Watch Sebastian on TED.com http://tinyurl.com/39ekgnc

Making Dementia Care a Priority: Watch this 3.3m video – http://tinyurl.com/79a6fwb

I will always remember the day when I had to break the news to my Mother that she could no longer drive because she was becoming confused by her local surroundings. It was devastating to her and unfortunate news for me because it signalled her greater dependency on my chauffeuring – she lived in the heart of the English countryside served by a very infrequent and unreliable bus service.

She had always been a “thrilling” driver. She was nick-named Sheila Van Dam by her friends, after a Monte Carlo rally driver from the 60’s. She had always driven sportier cars. Later in life she drove a bright green Citroen at what appeared to be break-neck speed through the English country lanes. The phrase “slowly through the villages” once popular in the very early days of English motoring might have fallen on deaf ears! She was an altogether with-it-senior in so many ways and now she was being asked to hang up her keys.

Emotions ran high for quite a while and yes I was called upon more often to run errands. In some ways hanging up those keys was the first in a chain of events that signalled a change of lifestyle for my Mother and dramatically reduced the transition time for her eventual move into a retirement home.

Now Canada’s leading general medical journal is calling for a graduated licensing system for the country’s seniors. From the number of letters to the editor and other media coverage this recommendation is raising the hackles on the backs of many seniors. As one senior commented: The audacity of them!

In part the Canadian Medical Association’s recommendation was in support of their physician members who are frequently asked to report driver incompetency’s to provincial driving authorities – something many physicians do not comply with.

“The big point of our article is to reframe the clinical interaction, put it in a positive light specifically as physicians endorsing a full driver’s licence rather than physicians imposing a restricted driver’s licence,” said the 51-year-old Dr. Redelmeier, co-author of the report.

I was motivated to write my own letter to the editor of the Globe and Mail: “While introducing a graduated licence system might be appropriate, a more productive approach would be for all seniors to engage in a brain fitness program. Research shows that challenging the brain with new and complex exercises maintains and increases our cognitive reserves and may even delay the onset of dementia. There are specific programs that enhance driving ability. This approach would benefit seniors in “everything” they undertake, not just driving.”

Let us know your opinion on this story

There are several developers of brain training software designed specifically for elder drivers that strengthens the cognitive skills. As one developer says “it will reduce those nail-biting moments”.

Receive our FREE report featuring the description, highlights and cost of this software.

Do you know an elder driver? Perhaps he/she is a family member or a friend. Pay this posting forward by passing it along.

 ***Breaking News***

The World Health Organization, Geneva announced April 11, 2012. Dementia cases worldwide will triple to over 155 million by 2050. Heavy social and financial burdens associated with them — are set to soar in the coming decades. Only 8 countries have a strategic plan… Canada is not one of them.

Recently I moved house and some things that had once been familiar in my previous house are now different.

One of those different things is the way the window blinds work; they work in a completely opposite way. For days I became slightly irritated with myself because, and through habit, I failed to memorise how to operate them correctly the first time.

Then I contrived an “association technique” to help recall and operate them the right way, the first time. Very simple!

Just the other day I watched a video about some of these techniques contestants used in the 2012 USA Memory Championships. They reminded me of a saying: “You are not stuck with the memory you were born with!”

I especially enjoyed the “Tea Party” where five people came up in front of the five remaining competitors, each offering bits of personal information: name, date of birth, place of residence including zip code, 10-digit telephone number, 3 hobbies, 3 favorite foods, favorite car, etc. One by one the people returned in random order, each competitor was asked to recall a particular bit of information about the participant. They went three rounds before anyone made a mistake. Amazing!

Nelson Dellis, a mountain climber from Florida who competes in honor of his beloved Grandmother Josephine who suffered from Alzheimer’s won for the second year in a row. He even broke his own record of memorizing 248 numbers in five minutes, by increasing the number to 303. How did he do it?

As I watched many different types of memory races, it became more and more apparent how association is the key to this type of mental retrieval. Whether its faces, numbers, random words or decks of cards, (or how to work the blinds correctly) each person creates a personal language of familiar images which he or she strings together in a story. In this respect, there is nothing random or impersonal about faces, numbers and words…when it comes to memory and the brain’s particular way of making connections.

As we age our memories fade and this is one clear reason to engage in a brain fitness regimen that becomes part of our daily routines. If you think you are of an age where memory fade is not issue don’t necessarily ignore these techniques. You can build extra cognitive reserves that will stand you in good stead later in life… more on this another time.

I have several exercises I use on a daily basis. While I drive I remember car licence plates and recall them later. I see telephone numbers in advertisements and sequence these in different order. Because I enjoy poetry I memorise new passages and recall them throughout the week.

Maintaining a good memory is crucial. There is nothing more frustrating than forgetfulness and it causes each one of us to question our overall cognitive capacity. The key is to challenge your memory with new and complex tasks and to blend these in on a daily basis.

Just don’t forget to action the plan you make!

This morning I held one of my impromptu market research sessions up at our local coffee shop. My experience is that people are delighted to be asked for their opinions if asked in the right way.

My ask this morning was about a book I am writing on brain fitness. I wanted to know if they would purchase an ebook “Be Your Own Brain Coach” written by a non-medical researcher/coach. Or, they would be more inclined to purchase the same book when written by a medical doctor.

I wanted to find out the best way of framing my book offer.

I had this conversation with three individuals and four couples… a total of eleven people. Nine of the eleven told me they would likely prefer to read a layman’s guide because it would be less academic and an easier read. But there was one proviso… that the book included a complete bibliography referencing the sources of my research.

I’m writing this book because I became intrigued by the brain when I met my first brain research fellow in 2007 – Dr. Gene Cohen author of the Creative Mind. Since then I have spent many hours understanding more about the brain and current research and even facilitating a couple of brain fitness pilot programs in my local community.

The many hours I have spent are not necessarily available to everyone even if they are as keenly interested and as curious as I am. Stephen Covey once suggested that people learn better if they intend to teach or pass the information on… a theory I follow here.

One question always leads to another at the coffee shop. People love to have an opportunity of talking about themselves! One couple went on to tell me how they were both involved in life long learning and teaching… one teaching history and the other political science in senior learning programs. Both of these activities are great for preserving and building cognitive capacity. As they said, “It sure beats boredom”.

Our brains need a work out to stay fit, just like our physical bodies do. The book is my workout. Stay tuned and I’ll tell you more about the book’s progress as I go along.

Get to know your brain more!

“As we age, our brains get lighter,” says BBC News. “By so, the average human brain lost 15 per cent of its original weight… despite the universality of aging, scientists do not fully understand why our brains experience this continuous loss of grey matter as we age. Intriguingly, the brains of monkeys do not seem to undergo the same weight loss, raising the question of whether it is a distinctively human condition.

Read more http://tinyurl.com/3z8eq3t

For the first time in almost 30 years, the Alzheimer’s Association have come out with new guidelines for the diagnosis of this disease.

The new guidelines mark several new understandings. First that it is now being recognized as a continuum of at least three stages – first at what is being termed as a pre-clinical stage – second where there is mild cognitive impairment present and thirdly when dementia is clearly present.

The chief medical and scientific officer for the Association says “the new guidelines will result in little change in current clinical practice of medicine as applied to Alzheimer’s disease. . . . [However] the new criteria are really extending the range of our ability to investigate this disease and eventually to find treatments that will be so necessary to avoid the epidemic of Alzheimer’s that we see facing us.”  

Read the entire news release.

Harvard scientists believe a brain scan might detect Alzheimer’s Disease as much as a decade before any other symptoms appear. This early diagnosis would help patients to better prepare for care management before the disease takes hold.

Read the entire article http://tinyurl.com/68jt7sh