Does Sudoku Actually Keep Your Brain Young?

When you were a kid, you may have made fun of your grand­par­ents for always los­ing their keys or mix­ing up everyone’s names. But now that you’re get­ting old­er, mis­plac­ing things and for­get­ting names from time to time might not be so comical.

Many old­er adults expe­ri­ence some lev­el of cog­ni­tive decline as they age, like tak­ing a longer time to remem­ber words or becom­ing a bit for­get­ful. As you get old­er, cer­tain areas of your brain — includ­ing ones that are involved in learn­ing and mem­o­ry — start to shrink. Com­mu­ni­ca­tion between nerves in the brain can weak­en, and blood flow with­in your brain can decrease. These changes can then affect how you func­tion, lead­ing to those nor­mal changes in cog­ni­tion that come with aging. 

In an effort to min­i­mize these effects, many peo­ple have turned to puz­zles like cross­words and Sudoku. Oth­ers go to the gym on a dai­ly basis or try eat­ing ​“brain food.” 

So, what is the key to keep­ing your brain sharp as you age?

Don’t Put All of Your Eggs in the Sudoku and Puz­zle Basket

The experts have mixed opin­ions on the pow­er of puzzles.

A large 2019 study from the Unit­ed King­dom found that adults ages 50 and old­er have bet­ter atten­tion, rea­son­ing, and mem­o­ry the more often they play puz­zles like Sudoku or cross­words. Accord­ing to the study, among peo­ple who play word num­ber and word puz­zles, brain func­tion is equal to 8 years younger than their age when it comes to short-term mem­o­ry, and 10 years younger than their age when it comes to gram­mat­i­cal reasoning.

It sounds promis­ing, but not every­one agrees. Some sci­en­tists believe that puz­zles may help you con­cen­trate for a cou­ple of hours, but they won’t have any long-term effects on your brain. Researchers from Scot­land have sug­gest­ed that puz­zles don’t pre­vent cog­ni­tion loss, but they may put people’s brains at a high­er start­ing point — it takes more age-relat­ed stim­uli for puz­zle play­ers to begin the nat­ur­al cog­ni­tive decline that comes with get­ting old­er than it takes for peo­ple who do not play puzzles.

Treat Your Brain Like You Treat Your Heart

By address­ing cer­tain risk fac­tors for heart dis­ease and stroke, you may also decrease your risk for demen­tia — such as dif­fi­cul­ties with mem­o­ry, think­ing, prob­lem-solv­ing, and mak­ing deci­sions that inter­fere with your every­day life. Research has shown that at least 40% of demen­tias could poten­tial­ly be delayed or com­plete­ly pre­vent­ed by doing so.

Steps you can take to pro­tect both your heart and your brain may include:

• Low­er­ing your blood sug­ar, cho­les­terol, and blood pressure

• Get­ting enough sleep (most adults should get about 7 to 9 hours per night)

• Fol­low­ing a heart-healthy diet that includes plen­ty of fruits and veg­eta­bles, whole grains, and lean meats, and lim­its unprocessed foods, added sug­ars, salt, and alcohol

• Stay­ing phys­i­cal­ly active

  • At least 150 min­utes each week of mod­er­ate-inten­si­ty phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, like brisk walk­ing or ball­room danc­ing, OR at least 75 min­utes each of week of high-inten­si­ty activ­i­ty, like swim­ming laps or running

  • At least 2 days each week of mod­er­ate- or high-inten­si­ty mus­cle-strength­en­ing activ­i­ties, like lift­ing weights

Also read, ​“10 Tell­tale Signs Your Loved One May be Devel­op­ing Demen­tia: Some of the most com­mon signs to help you catch demen­tia ear­ly”

Quit Smok­ing — Even If You’ve Smoked for Your Entire Life

Giv­ing up smok­ing is so impor­tant for pre­vent­ing demen­tia that it deserves a lit­tle extra attention.

You’re prob­a­bly aware of some of the biggest risks of smok­ing cig­a­rettes — lung can­cer, heart dis­ease, stroke, etc. If those warn­ings haven’t been enough to moti­vate you to quit, add anoth­er risk to the list: dementia.

• Cur­rent smok­ers are about 30% more like­ly to devel­op demen­tia — and specif­i­cal­ly, about 40% more like­ly to get Alzheimer’s disease.

• The more you smoke, the greater your like­li­hood of devel­op­ing demen­tia. Your risk increas­es by 34% for every 20 cig­a­rettes smoked each day.

• Glob­al­ly, about 14% of cas­es of demen­tia may be due to smoking.

How­ev­er, even if you have smoked for years, it’s not too late to quit. In fact, a 2019 study found that the high­er risk of demen­tia among smok­ers decreas­es grad­u­al­ly from the time a per­son quits. After 9 years, their risk is no dif­fer­ent than the risk among peo­ple who nev­er smoked. 

Want to learn more about how healthy liv­ing can keep your brain health in check as you get old­er? Make an appoint­ment with a Duly Health and Care pri­ma­ry care provider.

Stay Social

Build­ing and main­tain­ing social con­nec­tions can go a long way in pro­tect­ing your brain health:

• Lone­li­ness is a risk fac­tor for demen­tia — and may be asso­ci­at­ed with as much as a 40% increased risk 

• Par­tic­i­pat­ing in pro­duc­tive, mean­ing­ful activ­i­ties along with oth­ers can improve cog­ni­tive function

• Peo­ple with more active social lives tend to have slow­er decline in memory

The ben­e­fits of stay­ing social go beyond brain health — peo­ple who have stronger social con­nec­tions have been shown to have bet­ter health and well-being, and even a longer life expectancy. 

Also read, ​“Grow­ing Old Grace­ful­ly: Steps You Can Take Now That Will Keep You Feel­ing Your Best as You Age”

Keep Up With Your Pri­ma­ry Care Provider

When you take care of your body, you’re tak­ing care of your brain. Med­ical con­di­tions from dia­betes to depres­sion to head trau­ma can increase your risk for demen­tia or oth­er prob­lems with cog­ni­tive functioning.

See your pri­ma­ry care provider on a reg­u­lar basis, and let them know right away if you have any health con­cerns so that they can work with you on keep­ing your health in check and your brain sharp.