Exercising the Brain

Maintaining healthy brain function is a goal everyone should establish.   The brain is an extraordinary work of art and houses over a hundred billion nerve cells which all communicate with one another.  These billions of cells need to stay active as we age, or else they will retire right along with us when we hit 65!

Form these mental pictures in your mind to help understand this concept.

A)  A Fortune 500 CEO retires early in life only to find himself bored each day.  While he once spent endless hours brainstorming new ideas to expand his business, he now sits by the pool soaking up the sun and RELAXING.  Mr. CEO's once ACTIVE BRAIN is now set on cruise control to destination NO THOUGHTS.  Inactivity has slowed his brain cell functions because there is no focus anymore.

B) Miss Eileen has retired from teaching High School English/Literature for 35 years.  She was dubbed The Terminator because she demanded from her students their very best and then some.  Involved discussions of selected novels and heated debates of how to form the perfect thought on paper would spike brain cell function daily.  Once The Terminator retired to a lovely life of weeding the garden and sitting on the front porch sipping some sweet tea, she found herself forgetting simple things, such as what day of the week it was or if what she ate the day before.  Those brain cells were not spiking as they had before.

Loss of brain function can lead to dementia, or even Alzheimers.  It is very important that as we age we continue to exercise our brains.

Sitters Etc., a non-medical homecare company, trains our caregivers to help monitor our clients for signs of dementia.  However,  our goal is to encourage our clients to exercise their brains.  Many of our caregivers with Sitters Etc. work with our senior clients on a daily basis to maintain brain function.  Some of the simple things our caregivers do with some of our immobile senior clients are working crossword puzzles together, playing card games or Scrabble, asking about family members and their activities together through the previous years.  You don't have to be able to walk to keep the brain active.   For our mobile and active clients,  our Sitters Etc. caregivers may do things to keep their clients brains active by transporting them to weekly bridge games where they stay active with their friends,  scheduling weekly appointments and activities together, following recipes, etc.  Remember to encourage yourself or your parents to exercise our brains!