Friday 4 January 2019

Brain Activity

I was listening to a Radio 4 programme the other day about us "older people" keeping the brain active to ward of the dreaded dementia.  I was half thing "yada yada ya!, same old - do more exercise, eat healthy, etc etc and then they said something new and interesting.  Apparently there is some new research (possibly German) that as you get older parts of your brain technical "die off" but they have discovered you can re grow your brain cells   by doing completely new (to you) and creative stuff outside of anything you had done in your previous adult working life and to make it something that makes you stretch yourself to feel uncomfortable..

Now that is interesting.

  • I have set my target to do something creative everyday, to include to do something NEW creatively or something that is demanding and difficult for me. 
  • I am going to try to learn a new fact everyday.
  • We are going to work together on crosswords, polyword puzzles, or a TV quiz every week (mastermind, university challenge, type thing).


Day 3 of January 2019 - how are we doing?
We watched University Challenge - husband got 9 answers, I got 2 more, literary ones. with us even beating both teams on one answer. We are competing on "who wants to be a millionaire" - keeping scores.
I have learnt 3 facts
1. Dust blows off the Sahara desert and lands on the Amazon Basin. You can see it from space.
2. My grandson has a G instead of a C in his DNA that makes him lactose intolerant. Genetically his father is northern European and his mother Asian and that means Dad is lactose enabled due to Europeans developing a diary based diet over thousands of years but a diary diet is not in the racial makeup of people from the sub continent of India (mum).
3. The L train which featured a lot in episodes of the TV series ER (which I loved) is a shortened form of the word "elevated" train network. I always wondered why they called it that.

I have started a new creative project which I shall write about tomorrow.

OK I have set no targets for being more active. As they suggest. My husband's arthritis limits walks etc.  I think I am just going to try to be outside for at least 30 mins everyday in any weather and be doing something that leaves me a little puffed.  So far I am tidying and turning the surface of the garden flower beds which are already showing bulbs growing.



6 comments:

  1. Sounds like you're doing all the right things. I'm always playing games/puzzles or crosswords on my phone. Creative stuff will return after the renovations.

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  2. Good ideas and a great plan. I worry because I have had a stroke and have read that raises the possibility of dementia in the future. I like that idea of learning something new and interesting and stretching yourself a little above and beyond.

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  3. I read something similar to that. We are alike in watching Universiy Challenge etc, we also watch 'The Chase' each night. It's always difficult when on of you is unable to walk far, Tom has lung problems and so we are limited like to for taking walks.
    Looking forward to seeing the new project.
    Briony
    x

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  4. Greatt ideas there and another one I read was to try and use your non dominant hand more which I have been doing. I did know the L but only because I am a fan of The Big Bang Theory. For me, a day without making/creating, is like a day without light.

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  5. I was a bit surprised by some of the questions that the "alumni" didn't know! ( Although they did know lots that I didn't obviously!)Back to normal students next week. I'll keep a check to see how many I get! Do you watch Only Connect - that's HARD!

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  6. That’s really interesting. After chemotherapy I was convinced that some brain cells had died off as I couldn’t function as before. I had read somewhere that this was thought to be permanent. I think things have improved though as I can now do puzzles and challenges. Maybe I have grown some new ones. The

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