We all know to exercise our bodies to keep fit, but how often do you
think about exercising your brain? And what type of exercise does it
need anyway? What are the facts? What is the secret to mental agility?

Keeping mentally active will keep your brain in good shape. Getting
older does not mean that you have to be forgetful!

Recent research into Alzheimer's disease found that people who were
less active between the ages of 20 and 60 years are almost 4 times
more likely to develop the disease. The brain, like the rest of the
body, needs to be kept active to keep healthy.

You exercise your body to keep it in shape. Now it has been shown that
exercising your brain can keep it in shape too.

That leaves us with the question of what to do to keep our brains
active. The research discovered that how you spend your leisure time
can affect the health of your brain.

Leisure activities can be divided into -

Passive activities, which include watching TV, participating in social
activities, and listening to music.

Intellectual activities are reading, painting, playing a musical
instrument, woodworking.

Physical activities, for example, gardening, playing sport, working
out at the gym, walking, jogging.

The only 'activity' that the Alzheimer's patients had performed more
frequently than the control group was watching TV!

The research team was lead by Robert Friedland, professor of
neurology, University Hospitals of Cleveland. He said "A relative
increase in the amount of time devoted to intellectual activities from
early adulthood (ages 20-39) to mid-adulthood (ages 40-60) was
associated with a significant decrease in the probability of having
Alzheimer's disease later in life."

An intellectual or physical hobby stimulates the brain and may reduce
neurodegeneration as seen in diseases such as Alzheimer's. So sitting
watching the

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