If you enjoy working your way through a crossword or Sudoku puzzle, you’re doing more than just entertaining yourself. Activities like these may help keep your brain sharp. Puzzles and brain teasers may help prevent what neurologists call cognitive decline, which brings symptoms including mild memory loss and even dementia. These symptoms can make it harder to carry out even simple daily activities, such as taking medication and running errands. And that can make it harder to live independently.

Studying the Brain
Fortunately, researchers have found some helpful ways to help keep aging minds sharp:

• Train your brain. Adults ages 65 and older who had 10 cognitivetraining sessions improved their memory, reasoning ability, and mental-processing skills. When they were retested two years later, the improvements were still there.
• Stay mentally active. Activities such as listening to the radio, going to museums, reading the newspaper, and doing puzzles keep your brain healthy. In a four-year study of older priests and nuns, those who regularly did these activities had a 47 percent lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

Tips to Maintain Your Brainpower
To keep your brain sharp, use it often. Dive into activities that use your imagination or require memory and mental skills. Here are some ideas:

• Play board games. Choose anything from chess and checkers to word and trivia games.
• Read newspapers and books regularly.
• Play card games such as bridge, rummy, and canasta.
• Visit the museum or attend plays.
• Do brain games and puzzles, including crosswords, word puzzles, and math teasers.
• Join a community theater group.
• Play a musical instrument.

Limit TV Time
There’s one activity that actually increases the risk for cognitive decline: watching television. Researchers think that’s because it’s a passive activity that requires little mental effort. This doesn’t mean you have to throw out the TV. But consider switching to some more engaging activities instead of turning on the tube.