The magazine Fast Company ballyhoos the popularity of companies that sell various types of brain games. These are games designed to sharpen a wide range of cognitive skills.
“Sharp Brains, a market research firm tracking the brain fitness space, estimates that the size of the market for digital products was just under $300 million in 2009 and will grow to at least $2 billion by 2015,” Fast Company reported.
Lumosity, one of the field leaders, just got a $32 million capital infusion. There are other, smaller, firms like CogniFit and Posit Science, competing in the field.
Star Trek’s Commander Spock playing the ultimate brain game 3 dimensional chess
Why do people play brain games? One word – Neuroplasticity.
According to Wikipedia, Neuroplasticity is a non-specific neuroscience term referring to the ability of the brain and nervous system in all species to change structurally and functionally as a result of input from the environment. In other words, the brain can change and develop in the same sense that muscles develop with exercise.
Fast Company explains it this way, “the neuroscience research coming out of universities over the past couple of decades has confirmed that cognitive abilities are not necessarily fixed. Just as you can beef up your body by lifting weights, the types of games that Lumosity and its competitors offer can make your brain stronger and work faster and better.”
Customers include traders who want to sharpen their wits, actors looking for help in memorizing and seniors who are trying to fight off memory loss and senility. As it turns out the brain exercises can indeed help the first groups, but will not complete the job for the oldsters.
Sadly, as regular readers of this blog know, the seniors are only getting half their money’s worth.
As I wrote back last September in Exercise, Aging and the Brain, “Exercise increases oxygen flow into the brain, which reduces brain-bound free radicals. One of the most interesting findings of the past few decades is that an increase in oxygen is always accompanied by an uptick in mental sharpness. Exercise acts directly on the molecular machinery of the brain itself. It increases neurons’ creation, survival, and resistance to damage and stress.” Exercise training increases the size of hippocampus and improves memory.
In the April blog post Walking, Not Sudoku for Seniors I also addressed this as these brain exercises build mental skill but do nothing to prevent shrinkage of the size of the brain and as a result declines in memory.
So, traders and actors and younger folks who simply want to increase their cognitive skill levels can have a very successful experience with the new brain games. Seniors, however, need to incorporate exercise in their regimen if they want to be protected against the cognitive problems of aging.
If you have trouble
getting to sleep, no matter how much you toss and turn or what position
you try, you may have restless legs syndrome (RLS). According to the
Mayo Clinic, every year more than 3 million people in the U.S. are
diagnosed with restless leg syndrome, which has no cure.
Those who suffer from it experience different symptoms and degrees of
RLS, but most describe it as a very unpleasant and overwhelming urge to
move their legs. Waking up in the middle of the night with painful leg
cramps is also commonly reported and while the disorder mainly shows up
in the legs, it can affect the head, arms, torso, and other parts of the
body as well.
RLS is caused by disturbances in the nervous system and the disruptions
can make a person's legs and limbs jerk suddenly and move
uncontrollably. The neurological disorder causes one to feel achy,
strained, and painful, and it really just makes life miserable. Symptoms
typically show up at night when people are sleeping or laying down
attempting to fall asleep, which disrupts overall sleep patterns and
drives sufferers even more crazy.
The strange sensations people have reported feeling, like “an itch you
can't scratch” or something “crawling” on them, are only alleviated when
they get up and move around, hence the term restless leg syndrome.
While there is no officially recognized medical cure for RLS, there does
exist an all-natural treatment method that many people have found to be
quite effective. All that it calls for is a simple bar of soap. Use a
fresh bar that's preferably unscented but any brand or kind will work so
long as it's new and not old or dried out. Stick the soap in-between
the sheets or under the bottom fitted sheet and leave it there. Some
people prefer to place the bar in a clean sock first to both protect
their bed sheets and allow it to move around more freely. Either way is
fine so choose what works best for you.
After a month goes by check the soap bar to see how it looks, if it's
shriveled up and dried out then it's old and needs to be replaced with a
fresh one. In the alternative, you can simply scrape off the outermost
surface portion to reveal a fresh layer underneath. The key is to keep
the bar fresh at all times because it's believed that this method works
by the soap releasing ions as it dries out. Once it's all dried up, it
stops working and releasing ions, and is therefore no longer effective.
While no scientific studies or research that explains, supports, or
disproves the soap theory currently exist, a basic online search reveals
countless testimonials from people all around the globe who swear by
it. They claim that after sleeping with a bar of soap their
excruciating, painful leg cramps and other unbearable RLS symptoms
quickly disappeared all together, or at least enough to where they could
sleep comfortably again. All they had to do was place a bar of soap in
their bed sheets, sit back, relax, and let it do its magic.
If you have RLS or issues with leg cramps, then try this method tonight
because there's nothing to lose and potentially lots to gain from it,
like better sleep quality and more comfort. It's cheap, easy, and
reportedly very effective. Even if this home remedy doesn't work for you
at least you won't be out hundreds of dollars, which is what a new
mattress or alternative treatments and medicines can easily end up
costing. If anything all that you'll end up with is an extra bar of
soap!... Read More: http://www.whydontyoutrythis.com/2016/06/how-to-treat-restless-leg-syndrome-and-improve-your-sleep.html
If you have trouble
getting to sleep, no matter how much you toss and turn or what position
you try, you may have restless legs syndrome (RLS). According to the
Mayo Clinic, every year more than 3 million people in the U.S. are
diagnosed with restless leg syndrome, which has no cure.
Those who suffer from it experience different symptoms and degrees of
RLS, but most describe it as a very unpleasant and overwhelming urge to
move their legs. Waking up in the middle of the night with painful leg
cramps is also commonly reported and while the disorder mainly shows up
in the legs, it can affect the head, arms, torso, and other parts of the
body as well.
RLS is caused by disturbances in the nervous system and the disruptions
can make a person's legs and limbs jerk suddenly and move
uncontrollably. The neurological disorder causes one to feel achy,
strained, and painful, and it really just makes life miserable. Symptoms
typically show up at night when people are sleeping or laying down
attempting to fall asleep, which disrupts overall sleep patterns and
drives sufferers even more crazy.
The strange sensations people have reported feeling, like “an itch you
can't scratch” or something “crawling” on them, are only alleviated when
they get up and move around, hence the term restless leg syndrome.
While there is no officially recognized medical cure for RLS, there does
exist an all-natural treatment method that many people have found to be
quite effective. All that it calls for is a simple bar of soap. Use a
fresh bar that's preferably unscented but any brand or kind will work so
long as it's new and not old or dried out. Stick the soap in-between
the sheets or under the bottom fitted sheet and leave it there. Some
people prefer to place the bar in a clean sock first to both protect
their bed sheets and allow it to move around more freely. Either way is
fine so choose what works best for you.
After a month goes by check the soap bar to see how it looks, if it's
shriveled up and dried out then it's old and needs to be replaced with a
fresh one. In the alternative, you can simply scrape off the outermost
surface portion to reveal a fresh layer underneath. The key is to keep
the bar fresh at all times because it's believed that this method works
by the soap releasing ions as it dries out. Once it's all dried up, it
stops working and releasing ions, and is therefore no longer effective.
While no scientific studies or research that explains, supports, or
disproves the soap theory currently exist, a basic online search reveals
countless testimonials from people all around the globe who swear by
it. They claim that after sleeping with a bar of soap their
excruciating, painful leg cramps and other unbearable RLS symptoms
quickly disappeared all together, or at least enough to where they could
sleep comfortably again. All they had to do was place a bar of soap in
their bed sheets, sit back, relax, and let it do its magic.
If you have RLS or issues with leg cramps, then try this method tonight
because there's nothing to lose and potentially lots to gain from it,
like better sleep quality and more comfort. It's cheap, easy, and
reportedly very effective. Even if this home remedy doesn't work for you
at least you won't be out hundreds of dollars, which is what a new
mattress or alternative treatments and medicines can easily end up
costing. If anything all that you'll end up with is an extra bar of
soap!... Read More: http://www.whydontyoutrythis.com/2016/06/how-to-treat-restless-leg-syndrome-and-improve-your-sleep.html
If you have trouble
getting to sleep, no matter how much you toss and turn or what position
you try, you may have restless legs syndrome (RLS). According to the
Mayo Clinic, every year more than 3 million people in the U.S. are
diagnosed with restless leg syndrome, which has no cure.
Those who suffer from it experience different symptoms and degrees of
RLS, but most describe it as a very unpleasant and overwhelming urge to
move their legs. Waking up in the middle of the night with painful leg
cramps is also commonly reported and while the disorder mainly shows up
in the legs, it can affect the head, arms, torso, and other parts of the
body as well.
RLS is caused by disturbances in the nervous system and the disruptions
can make a person's legs and limbs jerk suddenly and move
uncontrollably. The neurological disorder causes one to feel achy,
strained, and painful, and it really just makes life miserable. Symptoms
typically show up at night when people are sleeping or laying down
attempting to fall asleep, which disrupts overall sleep patterns and
drives sufferers even more crazy.
The strange sensations people have reported feeling, like “an itch you
can't scratch” or something “crawling” on them, are only alleviated when
they get up and move around, hence the term restless leg syndrome.
While there is no officially recognized medical cure for RLS, there does
exist an all-natural treatment method that many people have found to be
quite effective. All that it calls for is a simple bar of soap. Use a
fresh bar that's preferably unscented but any brand or kind will work so
long as it's new and not old or dried out. Stick the soap in-between
the sheets or under the bottom fitted sheet and leave it there. Some
people prefer to place the bar in a clean sock first to both protect
their bed sheets and allow it to move around more freely. Either way is
fine so choose what works best for you.
After a month goes by check the soap bar to see how it looks, if it's
shriveled up and dried out then it's old and needs to be replaced with a
fresh one. In the alternative, you can simply scrape off the outermost
surface portion to reveal a fresh layer underneath. The key is to keep
the bar fresh at all times because it's believed that this method works
by the soap releasing ions as it dries out. Once it's all dried up, it
stops working and releasing ions, and is therefore no longer effective.
While no scientific studies or research that explains, supports, or
disproves the soap theory currently exist, a basic online search reveals
countless testimonials from people all around the globe who swear by
it. They claim that after sleeping with a bar of soap their
excruciating, painful leg cramps and other unbearable RLS symptoms
quickly disappeared all together, or at least enough to where they could
sleep comfortably again. All they had to do was place a bar of soap in
their bed sheets, sit back, relax, and let it do its magic.
If you have RLS or issues with leg cramps, then try this method tonight
because there's nothing to lose and potentially lots to gain from it,
like better sleep quality and more comfort. It's cheap, easy, and
reportedly very effective. Even if this home remedy doesn't work for you
at least you won't be out hundreds of dollars, which is what a new
mattress or alternative treatments and medicines can easily end up
costing. If anything all that you'll end up with is an extra bar of
soap!... Read More: http://www.whydontyoutrythis.com/2016/06/how-to-treat-restless-leg-syndrome-and-improve-your-sleep.html
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