03/09/2009 - 4:16pm

Reversing Age-Related Cognitive Decline

I’ve noticed that as people begin to experience age-related cognitive decline, they naturally start wondering about how much of it is normal and how much is reversible. Well, the bad news is that it’s inevitable and perfectly normal, and the good news is that you can do something about it.

Age-related cognitive decline is normal and usually occurs gradually. As you age, a combination of factors affects your ability to interact with the environment as you used to. Your senses–mainly vision and hearing– begin to weaken, the signals they send to the brain slow down, and your brain's information processing slows down as well. Those are the main reasons for the typical cognitive decline that begin for most people in their 50’s and 60’s.

Scientists have been gathering evidence about the consequences of normal aging for years. By following groups of people for extended periods of time, they are able to compare their cognitive capabilities over many years. These studies show that normal age-related cognitive decline affects the speed but not quality of our mental functioning. In other words, as we age we tend to perform everyday cognitive tasks more slowly that we did in the past, but our accuracy does not necessarily decline. And not all cognitive abilities are affected by age. Memory, reaction time and reasoning abilities usually show the greatest decline. Other abilities such as verbal expression and social knowledge show little or no decline as we age.

Now for the good news. Recent research has shown that a program of regular and scientifically designed and monitored brain training can slow down and even reverse the cognitive loss that comes with aging. CogniFit employs a team of internationally respected scientists who apply the most rigorous and up-to-date research to develop our programs so that they deliver the best cognitive training available anywhere. Our brain fitness programs offer three major advantages over other programs:

• CogniFit brain fitness programs give you an assessment of your key cognitive abilities at the beginning and the end of each training cycle. The fact that the assessment is independent of the training ensures that you will receive accurate information about your strengths and weaknesses, as well as your progress.
• Our training addresses 14 cognitive abilities that have been proven to be crucial for maintaining an active and healthy lifestyle. With CogniFit brain fitness programs, you receive the most comprehensive training possible, because the benefits are spread over a wide range of cognitive domains.
• Our unique methodologies provide you a mix of tasks that are tailored to your current cognitive status. The program continually adapts the level of difficulty to your needs, making sure that the level of challenge will be optimal for an effective brain workout. Your CogniFit ‘personal coach' comments on your progress and offers tips and suggestions for better training results.