A note to senior couch spuds–get active! Movement is good for your brain. Increased blood flow, resulting from aerobic activity, brings greater amounts of nutrients and oxygen that feed brain tissue. Aerobic exercise has been shown to significantly enhance cognitive skills in areas such as scheduling, planning, and task coordination. Vigorous movement raises levels of a chemical called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). This chemical is instrumental in developing new capillaries in the brain as well as boosting the number of connections between neurons. It is also believed that BDNF protects nerve cells from free radical damage and can lead to the construction of new neurons.

Working out gives us plenty of additional brain benefits as activity leads to improved mood and emotional outlook. Thirty minutes of moderately vigorous exercise will boost the release of endorphins during the workout and continue to elevate mood throughout the day. The deep limbic system, the brain’s center for many of our emotions, is rife with endorphin receptors and these become very happy campers when they are well nourished with adequate exercise. Similarly, exercise enhances the brain’s ability to take in tryptophan, the precursor to serotonin, which is the feel good chemical.

So there’s no way around it: get off the couch and get your blood circulating. You’ll feel all the happier for it and much smarter too!

In a recent post, I talked about cross-training your brain. Following up on that theme, I thought it might be fun to tease your little gray cells a bit. Here are five riddles that ought to challenge your synapses to fire with stimulation. So take a gander, give them your best, and then scroll down to see the answers.

1. A murderer is condemned to death. He has to choose between three rooms. The first is full of raging fires. The second is full of assassins with loaded guns. The third is full of lions that haven’t eaten in 3 years. Which room is safest for him? 

2. A woman shoots her husband. Then she holds him under water for over 5 minutes. Finally, she hangs him. 5 minutes later they both go out together and enjoy a wonderful dinner together. How can this be? 

 3. What is black when you buy it, red when you use it, and gray when you throw it away? 

 4. Can you name three consecutive days without using the words Wednesday, Friday, or Sunday? 

 5. This is an unusual paragraph. I’m curious as to just how quickly you can find out what is so unusual about it. It looks so ordinary and plain that you would think nothing was wrong with it. In fact, nothing is wrong with it! It is highly unusual though. Study it and think about it, but you still may not find anything odd. But if you work at it a bit, you might find out. Try to do so without any coaching! 

THE ANSWERS TO ALL FIVE RIDDLES ARE BELOW: 

1. The third room. Lions that haven’t eaten in three years are dead. That one was easy, right? 

2. The woman was a photographer. She shot a picture of her husband, 

developed it, and hung it up to dry (shot; held under water; and hung). 

3. Charcoal, as it is used in barbecuing. 

4. Sure you can name three consecutive days– yesterday, today, and tomorrow! 

5. The letter e, which is the most common letter used in the English language, does not appear even once in the paragraph.

We boomers share a long and glorious history of smashing typical female stereotypes—and we aren’t about to stop that now. So you won’t be finding meek and mild grannies in this generation of females over fifty. We’re just too busy pumping iron, starting businesses, writing books, or being actively involved in community and political affairs.

And we’re clearly more self-possessed, smarter, and more confident than in our earlier years: far less willing to be led around by the demands of others. More than that, we are truly coming into our own and it’s time to celebrate the dynamic and dynamite woman we are.

So make a pledge today that you will live your life to the very fullest, take risks so that you continue to stretch and grow, speak your mind with strength and clarity, and mount your own efforts to put the “grand” back into grandmother. We boomers are just the generation to make grey the new groovy and keep those good vibrations coming our way for many years to come!

Unfortunately, like the rest of our body, our brain can get a bit flabby with age. Yep, there’s no denying it—going gray doesn’t necessarily help the little gray cells. But the good news is that we can do something about it!

Just like lifting weights on a regular basis is good for muscle tone, routinely lifting mental weights is good for toning up your gray matter. Mental tasks that require focus and concentration are thought to stimulate and even generate new connections between brain cells. The more complex this web like activity, the sharper and more alert you’ll be.

And, just like exercise physiologists suggest you cross-train your body so that certain muscles don’t become over used while others are ignored, brain specialists recommend the same idea. Even mentally stimulating activities that don’t stretch your abilities and knowledge aren’t all that helpful because they’ll consistently exercise only a certain part of your brain. In order to maximize your potential, you need to vary your mental workouts.

So, try some new things. Even simple activities like putting together a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle, memorizing the words to a song, or brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand will tickle the synapses and make them very happy campers. Variety is the spice of life and an array of games and activities that require you to focus and learn new skills will certainly spice up your brainpower!

I wanted to share a book that my friend Carol Stanley wrote, “For Kids 59.99 and Over.” It was released on September 1, 2008 and is available on Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, and Powell Books.com

Here’s how she describes it:

What is life like as we get towards or past 60?  There are many changes occurring in our lives.  Our kids, more than likely have left the nest (some of them may be returning).  It is a time to evaluate our health, eating habits, exercising programs and our life direction.  It is also a time for new goals and new adventures.  A major issue in today’s life is technology and dealing with it.  You know that push button exercise on the phone when trying to solve a problem.

 Life has changed and we must deal with it with joy, fun, acceptance and patience.

“For Kids 59.99 and Over” shares ideas on feeling good, sleeping better, dealing with our grown kids, friendships and how to get situated in a new environment.  It is never too late for a new business, a new adventure or even a new place to live.  This is a time of freedom, which in turn means decisions in many areas of our lives. Many of us have difficulty dealing with our changing bodies, a few new wrinkles and shorter lived energy.  There are solutions for many of these problems……So join me in my journey to find a more fulfilling and fun life.

I had the great good fortune to be a guest blogger over at Great Adaptations, a site that’s dedicated to getting SMARTER! It’s the place where brain health meets imagination. 

I invite you to take a look and check out other posts on Suzanna’s fascinating exploration of our little gray cells. She got lots of tips to keep our dendrites happy, snappy, and firing like wildfire!

She also writes the boomer column for the San Francisco Examiner so stop by there, too, and catch up on all things boomer.  

Many women over fifty complain they become more forgetful. In fact, some have affectionately dubbed this phenomenon “mental-pause,” and there are real physiological reasons behind it. There are estrogen receptors throughout your brain, including the hippocampus, and this is the part involved in certain aspects of memory. So, when estrogen levels drop, your brain and your ability for recall are affected.

In fact, I know this to be true in my own life. Things seem to be slipping through the cracks, and every day brings fresh surprises and more than a few awkward moments.  I have to run back to the store because I neglected to buy the milk, I forget names and stand mutely by when it’s obvious I should be making introductions, and, without my datebook, I wouldn’t remember any of my appointments. 

But, before you get too worried that your own gray matter is graying, check out this fun little test. It’s called “How Old is Your Brain?” I did and was pleasantly surprised. In fact, I’m beginning to feel my noggin literally popping with new and sprightly dendrites!

To play:

1.    Touch “start”

2.    Wait for 3, 2, 1

3.    Memorize the numbers’ positions on the screen, then click the circle from the smallest number to the biggest one.

4.    At the end of the game, the computer will gage the age of your brain.

Good Luck!!

Click here to start