Brain exercise program helps keeps seniors' minds sharp

Cockeysville seniors work on short-term memory

 UPDATED 3:56 PM EST Dec 04, 2012

Senior citizens at a senior living facility in Cockeysville are seeing the benefits of an innovative new class designed to keep aging minds sharp.

Some of the residents at Broadmead Senior Living have been doing an aerobics class for the brain.

"It's a cognitive stimulation exercise program that works on stimulating the brain. Normal, healthy, aging brains need to have stimulation to be as sharp as they were," said speech pathologist Chuck Warnke.

Once a week, the group joins Warnke, who developed the program, to do puzzles and memory and word games, most of them timed to challenge their brains to think in a new way.

"All the different parts of cognitive processing come from different parts of the brain, and really, you want to increase blood flow to those parts," Warnke explained.

He said the exercises mainly work the seniors' short-term memory, helping them to remember things like taking their medicine and their word recall.

The students in the class said they've really noticed a difference.

"I'm remembering things better, and the short-term memory is the first to go. My short-term memory has improved," said resident June Gee.

"I have more confidence in what I'm going to say when I speak to others," said Adele Free.

Warnke said exercising the brain is just as vital to a senior's health as regular physical exercise, and the two together can lead to a longer, more fulfilling life.

The students have also found that the class is fun. They enjoy taking the tests and have found great camaraderie with their classmates.

"It's not how many you get right or how many you get wrong. It's the fact that you're doing things to help your brain," Gee said. "You're with your friends, and if you make a mistake, we all laugh at our mistakes."

After the New Year, the group said it plans to start a new 13-week course called Brain University that's more intense but also gives better results. 

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