Recent studies have shown that keeping the brain stimulated with cognitive tasks helps insulate it from the impact of advancing age and may help prevent Alzheimer's Disease. Of course, WE all knew that gaming kept your on your toes, but now the medical profession is recognizing it as well. Check out this link:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/54927.php

I absolutely think that playing the games keeps the brain functioning. Wouldn't it be great if they could write us prescriptions for games and we could get them for just a copay.

Ana

Hey, I am going to suggest that to my HMO tomorrow!

Let me know how that goes. You can bring a preorder list of upcoming games. I wonder if they would recommend a differemt genre for a specific ailment too. Anger management and stressed patients gets shooters, ADHD gets RPG's or Sims for the longevity and attention required. I think this is doable.

Ana

We can start a movement! What shall we call it?

Oh My! I've gone braindead trying to come up with something creative. I really must play more.

I believe that an active mind keeps you on your toes and is good for you.Even as you slow down as you get older if you have some thing to think about and some thing to do it keeps you going /I am 53 soon and even though at times I feel it most say I don t look that old and that I am young in my ways .So maybe there is some thing in the gaming at least my head is always thinking about some thing and just not mondane every day living lol

Well,well, all that money on research that we could have told them for free :/ I think games on the National Health Service is a great idea. As I'm over 60 I would get them free.

A GREAT idea in theory, but a snowball would make it through Hades faster!

Wow what a breakthrough :LOL: they must have been a gamer to come up with that. Not long ago they thought that we were all addicted and needed therapy :LOL: How cool is this.

I agree it should be prescribed!!!!


Nan

However. there could be another side to this. How high does one's blood pressure go when you reach this stage in a game and don't you worry about deminishing gray cells when you finally give in and look at the w/t and realise how simple the answer is?

about time some things changed for the better .I don t know about where any one else lives I cant see why they cant give us a free game now and then on the NHS they give all the other addicts what they need free lol

Amen! Sometimes the adrenalin really gets racing during a timed sequence, too.

Also kudos to the other comment made about resorting to a WT.

And isn't it amusing how the general population can already have determined something significant through experience that so-called scientists have to go out and spend umpteen thousands of dollars "proving" for us? So many folk remedies have been "proven" to be effective when we already knew it through centuries of use. Sigh. Our tax dollars at work . . .

One thing I have noticed is how my performance in a game drops drastically when I am feeling ill, like with a cold or flu. Shows how much brain power you lose when faced with illness.

The main thing, though, is that we keep stimulating our brains by playing a game rather than going numb before a TV set. That will keep us young and sassy!

Amen to that, Reenie! I try to avoid pharmaceutical meds if there is a natural remedy that will be just as effective.

That was a neat article. And I was excited to see that it mentioned Music Therapy (they called it musical therapy but that's incorrect). That's what my BA is in. Nice to see that it's continuing to grow.

I think it's pretty amazing Celtic that you found that article. I don't think I've ever read a medical journal. Not even in a doctor's office. Just proves a point - I'm not crazy.

I too agree about games keeping us mentally active, I even mentioned that my first night in Stress Mananagment class! I even have different types of games, like the Sims2 is more calming for me but like Lights Out was more intense and challenging.

Hi Kraken! I didn't find the article, Reenie did. I just read it. I had to read that kind of stuff in college. I wouldn't say it's my reading material of choice, but I'm used to the jargon.

MysteryLover - I think Lights Out may have increased stress for me. LOL Talk about putting one on edge at every little sound!

Like the song says: It's all right,I'm just a little crazy!

When I was working and living in London with stress and violence all around I used my adventure games as a way to chill out and get away from it all. In the game I had control and could solve a puzzle with the help of a bit of string and a rubber chicken- quite different from my job.

Now I am retired and living in a peaceful small town in Cornwall and my adventure games are just that - an adventure. A stimulation for the gray cells that might otherwise rot from daytime TV.

Hip hip hurray for the games that solve different needs in different ways

And I'm proud and happy to see that I'm no longer a shy boomer but a settled one

This is so true, especially with games that work your reflexes and the memory games are good for the mind as well.

Treat life as on great adventure!
Just a shame you can't save frequently and replay all the best bits whenever you want to.

Wait a minute here, the thing about reflexes is that they do NOT use the mind, at least not the conscious, thinking mind. Reflexes are part of the autonomic nervous system that governs involuntary actions! Which is probably why I find action scenes requiring reflexes to be so BORING.

Welcome back Gordon24 I take it you are out of plaster and back home. Good for you
I agree serriamindy and I think I'm getting Repeditive Strain in my wrist playing Dead reefs on WASD.
I've ordered the Carol Reed games eastside story + the 3 previous games - I may have got the names wrong - they promise depatch in 24 hous, 4 games including shipping for £30 or $60 that is amazing. The only problem is the post office workers have gone on strike What can I say - I used to work for a trade union so I can't complain

Me, too! Isn't it odd how action games can be boring and, at the same time, so stressful?

My interpretation of the article is that it is not the reflexive activity that counts. It is the cognitive process involved in puzzle games that is the important factor: developing a longer attention span, following along with a mental thought, assessing information and correlating facts, etc. That is the stimulus the brain needs. Probably why music therapy is also effective: you follow the line of music and have to concentrate to some extent in order to appreciate what the composer is doing.

Glad the medical profession is finally acknowledging that computer games stimulate a variety of our un- & under-used grey cells. Can't wait for my adventure game RX.