Dad, why don’t you try exercises for the brain?

Have you ever doubted whether you turned off the gas, the iron or if the checker gives you the change back in the supermarket? Even though the brain usually makes us being on the right track, sometimes it can play you dirty tricks. These absent-mindednesses are not usual in early age, but as you grow old, these uncommon situations can turn into something recurrent. The first thing that you should wonder is if you have given up subjecting your brain to new challenges, the second thing to do is to develop a strategy to age actively.

Cognitive impairment affects around 7-10% of the population older than 65 years old and 30% of those older than 80 years old. In patients older than 50 years old, these absent-mindednesses have received different names, “benign senescent oversights”, “damage of the memory associated to the age”, “cognitive impairment associated to the age” and “mild cognitive impairment”. The memory loss can be the precursor of a dementia as Alzheimer or with vascular origin; in other occasions, it can be due to other possible causes, as an inappropriate lifestyle, mood or continuous stress situations.

Cognitive rehabilitation improves the performance of the person based on the stimulation of the existing capacities, such as the memory, attention, language, perception, as well as the planning problems, conflicts resolution, control of the emotional state and so on. In this sense, the new technologies have been become in the perfect allied to start this kind of programs; from a smartphone, tablet or from our own computer we can exercise our brain. Even though it is always convenient that an expert supervises the progress and identify which are the exercises more recommendable to work the specific capacities of the user.

Aware of the importance of these kind of programs, Casaverde launches an exclusive package of rehabilitation for the strengthening of mental faculties from your own home. It consists in improving the cerebral performance of the person through the practice of games and exercises thought by and for the user. Access is by your own computer or tablet, and it needs no installation.

The first day, the user can visit the Casaverde Mérida Hospital to meet personally the neuropsychologist, who will take charge of his/her medical record, or also he/she can make a call/video call with him. The professional will make an initial valuation, will explain the diagnosis, and will plan the intervention. Additionally, he will explain the working of the tool and which capacities the user will work in the next weeks.

“The final goal is to stop the advance of the cognitive impairment through an early intervention. All the exercises are focused on specific objectives and the user will have daily personal assistance with the professional by email”, explains Dr. José María Porto, clinic neuropsychologist in Casaverde Mérida Hospital. The cost of the program is 80€ per month, and it can be hired directly in the Casaverde Hospital or contacting with them by their web page.

For the experts, the advances made in the last years in cognitive neurosciences, together with the contribution of new technologies, open a new therapeutic window focused on the patient’s recovery and the improvement of the cognitive processes.