As you age, you're mental functions slow down. Both your thinking and your reaction time slow. It's probably natural. But is it unavoidable?

As it turns out, you don't have to become one of those slow-lane drivers just because you've gotten on in years. In fact, despite what you may have heard, cognitive decline is not inevitable. What's more, maintaining your memory has little to do with genetics, and even less to do with drugs.

Today I'm going to show you a different approach. It's the best way to improve your mental performance and stave off age-associated cognitive decline. What's more, it's free!

* Study Says ... Use It or Lose It *

You can slow or prevent the cognitive decline that sets in with age. You have to challenge your mind every day. Think of your brain as a dynamic system. The neurons respond to environmental factors and mental stimulation. By stimulating your mind, you preserve your memory, and can even restore the clarity you had in your youth!

One of the most promising studies in this area is still ongoing. Since 1956, the Seattle Longitudinal Study of Adult Intelligence has followed more than 5,000 people examining their cognitive abilities every seven years. The findings are remarkable...

Two-thirds of the people following a “mental education program” showed significant improvement, and 40% returned to pre-decline cognitive performance levels. What's more, they maintained these benefits indefinitely. Regular mental stimulation offers another plus, it can protect from mind robbing diseases ...

Research shows the more you use your brain the less your risk of Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Yaakov Stern, a clinical psychologist at Columbia University in New York City discovered that people with less than an eighth-grade education had twice as much risk of developing Alzheimer's as those with formal education. And if those with lower educational levels worked at mentally un-stimulating jobs, the risk was three times higher. The more connections, or synapses, you can develop between brain cells, the more resistant they are to the disease.

* Brain Building *

How do you create these connections? For one thing, you need to remain physically and socially active. You also need to keep your mind challenged-- keep it guessing. The best way to do this is to create your own “mental education program”...

This is as simple as playing games. It's true. Games aren't just fun, many are wonderful mental exercises. Take crossword puzzles, which are a favorite of mine. Even the simple ones get you thinking about people, places and things that you wouldn't otherwise. Other good mental exercises include word and math games...

You can go to the library and check out books with mental exercises. I recommend Keep Your Brain Alive: 83 Neurobic Exercises by Lawrence Katz or Aerobics of the Mind Cards: 100 Exercises for a Healthy Brain by Marge Engelman. You can also try Mind Games: The Aging Brain and How to Keep it Healthy by Kathleen Harmeyer. There's also dozens of websites with great, interactive memory improving games that feature mnemonics, recognition and recall tests. Here are a few of them:

Improve your working memory at the Memory Gym:
http://www.memorise.org/flashnum.html
Increase your digit span (a measure of working memory capacity) with these exercises:
http://www.easysurf.us/menu.htm
Try these interesting memory games by NASA:
http://tinyurl.com/2ulzx
Challenge yourself with these tough memory tests:
http://www.psychtests.com/mindgames/
Test your memory for news events:
http://memory.uva.nl/
Try these fun word puzzles:
http://www.vocabulary.com/

Don't wait for noticeable cognitive decline to set in. Try one of these memory games today—and make it a habit to do at least one every day. They won't take you longer than 15 minutes or so. You can even play them with your spouse or with your friends and family. The sooner you get going, the better chance you'll have to preserve a youthful mental capacity and clarity for all your life.

Al Sears, M.D.

Kotulak, Ronald. Inside the Brain: Revolutionary Discoveries of How the Mind Works (Kansas City, Mo.: Andrews McMeel Publishing, 1997.