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This week I’ve been writing a lot about one of my favorite new additions to my “best iphone apps for kids and grandkids” – the Words with Friends game apps! And for all of us boomers and seniors it’s grand news to realize it’s also quite healthy for us in more than one way. Here are just SOME of the great headlines recently:
- As Birney Imes wrote in The Dispatch re: “an article titled ’31 ways to get smarter in 2012.’ Want to guess what suggestion #1 is? Play word games with friends. Figures. Research shows word puzzles can help reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia, according to the article. So don’t feel guilty whiling away time with the popular smartphone game. Or for that matter working the crossword puzzle in The Dispatch.
- I also really enjoyed reading a book review by Lloyd I. Sederer, MD, ‘The Alzheimer’s Prevention Program’: A Book Review in the Huffington Post. He listed several ways to exercise our brain from it including word games such as “How many words of three letters or more can you make from the following scrambled letters: A-E-L-S-K…There are 18.” (I didn’t find that many and I’m GOOD at those kinds of things! 🙂 How about you?) He also recommended “trying to beat someone in Scrabble,” which makes Word With Friends a great option as well. 🙂
- And check out this sweet article Scrabble Spells G-O-O-D T-I-M-E-S from Alzheimer’s Help for San Diego Families – Glenner Alzheimer’s Family Centers. As one resident stated, “When asked why everyone enjoys Scrabble so much, one participant responded nonchalantly, ‘It does the brain good, honey. You should try it.'”
- I loved the vital point LiveStrong made in an article on brain exercises for Alzheimer’s (no longer available on their site), “Having a Scrabble group helps alleviate loneliness and depression—side effects and frustrations of aging and feeling isolated. A daily game of Scrabble will help keep the aging mind sharp and give the person something to look forward to every day.”
I love that the Words with Friends game apps -free and/or 99 cents – are such a fun and easy way for us to have fun and exercise our brain cells AND that it works nicely around our busy Sandwich Generation schedules and families! Don’t you? 🙂
P.S. I spent a pleasant 20 – 30 minutes creating the puzzle above – can you read the message(s) in it? If so, be sure to leave it in the comments. Special brain game fun for all of us boomers and seniors – in AND out of the Sandwich Generation! 🙂 And…
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