Do games really help fight Alzheimer's?

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Do games really help fight Alzheimer's?

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I recently read an article (https://themahjong.com/blog/who-solves-puzzles-a-study-of-the-online-puzzle-game-audience) about the fact that a lot of elderly people play mood games. I was wondering if you've noticed this? Do games really help fight alzheimer's?

Alzheimer's & Dementia Dementia Behaviors Senior Activities

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Dementia is caused by many things including strokes (lack of blood to the brain and resultant changes to blood vessels), injury to the brain, amyloid plaques in the brain, shrinkage of the brain, alcohol use, and so many other things. The brain changes progressively and thus it does not, cannot, and never will again work as it did previous to the changes.

So no, games will not help. Mahjong can't repair the changes in the brain. Working puzzles will not repair the changes. Such ideas are what the family of the afflicted HOPES will restore their loved ones to who they were before dementia. HOPE is a wonderful thing, but so far, it's pointless to HOPE that there's a cure out there somewhere. Nothing cures dementia.

I've been caregiver for four family members, all of whom had various types of dementia. Trying games and puzzles only brought on confusion, refusal, sometimes laughing (because they don't know what it is or what to say), and incomprehensible comments.

I've found more mental engagement in my family members with old TV reruns like Bonanza, Flipper, Little House on the Prairie and Elvis movies. Seriously.

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Nothing is yet proven to help Alzheimer's or other dementias.
As you can imagine it would be difficult to imagine how to measure a patient ongoing. If there is no lack of progress is that because they didn't do games? If there is better progress is that due to games? Or not. How could such a thing be realistically measured.

I can tell you one place that games CAN help us and that is in long covid where the brain is effected in a way that is a sort of fog of confusing and an inability to focus. They are finding that games are helping people to relearn focus. Interesting!

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Nothing has proved to stop Alzheimer's disease. We are not sure what causes Alzheimer's disease. However, since Alzheimer's disease is characterized by gradual loss of short term and long term memory, the current thought in the medical community is to "strengthen" the connections in the brain that are usually affected. "Strengthening" is creating thicker neural connecting tissues through repeated use. That is why you can sing the ABC song or "Mary had a little lamb" since you repeated it over and over again as a child. Lack of repetition is why I passed my Calculus classes but don't remember the information now (never use it in daily life or professional life). So, games that involve problem-solving tend to be helpful but there is no study that "proves" this stops this disease.

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In addition to engaging them with old TV shows, I'd add -- playing music from their youth or singing simple songs they likely remember from church or holidays. My grandmother surprised me by knowing all the words to Jingle Bells, for example, and enthusiastically sang along with me while it played.

I'm not sure if a stimulus prompt like old music/songs helps fight the progression of the disease, but they can be pretty powerful regardless. See Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory [2014] Documentary. It's on YouTube.

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I've played word games since I was a kid. Crosswords, cryptograms, sudoku, you name it. So I hope they DO help keep the brain active. I think they can't hurt, and none of the "experts" know for sure.

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They say we should branch out once our brain is used to one thing, then moving to another thing, another type. The trick, according to some conclusions of the many years long Nun's Study seemed to be the "newness" or the "learning" required. I can't help but think that these things MUST be good for us.

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I think all we can do is try. It's an art, not a science. Each person with dementia is so different. My husband did not respond well to any of the suggested activities. He'd lie to his psychiatrist about having done the activities. As the disease progressed, he would tell me to "turn it off" whenever I played his favorite music or tv show. It seemed everything agitated him. Nothing I did was right. He'd be yelling at me that I was making coffee all wrong, that I'd break the coffee machine, that I should not be cooking, that "there's nothing left...(I'm) using up all the utensils (??)..." and on and on. And none of the Teepa Snow techniques helped. At the onset of this dementia rabbit hole, he was the poster child for health with six pack abs, healthy eating, etc. This journey has been nothing short of a huge roller coaster ride.

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Some dementias are inherited and the person will get it no matter what. Others are brought on by health issues, like Wernicke-Korsakoff dementia (from long-term alcoholism), stroke, normal pressure hydroencephaly, early-onset ALZ (which is one of many types of dementias), etc. Since medical science doesn't even know for sure what causes some types of dementias there is thus no way to know what will stave it off. It is very difficult to do clinical studies since there's no way to know if a person's dementia would have occurred at that point in time or whether it was the result of game playing. Plus the longer one's journey into dementia, the less fruitful their participation since their abilities to know and express what is going on in their minds is becoming cloudier. That being said I think keeping the mind active and learning new and challenging things is still good and beneficial, even from a mental health standpoint, since depression is a problem that comes with age-related decline.

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Once someone is diagnosed with any of the dementias there is nothing that will help them or the progression of the disease, but if you're wanting to keep your own brain sharp as long as possible then by all means do many different brain type games to keep you on your "game"(pun intended)so hopefully you won't develop dementia.

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No, games do not fight Alzheimer's or any other kind of dementia. They are often a great help to caregivers though. They can be a god-send to caregivers who who have deal with these people and take care of them.

Games are often very good at diverting the person's attention away from a dementia-loop (if they're in one) and are repeating incessantly or compusively obsessing over nothing. Games also help to keep the person with dementia occupied. When they have something to do this cuts back on the anxiety and panicking over nothing. If a person with dementia isn't all worked up and freaking out, it's easier for everyone including them, to get their care done.

A person with Alzheimer's/dementia (depending on how far gone they are) is usually like having a very unpleasant, adult-sized toddler. When the child/toddler is having a tantrum and you give them something that captures their attention like a toy or a game, this often puts the brakes on the tantrum because they're more interested in what you're giving them then they are at carrying on.

Games and puzzles are a good distraction. They don't fight anything except boredom.

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Very interesting answer, Burnt, thanks.

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My Mom was an advid reader and did crossword puzzles, did not kerp her from having Dementia. And why did she have it, no idea. She did not smoke but my Dad did. Didn't drink. But she did take statins which have been found to contribute to cognitive problems.

I was told that what is good is exercising both sides of the brain. If righthanded, try to use your left hand. Like when brushing your teeth, change hands. Doing the same thing over and over does not challenge the brain, learning new things does.

IMO ALZ is hereditary. It runs on my Dads side. Ome of the others are caused by lifestyle.

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To clarify what is meant by right and left brain: "...the left brain is more verbal, analytical, and orderly than the right brain. It's sometimes called the digital brain because it's better at things like reading, writing, and computations. On the other hand, the right brain is more visual, intuitive, and creative." source: https://www.healthline.com/health/left-brain-vs-right-brain#:~:text=This%20suggests%20that%20the%20left,visual%2C%20intuitive%2C%20and%20creative. The point is not about "handedness" but different functions on each side. Eg: an left-brained engineer takes an art class rather than a math class, and a right-brained artist takes a physics class, etc. It means exercising the different parts of our brains that are not our "dominant" side.

Do games really help fight Alzheimer's?

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