Playing Go-Stop together? Doing this with your family can help prevent dementia.

During Chuseok, families gather in small groups to chat and play games. Many families also play Go-Stop, a popular card game known for its brain-stimulating properties. But does Go-Stop really help prevent dementia?

 

◇Minimal effect on cognitive function enhancement

 

It's true that playing Go-Stop requires brainpower. Throughout the game, you must read the overall board, match the matching cards, and constantly anticipate your opponent's cards to determine which cards to play. After each round, you also need to calculate your score.

However, it's difficult to say that such activities significantly improve cognitive function in the elderly to the point of preventing dementia. Experts also explain that while playing Go-Stop may provide a brief burst of brain activity, it doesn't improve overall cognitive function or the ability to perform daily activities.

◇I like dancing better

 

Here are some activities that stimulate the brain even more than Go-Stop and help prevent dementia. A prime example is dancing. Dancing not only stimulates the senses, but also actively engages the brain through memorizing movements and paying attention to small movements. It improves memory consolidation, learning, and spatial perception, and activates the hippocampus, which is responsible for movement and balance. A study by the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Aging in Japan found that people who regularly dance have a 73% lower risk of developing impairments in daily living skills compared to those who don't.

 

◇Drawing

 

Art activities are a great brain exercise you can do at home. Drawing activates visual, spatial, motor, and linguistic senses, which can be expected to enhance memory. If you need to memorize something, drawing a picture is a great way to remember it. A research team at the University of Waterloo in Canada showed college students and seniors 30 words and asked them to memorize them using three methods: drawing pictures of the words, listing the characteristics of the words, and writing the words repeatedly. Both college students and seniors found that drawing pictures helped them remember more words.

 

◇Neurobics

 

Neurobics is a portmanteau of "neuron" and "aerobics." It refers to training neurons. You can do this by gradually replacing your daily routine with unfamiliar activities, without any special equipment. Some examples of neurobic activities include: eating with your eyes closed; communicating with your eyes; smelling food; urinating and defecating with your eyes closed; combing your hair, brushing your teeth, or eating with your non-dominant hand; and walking backwards. When you perform activities you don't normally do, the frontal lobe, which is associated with memory, is activated. Activating the frontal lobe can slow down overall brain aging. A study conducted at the University of Roehampton in the UK divided 114 adults into three groups and had them walk backward, walk in place, or walk forward. The group that walked backward performed better on a memory test.

 

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They say that play culture is good for dementia lol

You spend a lot of time with your elders during the holidays.

 

I think my family did it when the kids were very young, as the eldest son...

I don't do that these days.

 

I'm also good at drawing