Studies Supporting the Science Behind Brain Fitness
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The Brain Fitness Programs strengthen the neural pathways in a person’s auditory processing center, working memory and short-term memory. |
The Brain Fitness programs are designed to help seniors improve their quality of life through cognitive training.
They incorporate techniques that are designed to help improve functioning in many areas such as:
- Alertness and confidence
- Sustaining attention and concentration
- Mood and energy
- Improved listening skills
- Retaining new information more clearly
- Finding words that were once on the tip of the tongue
Sessions are facilitated by our Family Advocate.
Download the Brain Academy Brochure:
Let the Games Begin
The Brain Fitness uses several brain fitness programs and recommends the following clients for home-based programs:
Brain Age and Brain Age 2
These video games feature exercises to 'warm up, train and entertain the brain' through reading activities, math problems, logic exercises and more. The more one 'trains,' the more one 'unlocks.'
Golden Drive Fit by Drive Fit
To improve road-related mental processes. Training with this program has been proven to enhance these processes.
Posit Science
Strengthens the brain's auditory system enhancing overall brain function and improving your working memory through processing sounds.
Our Cognitive Therapist Candidate will help you decide the best brain fitness program for you and your family.
Insight
This program helps speed and sharpen visual processing, allowing an individual to keep up with quickly occurring visual events.
It can help enlarge the useful field of view, to help track multiple moving objects such as several cars at a busy intersection.
Internet access required.
Interactive Video Games on Wii Nintendo
Interactive video software played on a large TV allows a person to "play" golf, tennis, or bowl.
The Science Behind Brain Fitness
The value of cognitive stimulation in fighting dementia and improving quality of life - the findings of seven research studies.
INTRODUCTION
Every seventy-one seconds, another senior is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. By age 85, half the population is afflicted! As a result, dementia caused by Alzheimer's disease represents the most severe threat to the quality of life of seniors. Staving off and/or slowing down the development of dementia is
therefore the obvious reason for seniors to engage in a dedicated brain fitness program. Empowering seniors
and their caregivers to fight this battle is the reason the Dakim BrainFitness System was created.
Decades of medical research (see summarized articles below) have confirmed that consistent, long-term participation in cognitive stimulation is associated with a significant reduced risk of dementia - more than 60 percent. And the research is clear - consistent, long-term participation in cognitively stimulating activities is essential to achieving the long-term benefit.
What seniors want to know is, if they participate in a dedicated brain fitness program for the next five years, will they be better of for having done so? While there are no guarantees, Dakim BrainFitness has been designed to motivate the consistent, long-term participation in highly stimulating cognitive exercise medical research has shown is required to achieve this goal. However, the clinical trials proving this benefit for Dakim BrainFitness will take many years to conduct. In the near-term, Dakim has just completed a pilot study of Dakim BrainFitness, and is developing a protocol for a larger clinical trial to begin this year.
Alzheimer's is the fastest growing disease in the developed world.
By age sixty-five,1 in 8
Americans is afflicted. By age 85, half the
population is afflected.
- (Alzheimer's Association)
Direct and indirect
costs of Alzheimer's and other dementias, amount to more than
$148 billion annually.
- (Alzheimer's Association)
The following summarizes the medical research studies which support the value of rigorous cognitive exercise in helping seniors reduce their risk of dementia.
1. The New England Journal of Medicine
Leisure activities and the risk of dementia in the elderly (2003)
Verghese J, Lipton RB, Katz MJ, Hall CB, Derby CA, Kuslanksy G, Ambrose A, Sliwinski M, Buschke H. The New England Journalof Medicine, 348:2508-2516.
Conclusion: Participation in cognitive activities was associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, and mixed dementia. Further, subjects who frequently particpated in cognitively stimulating activities had a risk of dementia 63 percent lower than that among subjects who participated less frequently. Lower levels of participation were also associated with higher levels of depression.
Study Details: Beginning in 1980, the Bronx Aging study enrolled and follwed 469 subjects for a median follow-up of 5.1 years. All subjects were between the ages of 75 and 85 years, and had no diagnosis of dementia. Clinical and neuropsychological evaluations were conducted at baseline, with follow-up visits every 12 to 18 months. Frequency of participation in six cognitive activities (reading books or newspapers, writing for pleasure, doing crossword puzzles, playing board games or cards, participating in organized group discussions, and playing musical instruments) was assessed.
- A Mayo Clinic study found that seniors
fear Alzheimer's
more than death.
"The secret to successful aging is ongoing mental stimulation."
- Paul David Nussbaum, M.D., Professor of Neurology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, address to the American Society on Aging.
2. Journal of the American Medical Association
Participation in cognitively stimulating activities and the risk of incident Alzheimer disease (2002)
Wilson RS, Mendes de Leon CF, Barnes LL, Schneider JA, Bienias JL, Evans DA, Bennett DA. Journal of the American Medical Association, 287:742-748.
Conclusion: With a mean follow-up of 4.5 years, results indicated that those who reported frequent involvement in cognitive activity at baseline were 47% less likely to develop AD than those with infrequent
cognitive activity.
Study Details: Beginning in 1994, approximately 730 subjects aged 65 years or older without a clinical
diagnosis of dementia were enrolled and followed in the Religious Orders Study. Baseline assessments consisted of structured evaluations, which were repeated annually, including a medical history, neurological examination, assessment of cognitive function, and a review of brain scan when available. Investigators assessed the frequency of participation in seven common activities that involve information processing as
a central component: viewing television; listening to radio; reading newspapers; reading magazines; reading books; playing games such as cards, checkers,, crosswords, or other puzzles; and going to museums.
"In 25 years, the U.S. will
have two kinds of people.
Those who have Alzheimer's
and those who are caring for someone with
Alzheimer's."
- Allen D. Roses, M.D., Senior Vice President, Genetics
Research, GlaxoSmithKline
"Memory loss is not an inevitable consequence of
aging. Our brains can
fight back. We can improve our memory performance
immediately and stave off,
possibly even prevent,
future memory decline. The sooner all of us begin our
memory program, the sooner
we will be on the path to keeping our brains young
and healthy for the rest of
our lives."
- Gary W. Small, M.D., Director of The UCLA Center on
Aging, The Memory Bible
3. Neurology
Cognitive activity and cognitive decline in a biracial community population (2003)
Wilson RS, Bennett DA, Bienias JL, Mendes de Leon CF, Morris MC, Evans DA. Neurology, 61:812-816.
Conclusion: On average, subjects who frequently participated in cognitively stimulating activities experienced 35% less cognitive decline than those with infrequent cognitive activity.
Study Details: This population-based longitudinal study of aging and Alzheimer's disease enrolled and followed more than 4,000 adults, aged 65 years and older as part of the Chicago Health and Aging Project. Persons with memory impairment at baseline were not excluded from the study group. Subjects were interviewed at approximately 3-year intervals, with a mean follow-up of 5.3 years. Cognitive performance tests were administered at baseline, and subjects rated the frequency of participation in seven cognitive activities (same as those listed in study directly above).
4. Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology
Participation in novelty-seeking leisure activities and Alzheimer's disease (2005)
Fritsch T, Smyth KA, Debanne SM, petot GJ, Friedland RP. Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology, 18: 134-141.
Conclusion: Greater participation in novelty-seeking and exchange-of-ideas activities across the life span was associated with decreased odds of developing Alzheimer's disease.
Study Details: Using a case-control design, researchers collected data on 16 types of activities performed between the ages of 20 and 60 years. 264 subjects with AD served as cases, and 545 subjects without
cognitive impairment served as controls. Participation in novelty-seeking activities (defined in this study as: learning a new skill, learning about a new subject, doing things that are challenging mentally, solving a problem, getting a new experience, taking up a new hobby) had the greatest association with reduced risk of AD.
5. Annals of Internal Medicine
Healthy Aging and Dementia: Findings from the Nun Study (2003)
Snowden, David, Annals of Internal medicine, 139:450-454.
Conclusion: A considerable proportion of subjects with mild to moderate stages of Alzheimer's disease pathology showed no symptoms of memory impairment. It is hypothesized that cognitive reserve, believed to be influenced by educational and occupational attainment, as well as participation in mentally challenging activities, helped these subjects to resist the clinical expression of symptoms of AD.
Study Details: 678 Catholic sisters, ages 75 to 102 years of age, participated in the Nun Study, a longitidinal study of Alzheimer's disease and aging. Researchers analyzed convent archives, annual physical and cognitive examinations, and brain autopsies upon death to determine correlations between aging and dementia among this population. The conclusion stated above was found by comparing the results of the
last cognitive examination before death to level or neuropathology in the brain after death.
"Mentally engaging hobbies may lay down
new neural pathways.
The cerebral cortex and
hippocampus, which are critical to these activities,
are remarkably plastic,
and they rewire themselves based upon their
use."
- Joseph T. Coyle, MD. Chairman Consolidated
Department of Psychiatry,
Harvard Medical School
6. Journal of the American Medical Association
Long-term effects of cognitive training on everyday functional outcomes in older adults (2006)
Willis SL, Tennstedt SL, Marsiske M, Ball K, Elias J, Koepke KM, Morris JN, Rebok GW, Unverzagt FW, Stoddard AM, Wright E. Journal of the American medical Association, 296: 2805-2814.
Conclusion: Overall, improvement in each cognitive ability trained was retained after 5 years. Significantly less difficulty in the instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) was reported from the reasoning training group only, when compared to the control group. Additionally, when controlling for baseline age and cognitive function, participants who received booster training in the speed-of-processing intervention training group demonstrated better performance on functional measures of everyday speed-of-processing, compared to those who did not receive booster training.
Study Details: Approximately 2,800 subjects, 65-94 years of age, residing independently in the community, without significant functional or cognitive decline or diagnosis of AD were enrolled and followed in the ACTIVE
(advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly) study. The ACTIVE study included three intervention groups (memory training, reasoning training, speed-of-processing training), and one no-contact
control group. Boosert training was provided to a random subsample within each intervention group. Memory
training involved verbal episodic memory; reasoning training involved the ability to solve problems that follow a serial pattern; and speed-of-processing training involved visual search skills as well as the ability to identify and locate visual information quickly in a divided-attention format. Sixty-seven percent of the sample was retained 5 years after training (approximately 1,800 individuals).
"We're not seeking a fountain of youth, but a
fountain of aging well."
- Thomas Perls, MD, Boston Medical Center
"Individuals who participated in highly mentally stimulating leisure activities
had a 63 percent lower risk of dementia than
those who did not participate in such activities."
- Verghese J, Lipton RB,
Katz MJ, Hall CB, Derby
CA, Kuslanksy G, Ambrose
A, Sliwinski M, Buschke H.
The new England Journal
of Medicine. 348:2508-2516.
7. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica
Cognitive training in alzheimer's disease: a meta-analysis of literature (2006)
Sitzer DI, Twamley EW, Jeste DV. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 114: 75-90.
Conclusion: In general, cognitive training can improve the cognitive and functional abilities of patients with AD. Restorative strategies resulted in larger effect sizes than compensatory strategies. Studies involving individual
treatment modalities reported greater effect sizes compared to group modalities.
Study Details: Researchers defined cognitive training for the purposes of this review as any non-pharmaco-logicic intervention designed to improve cognitive functioning, regardless of mechanism of action. Cognitive training strategies were divided into two basic categories: compensatory and restorative. Compensatory
strategies aim to teach new ways of performing cognitive tasks by 'working around' cognitive deficits; examples include categorizing information to be remembered, procedural training, and others. Restorative strategies attempt to improve functioning in specific domains with the ultimate goal of returning functioning in those domains to premorbid levels; examples include spaced retrieval, reminiscence therapy, and others. Results of the literature review were based on 19 studies, 14 of which were randomized controlled trials.
"Mental training in old age can boost intellectual power,
help maintain mental functions like problem solving, and reverse memory decline.
Even if they haven't received
the benefits of good early education & experience,
older adults can still do
much to keep their brains
in shape."
- Ronald Kotulak, Inside the Brain: Revolutionary Discoveries of How the Mind Works (based on his Pulitzer Prize-
winning series for the
Chicago Tribune), address to
the 45th Annual eeting of the American Society on
Aging
8. British Journal of Psychiatry
Cognitive stimulation thereapy for people with dementia: a cost-effectiveness analysis (2006)
Knapp M, Thorgrimsen L, Patel A, Spector A, Hallam A, Woods B, Orrell M. British Journal of Psychiatry, 188:574-580.
Conclusion: In relation to the two primary outcome measures, cognition and quality of life, the investigators determined that there seems to be a high probability that cognitive stimulation therapy is more cost-effective than treatment as usual.
Study Details: An evidence-based cognitive stimulation program was developed based on reality orientation and reminiscence thereapy for dementia. All subjects met DSM-IV criteria for dementia and scored between 10 and 24 on the MMSE, and had a baseline mean age of approximately 85 years. There were approximately
150 subjects at the 8-week follow-up.
Cognitive stimulation groups consisted of five participants and two staff members, ran for seven weeks, with a mean attendance of 11.6 sessions. Primary and secondary outcome measures were based on the Mini-Mental
State Examination and Quality of Life in Alzheimer's Disease (QoL-AD) assessment. Changes in MMSE and QoL-AD scores were used to determine cost-effectiveness of the cognitive stimulation training (CST) compared
to treatment as usual. The cost estimate of the CST intervention included researchers' time, travel expenses, care asistant time, and equipment.
"If nothing is done to curb the impact of Alzheimer's,
it will cost millions of lives
and $700 billion a year by
