Archive for February 2023

Your cognitive health is your ability to remember, learn, and think clearly. It’s a vital part of performing everyday tasks and activities that can be affected by aging, mood disorders, and diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Fortunately, you can maintain your cognitive abilities by implementing different activities in your everyday life. 

In Studio City, CA, trusted home care professionals play a vital role in assisting seniors in keeping up with their daily activities, staying connected with others, and maintaining physical and emotional health. Continue reading to find out what activities to follow to improve your cognitive abilities.  

What activities improve cognition?

A significant amount of scientific research reveals that the following activities can improve your cognitive health. Making them part your daily routine can bring you numerous benefits:

Eat healthy

While a healthy diet helps reduce the risk of different chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, it also helps keep your brain healthy. 

A healthy diet comprises whole grains, fruits and vegetables, poultry, fish, lean meat, and nonfat or low-fat dairy products while it limits the intake of salt, sugar, and solid fats. However, it’s also important to control your portion sizes and take enough water. 

Stay physically active 

Activities such as regular exercise, household chores, and other physical exercise bring a lot of benefits. They can:

• Improve your balance
• Boost your energy
• Keep and improve your strength
• Prevent diabetes, heart disease, and other diseases
• Improve your mood and decrease depression

According to federal guidelines for physical activity, all adults should get at least 150 minutes of physical activity on a weekly basis. Walking is an excellent exercise, but if you feel like you can do more, there are different senior programs you can take part in. 

Keep your mind agile

When you keep your mind intellectually engaged, it improves your thinking abilities. There are a lot of activities you can take up such as playing games, reading books or magazines, taking or teaching chess, learning a new skill or hobby, and volunteering. They can make your brain more adaptable and reduce the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s. 

Stay socially engaged

Staying connected with other people keeps your mind active, helps you feel more engaged and less isolated, but also improves your overall wellbeing and lowers the risk of certain health problems. 

Studies show that persons who engage in productive and personally meaningful social activities tend to boost their mood, have a sense of purpose, and live longer. 

Keep stress levels low

Stress is an inevitable part of our everyday lives. However, it’s possible to manage it and boost your ability to recover from stressful situations by following activities such as:

• Regular physical exercise such as walking or tai chi
• Journal writing to help let go of a problem or perceive a new solution
• Relaxation techniques such as breathing exercises or mindfulness
• Staying positive by releasing situations beyond your control or grudges, practicing gratitude, or focusing on enjoying simple things

Where in Studio City, CA can I find dedicated home care?

At A Better Way in Home Care, we boast a team of knowledgeable and reliable caregivers who are devoted to helping your elderly loved ones. They always strive to ensure your family members are well taken care of and receive all the support they need. They’ll assist them in performing their everyday chores, prepare their meals, and accompany them to medical appointments. Whether your senior loved ones live close to the Radford Studio Center or in the vicinity, we’ll make sure they have all they need. Reach out to us today! 

There are many physical and mental health benefits of staying social, particularly later in life. According to various studies, socializing with others is essential for both your wellbeing and your cognitive functions. 

Luckily, dedicated home caregivers in Studio City, CA are committed to serving your family compassion supporting you in maintaining the quality of life you deserve every single day. They’ll help you keep up with your social activities and maintain both your physical and mental wellbeing. Keep reading to find out how staying social helps your cognition. 

How do you mitigate cognitive decline?

Senior social engagement is essential as it can reduce the risk of depression and delay the onset of dementia. It’s as important as engaging in regular physical activity. There are many ways to remain socially active and support your mental health. 

Make it a part of your routine

Make it a priority to include socializing activities in your everyday life. Make an effort to dedicate at least a small portion of your day to interacting with others and improving your cognitive skills. 

Find a cause to volunteer

Apart from providing you with a sense of purpose, volunteering is an excellent way to meet and communicate with new people who share your interests. According to a recent study, the sense of belonging and purpose can extend life by two years. If you’re looking for ideas, you can visit the official website that offers current volunteering opportunities. 

Become a part of a support group

Support groups are another way to spend time with persons who share common challenges and interests. Today, you can join these groups online or live, whatever suits you best. Whichever way you opt for, you’ll be in for new friendships and emotional support.

Grow the list of your social media friends

You don’t necessarily need to make new friends, but making the best of social media to maintain, support, or reinforce your existing relationships can have an amazing impact on your brain. A recent study has shown that there’s a direct link between the size of certain areas of the brain and the number of friends on social media. 

Users with larger social networks had more gray matter in quite a few brain regions, including left temporal gyrus that’s responsible for face recognition and understanding of word meanings, amygdala, which is responsible for the processing of emotions, memory, and information, and right entorhinal cortex, responsible for declarative or autobiographical and episodic memory. 

Start a hobby

Just like reaching out to a support group, getting a new hobby can connect you with a lot of people. It opens up a lot of opportunities to socialize. Moreover, it also challenges your brain. According to a recent study, learning a new skill such as quilting or photography could be even more effective at keeping your mind sharp than doing crosswords or playing a puzzle. 

During the study, two hundred seniors were randomly assigned to dedicate 15 hours per week to quilting, digital photography, or another similar activity for three months. The results showed a significant improvement in memory, and when they tested them a year later, it was maintained. 

Where can I find reliable home caregivers in Studio City, CA?

A Better Way in Home care is your strongest ally in supporting your elderly loved ones in their everyday life, providing them with devoted social and emotional support. We carefully check the background of every single caretaker we recommend. Whether you need us on Laurel Canyon Boulevard or anywhere else across the area, feel free to rely on our team. Give us a call today!