There are many things elderly people can do to keep their memories sharp. Sudoku, crossword puzzles and learning a foreign language are examples.

There has been little research into whether these activities are indeed a promising way to counteract dementia, but they can't do any harm in preventing age-related mental deterioration.

Memory training is necessary "because every one of us will get Alzheimer's disease if we live long enough," says Professor Wolf Dieter Oswald, who leads a group conducting research into dementia at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.

"People with dementia cannot care for themselves," Oswald says. A self-help approach is a way of people helping themselves out of this dilemma.

Signs that an older person's mental abilities are failing are first evident in little things.

"One cannot remember a telephone number or a shopping list, or remember on the spur of the moment where the car is parked," says Florian Schmiedek of the Max Planck Institute for educational research.

People affected by problems such as these should actively do something to counter the mental atrophy. Whether mental training brings a positive result has not been conclusively determined, says Schmiedek. But, he adds, in any case, it would not be the other way around.

Schmiedek, a psychologist, says every household can do something for itself. An example is practicing lists of words. Strategies can be developed for memorizing lists, possibly by using memory aids, such as thinking of an image to prompt a memory of a word.

"Visually vibrant images can be better anchored in the brain," Schmiedek says.

It is not absolutely necessary that a person can remember telephone numbers well in order to be good at remembering several words.

"As a rule the effect of the practiced tasks have a bearing only on other similar tasks," says the psychologist. He warns against being too optimistic that the mental exercises can increase one's intelligence, saying this hope is inflated.

Oswald says mental exercise is sensible only when it is combined with physical exercise and when it is not routine.

"People who pursue activities for both their bodies and their minds in their free time, not routinely, but rather altering their pattern, later in life have less dementia," Oswald says.

Among other things, the professor recommends color exercises using flash cards with the words red, blue and green, written on them in ink that does not match the word. The word blue written in red ink, for example. This intentionally simple activity requires a lot of activity from the brain, which must react quickly and in effect perform two things at once.

Exercises for every day can be found just about anywhere, Oswald says. When driving, look at the signs for rest stops and try to remember later what was on the signs, he says. The newspaper is also a suitable tool for doing mental exercises. Go through any article quickly marking, for example, every A and N, one after another.

Newspapers also typically offer crossword puzzles, but the experts don't think much of doing them to keep brain cells fit.

"Crossword puzzles are flat-out routine. If you've gone through 10 of them, you are able to do 11 off the top of your head. Sudoku is more demanding, but in the end it falls into a routine activity as well. The secret lies much more in giving the brain constant challenges and 'aggravations'," Oswald says.

"Playing the same piece on the piano does nothing. But by contrast starting to play piano at the age of 80 brings results."

It should not, however, come at the expense of spending less time in the gym working out or lifting weights.

Courses to promote memory are worthwhile only if the participant also exercises and eats a balanced diet, says Christina Ding-Greiner, a gerontologist from Heidelberg. Strenuous walking, for example, makes sense.

She says a week's diet should include two eggs, fish once or twice and a lot of fruits and vegetables. Low-fat milk products provide the necessary protein and calcium.

In addition Ding-Greiner advises elderly people to seek out social contacts.

"Take a language course at an adult educational program," she says. "A memory course can also be sensible. The worst thing to do would be sitting on the couch and stuffing chips in your mouth."

(Agencies via China Daily November 21, 2007)