To combat dementia risk, do these essential brain exercises

As dementia cases continue to increase globally, targeted brain exercises can help strengthen memory, attention, and thinking skills. While these activities don’t cure dementia, practicing them regularly may help build cognitive reserve and support long term brain health. (Source: Photo by Unsplash )

Daily Word Recall Challenge: Read a short list of 8 to 10 unrelated words. After 10 minutes, write down as many as you can remember. Gradually increase the time gap to 30 minutes or one hour to train long term memory retrieval. (Source: Photo by Unsplash )

Map Drawing from Memory: Study a simple map (your neighbourhood, a park, or a floor plan) for two minutes. Put it away and redraw it from memory. This improves spatial memory and visual processing. (Source: Photo by Unsplash )

Name-Face Association Drill: Look at a photo of a person (or meet someone new) and consciously link their name to a physical feature (for example, “Rita wears red glasses”). Recall the name later without prompts. This exercise directly trains memory and recognition skills often affected early in dementia. (Source: Photo by Unsplash )

Non-Dominant Hand Tasks: Brush your teeth, write short sentences, or use your phone with your non-dominant hand. This forces the brain to create new neural pathways and improves coordination and cognitive adaptability. (Source: Photo by Unsplash )

Reverse Counting and Serial Subtraction: Count backward from 100 by 7s or 3s (100, 93, 86…). This strengthens working memory, attention, and mental flexibility, and is commonly used in cognitive assessments. (Source: Photo by Unsplash )

Story Reconstruction Exercise: Listen to or read a short story once. Later, try to retell it with as many details as possible, characters, sequence, and key events. This strengthens comprehension, memory sequencing, and verbal skills. (Source: Photo by Unsplash )