An elderly man fills out a crossword puzzle.
Computer brain-training programs have not been shown to be better than reading, playing games in a social setting or doing crossword puzzles. Anything that makes you learn helps keep cognitive decline at bay. (For Spectrum Health Beat)

While much of medicine focuses on the body, two Spectrum Health experts are keying in on the mind.

Maegan Hatfield-Eldred, PhD, a Spectrum Health neuropsychologist and Grant Heller, PhD, a Spectrum Health psychologist, say keeping the body and brain active and learning the art of “mindfulness” can maximize cognitive health and functioning.

Dr. Hatfield-Eldred said training your brain is an important shield to potentially fight off dementia.

“Research consistently shows activity is important for maintaining brain health,” Dr. Hatfield-Eldred said. “People who remain active tend to do better later in life as far as cognitive function. Consistent physical exercise has shown to be helpful.”

So much so that people who exercise regularly have lower rates of dementia and other cognitive impairments.

Not only can exercise help fight future dementia, it can also benefit people who are already showing signs of mental slippage.

“There are some studies suggesting that staying active reduces your risk of progression,” she said. “It’s still a relatively new area and it’s not proven yet, but there are some very promising findings.”

Physical activity isn’t the only brain booster.

“Other studies have shown that mental activity is just as important,” Dr. Hatfield-Eldred said. “Mental activity helps at reducing your risk of developing a cognitive disorder and reducing progression if you are diagnosed with early stages.”

While some companies are touting computer brain-training programs as almost miraculous, Dr. Hatfield-Eldred said that’s just not the case.

“Computer brain-training programs have not been shown to be better than reading, playing games in a social setting or doing crossword puzzles,” she said. “Anything that makes you learn helps—learning new things, going to lectures.”

Physical and mental activity can also boost your mood, which is good for your brain.

“A better mood helps the brain function better as well,” she said.

Dr. Heller said “mindfulness” is a buzz word these days, but it’s an important state of mind to master.

“Mindfulness is essentially being in the present moment, being in the here and now and paying attention to our experiences as they come up,” Dr. Heller said. “In a sense, it’s suspending judgment for the experiences as we have them.”

Dr. Heller notes the human mind is a tricky entity, and tends to jump around a lot, racing to the future, to the past, but rarely remaining in the here and now.

“Sometimes our big brains can get us into trouble,” he said. “We grind gears worrying about things that could come up in the future or how things were in the past. We can feel down or depressed. To be able to step back from that and get out of that endless loop is important.”

Technology is a double-edged sword, according to Dr. Heller. It can help us be more productive, but also overwhelm us with too much information, interrupt us and distract us.

Smartphones and other devices can pluck us out of the moment and hurl us into cyclones of cyberspace.

We tend to focus better if we do one thing at a time, according to Dr. Heller. Only a small subset of people are truly able to multi-task effectively, most commonly fighter pilots and race car drivers.

To practice the art of mindfulness, Dr. Heller suggests making it a priority to be in the present moment.

Meditation, a practice that dates back thousands of years, can help cultivate mindfulness.

“More informal practices can be effective, too,” he said. “Take some simple breaks throughout the day to be reflective and to be present in terms of what’s going on in our experiences. Stop and pay attention to the five senses. Engage all the senses. That forces us into being in the moment, right here, right now.”

Slow down and ask yourself, “what am I seeing, what am I feeling, what am I hearing, what am I smelling or tasting?”

In a sense, that’s going against the grain of how our minds are wired. We in Western civilization think it’s best to have a busy mind, and often, busy lives.

Research is showing that slowing down and practicing mindfulness can actually help lower blood pressure, reduce stress and lessen chronic pain.

“There’s a good amount of research that shows mindfulness can be beneficial for both our emotional and physical health,” Dr. Heller said. “Being in the moment is accepting the moment for what it is. It can be a pathway to change and making things better for ourselves.”