Does playing puzzles and word games really improve your brain power?

Yes.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/the-thinking-on-brain-games

Some do and some don’t.

Wordsearch doesn’t create new neural paths, because it is matching long term memory against whatever is in front of the person.

Games/puzzles where one must manipulate numbers or letters are better, because they have neurons fire and build new network in the brain..

I’ve been doing crosswords for years and can still barely tie my shoes.

So definitely maybe.

@JLoon But do you remember where to put the shoes? :-)

Thanks you guys.

@janbb – The left ones are upstairs and the right ones are downstairs…

I think.

But what are “stairs”?

@stanleybmanly

Stares O_O

Playing or listening to music seems to help.

I hope so. I work cryptic crosswords everyday.
My 8th grade history teacher died from A!zheimers. In his obituary, his wife said he did the NY Times crossword everyday.

I’ve always wondered if it is a chicken and egg scenario. People who have the abilities continue to exercise their brains, or people who exercise their brains keep the ability. I think it is a little of both. I do believe in being able to build new pathways into old age, so the more you use your brain the more pathways you have. Multiple pathways probably helps keep the brain more agile, and guards against significant losses if damage occurs from minor strokes, or other reasons parts of the brain gets damaged.

It’s like people who are very active maintain strength and agility, but maybe it is the people with strength and agility or more likely to stay active. A little of both I think.

I just saw a 60 Minutes regarding the longitudinal study on aging, it’s a follow up, and they discussed the brain a lot and loss of memory. This is the episode, but I think you need CBS All Access to see it online. It might be for free on demand if you have cable. It was interesting in that some things they believe that affect memory don’t always hold as true. The people in the study have their brains examined after death and doctors who follow them don’t tell the people doing the autopsy anything, no medical records, and then they compare finding and get surprises.

Can’t hurt.

Even if not improving, maintaining would be all right.

IMHO In the sense that you become more knowledgeable it improves your mind.

There’s the question of content versus process. If the data is still there, but I can’t access it, it’s as good as gone. If the processes remain active and manageable, I can still function.

I see word puzzles and other such mental activities as sustaining the processes. Last night I solved a puzzle that exposed me to the word “emmetropia,” which I didn’t know and won’t remember; but I guessed “automaton” from only two letters and “Beowulf” from one (the w). I added nothing to stored vocabulary, but I exercised my access to retained knowledge.

What’s apt to trip us as we get older and into decline is short-term memory. It’s my belief that puzzle practice helps with that kind of workout too.

I know people here hate “anecdotal” evidence, (but if a thousand people fill out the questionnaire it’s science…)
20 years ago, after chemo, I lost a lot of cognitive and memory function. In those days, very few of the medical community would admit that “chemo brain” was a thing. Anyway, my oncologists suggested that I do games and puzzles to try to restore some of the lost function. Crosswords and logic puzzles were my go-to, and a subscription to Games Magazine helped.

The improvement to my memory and deductive reasoning skills was considerable, and as a type of thing became easy, I leveled up.

I never came all the way back, but I do better when I keep up the mental exercises.

People confuse cause and effect.

Until my mother’s death, just a few weeks ago, I’d spent considerable time with her in various levels of eldercare facilities. I often saw very old, but lucid, people doing crossword puzzles, Sudoku, KenKen, and other games. It’s easy to make an illogical leap and believe that the puzzles prevent dementia. The truth, however, is that such people can do puzzles because they don’t have dementia.

Alzheimer’s disease is brain damage; actual deterioration and shrinkage of brain tissue. Parkinson’s disease is neurodegenerative, first attacking motor skills but later affecting cognition. Vascular disorders, such a strokes, can deprive the brain of oxygen.

These are just several examples of irreversible causes of dementia. A lifetime of crossword puzzles won’t prevent them.

Dementia can also be the syndrome of many treatable conditions; cure the cause, and reverse the dementia. But, in these circumstances, the solution is responsible medical care, not word puzzles.

I don’t think anyone suggested it could prevent dementia. Maybe hold it at bay a little while longer.
IMO the meds made it so much worse.

@Tropical_Willie I agree about the music helping. When I’m cooking old recipes by memory, I find that playing music helps me to remember small details that I thought I would’ve forgotten.
Now as for puzzles. I think Soduku works pretty well at helping my mind stay sharp and a word puzzle games. But it’s not like it’s permanent. So I’m not sure that it creates new neuro pathways. Some days I can play word puzzle games and remember words I haven’t used in ages or finish an expert-level Sudoku in a few minutes without breaking a sweat. And then I can stop playing one or two days and nothing comes to my mind. I find lack of sleep or stress are the two things that can block me.

So it makes me wonder how long is the permanence.
When I was younger, lack of sleep or stress were motivators to making my mind function better. I could whip up a 15 page report and finishing it off in the wee hours before it was due in first period and get an A on it. People thought I spent days on it. I would be totally stressed out and still everything I read and wrote stuck in my mind perfectly. Now, if I lack sleep or feel stressed I’m lucky if I can remember when I last went to the bathroom or had a drink of water, or ate. Blank city.

My point is that I believe it can help some but as we age there is so much more that affects memory and one of those things also is that we don’t replace brain cells as quickly as we did and our bodies react differently to things that didn’t bother it when young. But I still think it’s beneficial. The less we do, the harder it is to bounce back to at least our new normal.