You can’t turn on the TV for more than a few minutes without seeing an advertisement for a pill that promises to restore your memory to how it was before you began experiencing cognitive and memory issues. Really? We may be desperate, but we’re not that stupid.

Put away your credit card and instead, go for a walk, start a New York Times crossword puzzle, knit, do woodwork, or if you live in Texas or Florida, help build the next rocket to Mars. Trust me, activities like these will be more beneficial than those magic pills whose descriptions are unreadable except to someone with superhuman eyesight.

“Amazing,” you might think, that things you have been doing your whole life, for free, have more healing benefits than a proprietary concoction that costs more than Kobe beef.

For the next few minutes, assume that you know more about your brain than your neurologist and are more ethical than most advertising firms. And your secret sauce? Neuroplasticity.

Neuroplasticity and the Damaged Brain

As we age, we lose neurons and their connections to one another due to illness, disease, or age-related conditions. In the past, most neurologists thought that once a cell died, no new one could replace it, nor could new connections be formed between cells.

However, recent research has shown that new neurons (neurogenesis) and new synaptic connections (synaptogenesis) can be developed even in the brains of people with dementia or those who have suffered a stroke. “Neuroplasticity” refers to the ability of the brain to regenerate neurons that have died and connections between neurons.

Think of “neuroplasticity” as a department in your brain whose purpose is to repair its potholes, and when irreparable, to create a detour.

So how can you bring your brain back to its top efficiency? Enhance neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to create new cells and connections. Various studies suggest that certain types of activities are more beneficial than others: physical activity, creative activities, and cognitive efforts.

While exercise is believed to enhance neuroplasticity by increasing blood flow to the brain, less research has examined how creative and cognitive activities increase neuroplasticity, even in people whose brains have been damaged.

Cognitive and Creative Acts that Change the Brain

The positive effects of cognitive and creative activities on mental health and brain functioning have been evident to practitioners and caregivers for years. They may not know why a patient becomes more social after working on a puzzle, but the activity’s effects are apparent. What has been elusive is finding guidelines for selecting what to use.

Although rarely cited by professionals treating patients with cognitive problems, the answer has been available since 2013 in an article by Bryon Goodwin and Kristen Miller. Their research aimed to provide educators with an understanding of which skills should be taught to students to help them become creative. After looking at the research, they settled on six.

1. Ability to provide multiple answers based on available information.

2. Constant analysis of what is being created.

3. Willingness to redraft and start over again.

4. Ability to engage in complex and creative problem-solving activities.

5. Ability to combine convergent and divergent thinking.

6. Willingness to ask  “what if?” questions.

Goodwin and Miller probably never realized that these six skills were identical to those needed for cognitive acts.

How Creative-Cognitive Activities Affect the Brain

Skills important for painting, knitting, and sculpting are the same as those needed for managing finances, building a deck, and many other mental activities, and designing rocket ships. Trying to separate “cognitive” from “creative” activities wastes time for practitioners and caregivers. A better approach is to see how many of Goodwin and Miller’s skills are involved in an activity.

Those with many of these elements should be encouraged, while those with few should be reduced or eliminated. For example, knit more, watch fewer reruns of Law and Order, should be part of any medical prescription for dementia or stroke. Since the brain benefits from using the skills regardless of the outcome, there’s no need to worry about producing a poor watercolor instead of a Monet masterpiece. It’s the process, not the product, that promotes brain health.

Below are 12 types of activities that may have a significant positive effect in slowing the progression of dementia and improving rehabilitation for various types of brain injury, including stroke, since each requires the use of Goodwin and Miller’s six skills.

            1. Modify Existing Activities

            2. Add something new to a routine

            3. Engage in an activity that constantly changes

            4. Begin new activities regularly

            5. Listen to music differently

            6. Exercise your brain with dementia-friendly puzzles

            7. Work on creative writing

            8. Challenge the brain with video games

            9. Use non-electronic games

            10. Participate in discussions

            11. Purposefully get lost

12. Create “what if” scenarios

The Takeaway

We may not be able to prevent dementia or stroke. But we can slow their progression and create detours by selecting activities that incorporate Goodwin and Miller’s six skills. Maybe prescriptions should be something like the following:

            200mg of xx, taken twice daily

            30 minutes of walking 3 times a week

            1 hour of knitting 3 times a week

            30 minutes spent creating a unique recipe 2 times a week

            45 minutes of puzzles

            1 afternoon a week, playing bridge or chess