The Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST) is actually a kind of mental exercise which will stimulate our brain. Due to the concept of brain plasticity, our brain continue to also grow old as we age. But how do we make it happen?
Growing the Grey Matter
According to research made, it shows that grey matter will grow and increase if the brain learns new and complex materials. Another thing is that the idea between complex and new is in fact somewhat personal. It’s going to be different than your complex and new. An important element for activity or exercise is in fact through having the appropriate level of challenge and engagement.
A research study that was made at the University of Hamburg in fact demonstrated about the growth of grey matter. On such study that was made, grey matter that were in the student’s brain actually shows the growth of grey matter within the six week period which has a connection with their studying for their final exams.
This does not mean however that you should be studying medicine in order to get a big brain. This simply shows that learning new things is really beneficial for the health of your brain.
Cognitive Resilience and Dementia
A cognitive stimulation therapy can offer the healthy adults different ways on how they could improve high levels of mental activity. This will help to reduce the risk of developing dementia. The case of building cognitive resilience can in fact happen at any part of our life, regardless of your age. To make this simple, it is simply never too late.
This kind of engaged approach works for people who are suffering from dementia or on other forms of it. A cognitive stimulation therapy program covers various areas of cognition and is in fact able to give various benefits compared to programs which only focuses on a certain cognitive domain. If we are interested and is engaged, we mostly try harder. Programs that engage the interest of a person will help in making it easier for the person to challenge their brains.
According to a research made, CST is likewise as effective with dementia drugs in improving cognition. Research trial likewise shows that CST likewise gives the same positive impact with the dementia drugs. This however doesn’t mean that you need to replace drug therapy just to treat dementia. COST however is a good alternative in case the drug options are not available or to help support therapy. According to the research made, CST will help in improving the outcomes if this will be used with the dementia drugs.
Trials also include people who are in the mild to moderate stage of dementia and interventions are found to be not appropriate for those who have severe dementia.