There's something so infuriating about striding purposefully into a room — only to glance around and wonder why on earthyou went in there in the first place.

Or perhaps it’s endlessly rummaging around for keys or spectacles because you’ve got absolutely no idea where you put them.

We might laugh off the occasional memory lapse as a ‘senior moment’, but as mini mental slip-ups become steadily more frequent, it can be very easy to wonder whether the odd missed appointment, forgotten password or inability to grasp that elusive word hovering tantalisingly on the tip of your tongue could be a sign of something more sinister.

One of the greatest fears for any adult is the scourge of dementia, and as a doctor of psychology specialising in Alzheimer’s disease, the question I am most often asked is whether you can reduce your risk.

Thankfully the answer is definitely yes! Studies have shown that a healthy diet, regular exercise, no smoking, not too much alcohol, good sleep, socialising and de-stressing are fundamentals for long-term brain health.

But the most exciting areas of research lie in the powerful regenerative effects of exercises for your brain.

Our studies show that just three hours of targeted brain training a week is enough to ensure that someone with early dementia can confidently function at a higher level.

But we have also found that a good mix of exercises builds the strength and flexibility of the healthy brain, too, keeping you sharper and mentally younger whatever your age.

You should think of it in the same way you would a quick walk or swim — simple daily exercises that keep everything ticking over.

Keeping your brain stimulated is crucial. In fact, people who continue to test their brains throughout their lives have been shown to have a lower risk of developing dementia.

If you already tackle a daily crossword puzzle or run through a few sudokus at the weekend, that’s great. But I’ve got news for you — I’m afraid that just isn’t going to cut it.

You really do need to mix it up with a wider range of exercises in order to glean maximum benefit from the brain’s ability to adapt and hang on to every single last drop of your thinking power for as long as possible.

My studies show that the perfect brain workout targets different parts of the brain, just as a proper gym workout would target muscle groups around the body.

For maximum brain power, you need to complete a variety of exercises which target different cognitive abilities.

Below are the different types of puzzle in our special pullouts.

source: Dailymail

CONCENTRATION

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This is your ability to focus exclusively on one thing withoutbeing easily distracted.

As we get older, we usually retain the ability to concentrate on one task — such as watching a favourite TVprogramme — but we can become more easily distracted. Your attention levels are good if you are able to stay prettywell focused on a conversation (or a chat on the phone) even when the TV is on or people are talking around you.

But if you are finding yourself increasingly easily distracted, or you need to move to another room to concentrate properly, this could indicate that your attention levels are dropping — making targeted attentionexercises a good focus for you.

SIMPLE SUMS

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Test your bility to perform calculations using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Some people are naturally better at this kind of thing than others, but everyone should be able to perform simple mathematical challenges into old age, and this is definitelya mental skill you can improve with practice.

Your calculation levels are good if you can keep a running total of the cost of food items as you put them in your shopping basket (without using a calculator).

If you find it tricky, try the calculation exercises all next week to boost your skills.

UNITS OF TIME

Determine the correct answer to each question. Try to do the maths in your head first, then use scratch paper if needed. Do not use a calculator.

1. How many minutes are in 14 hours?

2. How many seconds are in 5 hours and 15 minutes?

3. How many hours equal 45 minutes and 8,100 seconds?

4. In 30 hours, it will be 8 am. What time is it now?

5. In 15 hours, it will be 10 pm. What time is it now?

6. In 4 hours, you will be 15 minutes late for your 11 am appointment. What time is it now?

HOW SMART ARE YOU RIGHT NOW?

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Take this challenge quiz to check the state of your brain health right now.

Set a timer and see how many words you can make from the letters in the word below in five minutes. You can rearrange the letters in any order and you do not have to use every letter in each new word — two simple exampleswould be ‘it’ and ‘ton’.

Stop at five minutes and tot up your score, then go back and give yourself longer to make as many words as you can, noting how long it took you to get to your maximum.

You can check your answers below to see how you’ve done

PRESTIDIGITATION

Score: If you made more than 35 words: EXCELLENT

If you made between 20-35 words: AVERAGE

If you made fewer than 20 words: KEEP TRYING

MEMORY

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You know your memory — the ability to input, store and retrieve information — is on top form if you are able to retain a group of people’s names the first time you meet them.

Although most of us are able to hang on to our memories of past events, forgetting names (or, perhaps more accurately, never remembering them properly in the first place) is one of the first parts of our brain health to start todip, as recent memory or the formation of new memories is more vulnerable to ageing.

This is very common and very normal, but it is also very preventable with regular exercise!

LANGUAGE

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This is your ability to use a system of letters and words to express ideas and to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.

Vocabulary tends to stay well preserved with age, but we can increasingly find retrieval (getting the words out) more difficult.

You know your language skills are starting to drop when you find it increasingly hard to come up with the words you want to use when you want to use them.

Studies show language exercises really can help you swiftly find the word that is dangling tantalisingly close on the tip of your tongue.

LETTERS-TO-WORD MATCH

There are 10 six-letter words that have been broken into chunks of three letters. These chunks have been mixed up,no chunk is used twice, and all chunks are used. Can you determin what the 10 words are?

BE REASONABLE

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Reasoning is your ability to think in a logical way, moving step by step to form a conclusion. Good reasoning ability allows you to let the facts decide, rather than falling back on what you ‘think’ or ‘feel’ to be true.

As we get older, we hang on to traditional ways of approaching solutions — but we might find problems that have not been encountered before take longer to figure out.

The reasoning puzzles will encourage you to track and follow multiple steps to challenge and build the reasoning part of your brain.

GRANDCHILDREN COMPARISONS

Using the clues given, make the requested comparisons to determine the correct solutions.

1. Your grandchildren are racing in the back garden. Jimmybeat Cathy, and Melanie beat Patrick. If Patrick beat Jimmy, what was the outcome of the race?

1ST PLACE

2ND PLACE

3RD PLACE

4TH PLACE

2. Your grandchildren are measuring their heights. Tom is taller than Sally, but he is not taller than Lucy. Amber is not as tall as Sally. What is their order of height from tallest to shortest?

1ST (TALLEST)

2ND

3RD

4TH (SHORTEST)

3. Your grandchildren are comparing how many toys they have at your house. Louie has less than Tamara, who has less than Olivia. Robert has more toys than Olivia. What is their order from the most toys to the least?

1ST (MOST)

2ND

3RD

4TH (LEAST)

4. Your grandchildren are playing a board game. Eva has 4more points than William, but she has 8 less points than Vivian. If William has 32 points, in what order did they come in the game, and with how many points?

NAME / POINTS

1ST

2ND

3RD

SO CAN YOU FOLLOW DIRECTIONS?

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Are you able to find the best route on a map, follow directions — or remember where you parked your car? It’sall down to your brain’s ability to understand visual-spatialrelationships. Try this puzzle to hone those skills.

PLANING AHEAD

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This is the umbrella term for a set of mental processes that help you perform activities such as planning, organising, putting things in order, and being able to rapidly switch between tasks.

You’ve got great executive functioning if you can happily plan a complex meal for a large group of people, juggling the pre-planning and organising the preparation for each dish so the food arrives on the table at exactly the right time. If the thought of it fills you with horror, these could be the types of puzzles you should focus on.

DECIPHER THE LETTER CODE

Complete the phrase by determining the number that is assigned to the used letters. Begin by filling in the letters that you are given, then figure out which letters make sense to make words in the phrase. You don’t have to figure out all the letters, just the ones you need.

For example, if the letters are AG_ , you can guess the word is likely to be age, so 19 = E, therefore you can add in all the 19s as Es.

IT'S AN ORDER

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Sequencing is your ability to arrange items in order, such as alphabetically or numerically.

If you have strong sequencing skills, you might notice at a glance if a row of numbers has a pattern (perhaps they are all odd numbers or each number is a multiple of five).

This is an important brain skill to maintain because it helpsus work logically through a ‘to do’ list or follow instructions such as a recipe.

DISCOVER THE PATTERN

Determine the number sequence pattern and complete the succeeding numbers. You may use acalculator for this exercise.

BRAIN BOOSTING PUZZLE SOLUTIONS.






























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