Brain games, crosswords and math puzzles are often promoted as ways to sharpen memory, but neurologists warn that generic exercises may not address the specific cause of mental fog.Dr.Rhonda Voskuhl, a professor of neurology at UCLA and co-founder of Cleopatra RX in Los Angeles, says brain exercises only work if they target the specific mental function that is slowing down."You can’t just do random cognitive exercises," Voskuhl told Fox News Digital at the Livelong Women’s Health Summit in New York City in September.
"They’ve got to fit the problem."DOCTOR REVEALS '10-YEAR RULE' FOR EVALUATING BRAIN FOG AND DEMENTIA SYMPTOMSThe problem, she said, is verbal memory."Doing math is not going to help … You need an exercise that will help you with words."Generic brain games like Sudoku or number puzzles often fail to clear up mental fog because they do not target the specific brain functions that are slowing down.
(iStock)Mental fog — especially the kind triggered by midlife hormone changes during perimenopause and menopause — impacts very specific areas of the brain, according to Voskuhl.When estrogen levels drop, overall intelligence and basic logic remain completely normal.Instead, the brain takes a hit in two main areas: verbal memory (recalling names and words) and processing speed (thinking quickly under pressure), experts say.FORGETTING NAMES AND LOSING KEYS MAY SIGNAL SOMETHING OTHER THAN DEMENTIAGames like Sudoku and other number puzzles primarily exercise logic and math skills, so they may not improve word-recall difficulties."It’s not a global problem with the brain," Voskuhl said.
"It’s not global brain atrophy, but there are some regions on MRIs and research studies that show that the hippocampus, the memory area, will have some atrophies, some functional connection issues."Effective cognitive training must match the person's specific weakness, a neurologist said.(iStock)To understand why word-based exercises may help, it is useful to dist...