If you wish to prevent Alzheimer’s disease or dementia till a ripe old age, it is important to keep your brain stimulated with intellectual activities. These can include applying creative solutions to everyday problems, or solving creatively constructed puzzles that require out-of-the-box thinking. The former scenario may not be so plausible, as we do not encounter complex problems every day in our lives, but solving cleverly constructed puzzles is certainly possible.

Puzzles come in a wide variety of flavors, and almost anyone can spend hours with these. These can be of the simplest varieties, which require arranging a few numbers in a grid, or rearranging the letters of a word to form a new one. On the other hand, there can be complex mathematical puzzles, which require hours of brainstorming to solve.

Sudoku, designed by Nikoli (a Japanese puzzle company), is one of the best examples of mathematical puzzles that require substantial amount of brainstorming. A typical Sudoku consists of multiple magic squares with a few numbers removed from each square, such that the numbers in each diagonal, vertical and horizontal row add up to the same total.

Games like Sudoku require high concentration and the ability to think creatively, visualizing the solution before actually filling in the grid. Solving puzzles like these on a regular basis will usually slow down the aging process of the brain, and also keep a person’s neural network healthy till a ripe old age.

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