Get Sharp

Hey, listen: you know I periodically plug BrainHQ — “Brain Training That Works.”  There are three reasons for this: (1) I want you to get your money’s worth from this page, and the basic exercises are free.  (2) I want you to be happy, healthy — and to avoid dementia.  (A 10-year study of 2,800 subjects found that those who did just 14.5 hours in total with these exercises had a 48% reduced incidence of dementia.  Imagine the likely reduction for someone who did an hour a month every year instead of just the first!)  (3) If you convert from the basic free exercises to the monthly subscription, I will get rich because I own a small piece.

Here’s Fast Company’s review of the field, just out this week.

Because dementia is so expensive, what Medicare should do is similar to what some auto insurers should do:  At least one has made BrainHQ available to its seniors free, because it’s found that by increasing their acuity, it reduces their accident rates.  Medicare should offer $50 an hour for up to 10 hours successfully completed each year — the exercises are on-line, so progress could be seamlessly shared with the Medicare computer and rebates applied to the Medicare premiums.  This could get millions of people doing the exercises, both for the money, and because an offer so generous would persuade a lot of seniors that there must really be something to this: that it could meaningfully improve their lives, while lowering health care costs for the whole nation — and improving the lives of their loved ones (dementia is hard on more than just seniors).

And by the way?  Even relative youngsters may benefit.  One who swears by BrainHQ is Tom Brady.

Don’t say I never gave you anything.  Click here.