Thursday, April 30, 2009

READING



Reading is one of the best ways to improve all of your brain’s many functions. It increases the number of active cells in your brain, the more connections you have between neurons, the active cells of the nervous system. When you read, you make use of parts of the brain that you don’t rely on for other activities. You have to connect words to sentences to paragraphs and then put it all in context.

Any kind of reading is helpful. Even light reading can exercise your mind and improve your memory skills. So skim the morning’s headlines in your favorite newspaper. At night, peruse a few chapters of a good novel, a biography, or even a joke book.

What to retain more of what you read? Take a break every 20 or 30 minutes to ask yourself questions about what you’ve just read. The more you reflect on the material, the more likely it will stick with you.

- Charles A. Weaver III, Neurologist

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