Pair devise memory exercises for older adults.

Byline: The Health Files By Tim Christie The Register-Guard

The mind is like muscle, research shows. Use it or lose it.

Recent studies have found that older adults who engage in mentally stimulating activities can improve their memory, concentration and problem-solving skills. Research also suggests that such mental stimulation can reduce the risk of

Alzheimer's disease.

Two Oregon men have developed a program designed to exercise the brains of older adults who live in assisted living facilities and those who visit senior centers.

They call it MemAerobics, and it's designed to put seniors through some mental paces. It addresses one of the greatest fears of people growing old: losing mental sharpness and memory.

Alzheimer's afflicts 5 percent to 10 percent of people older than 65 and nearly 50 percent of those older than 85.

"It turns hopelessness into hopefulness. It gives them confidence there is something they can do," said Roger Anunsen, who developed and coined the term MemAerobics.

When Anunsen took over as activities director at Southern Hills Assisted Living Center in Salem, he was struck by the lack of energy and enthusiasm among residents during the planned activities. Someone told him the standby activities were called the "Three B's": Bible, birthdays and bingo.

One day in January 2001, when he was supervising an exercise class, Anunsen got an inspiration. "Now it's time to exercise your brain," he announced, and began leading the seniors through word games he used to keep himself stimulated when he was picking berries in the Willamette Valley.

The idea took off from there. Soon after, Robert Winningham, an assistant psychology professor at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, was at Southern Hills doing memory research when one of his assistants told him about the work Anunsen was doing.

"I immediately saw the brilliance of it," Winningham said.

Anunsen has no medical or psychological background, but "he had an implicit understanding of memory and the needs of older adults - mainly the fact that they need to be stimulated cognitively," Winningham said.

The two men teamed up and developed MemAerobics. Winningham conducted an 18-month study, now undergoing peer review at the Journal of Mental Health and Aging, that he said supports the effectiveness of MemAerobics.

Residents at seven different assisted living facilities took different memory and mental tests. Half the residents then participated in a MemAerobics program for three months, and half didn't. At the end of three months, all the residents were tested again.

Winningham found that MemAerobics participants increased their ability to make new memories, such as remembering recently learned names and events; reported fewer symptoms of depression; and had increased confidence in their memory ability compared with the control group.

That confidence is a key for older adults who live in fear of losing their memory, Winningham said. "Decreased confidence is a self-fulfilling prophecy," he said.

After receiving a grant in December from the Portland-based Collins Foundation, Winningham and Anunsen began offering MemAerobics at Southern Hills in Salem and at Stoneybrook Assisted Living Facility in Corvallis. They plan to offer it at a Corvallis senior center in June, and at a Roseburg assisted living facility this summer. Facilities pay $1,000 to $2,000 a month.

Residents attend hourlong sessions three times a week. The sessions move along quickly through different tasks designed to stimulate different parts of the brain.

"We try to maintain a degree of surprise and uncertainty," Winningham said.

"We try to keep them on their toes so they pay attention."

On a recent afternoon at Stoneybrook, about a dozen residents assembled in a meeting room for a MemAerobics session led by instructor Jill VanderZanden.

VanderZanden, a junior studying psychology at WOU, began by displaying photographs of residents when they were children or young adults. They had seen the photographs earlier, and now she asked them if they could recognize other members of the group.

Then she handed out papers that had rows of pictures of animals and people. The residents had to figure out which picture in each row was different.

"You really have to focus on the picture," she said. "What did you have to do to figure out which one was different?

"Process of elimination," said Frances "Pan" Shafer, a 76-year-old resident.

Then VanderZanden showed pictures of animals and asked residents to remember the name of each animal group: A sloth of bears, a troop of kangaroos, an army of frogs, a crash of rhinoceroses.

"How do we remember this?" she said. "What is a story we can tell?"

Think of something that a group of rhinos is bound to do, she said: Crash. "You have to visualize it."

VanderZanden asked residents to remember details of their neighbors: Scotty, who's from Iowa. Margie, whose favorite food is salmon. Elizabeth, nicknamed "Sunny."

VanderZanden led Shafer through a memory game, reciting a series of sentences. Shafer repeated the series, starting with "one dog" and "two pigs" and progressing through "six flocks of flirtatious flamingos." She got hung up on "7,000 seaward penguins surfing in the spray," forgetting the last word.

After the session, Shafer said she enjoyed MemAerobics. She prides herself on her strong memory, and regularly works crossword and word search puzzles.

A key part of MemAerobics is the social component. The residents who participate get to know each other and make new friends.

"It builds community," said Leah Hall, activities director at Stoneybrook. "It creates ties between residents."

Mary Ford, 91, has attended every MemAerobic session at Stoneybrook.

"I think it's very helpful," she said. "You're more observant. It's easier to recall things."

Tim Christie can be reached at 338-2572 or tchristie@ guardnet.com.

MORE INFORMATION

Contact: [phone]; e-mail [e-mail]; www.memaerobics.com on the Web

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MORE INFORMATION Contact: [phone]; e-mail [e-mail]; www.memaerobics.com on the Web Please turn to HEALTH, Page B5 Health: Techniques produce confidence Continued from Page B1