'Surf'exercise

Remember grandpa’s assurance of how drinking carrot or spinach (yelch!) juice, apart from improving vision, will help in increasing memory power. As a child it was easy to pull the wool over my eyes and make me gulp it down. I do not know if it helped or was I born with my IQ?

We grow and we adapt new ways to improve memory power or brain muscles – who wants to look old anyways. We do not mind spending bucks by enrolling in gym and having a personal trainer. We delight with their assurance and sweat our way. With an ever-increasing stressful life, all we do is sit glued in our cubicles and work on computers. In between we take breaks and might indulge in some mental activities like sudoku, puzzles or games (c’mon, they refresh us to be more productive). I surfed on the internet to check new ways to boost my brain cells. And what I find here. I was already exercising my brain muscles while I thought that I was doing nothing. Don’t believe me, do you?

Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles had a group of people, between the ages of 55 and 76, half of them experienced in internet while remaining were not. The group was asked to search on the internet and read a book while their brain activity was recorded. The brain activity was seen higher in the internet-savvy group compared to the non-savvy group and vice-versa. However, the research concluded that "people who are familiar with the Internet can engage in a much deeper level of brain activity. There is something about Internet searching where we can gauge it to a level that we find challenging".

Besides all the mental activities, we can train the brain by googling on the internet.

A word of caution: Surf Responsibly! (You do not want to suffer from Internet Addiction Disorder, do you?)

The future: We got puzzles and games as childhood gifts to help boost our brain cells while now the kids will just have to surf the internet and reap the benefit.