Manual brain stimulation - Finger fine motor skills for the prevention of Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is like an eraser, erasing the memory of AD patients bit by bit. In recent years, elderly people with the disease often ask the police for help because they can't find their way home. This memory impairment is one of the most typical symptoms of AD patients in the early stage. AD is a progressive neurodegenerative disease with an insidious onset. AD patients develop symptoms relatively slowly. In addition to memory loss, they will also have language and thinking disorders, cognitive confusion, aphasia, apraxia, agnosia, visual-spatial function impairment, executive dysfunction, and personality and behavioral changes. The cause of the disease is still unknown. At present, the number of elderly people with AD in China has exceeded 6 million, and it is expected that the number of patients will exceed 20 million by 2050. China has the largest number of AD patients and the fastest growing rate in the world. In my country, clarifying the prevalence and main risk factors of AD in the elderly population and carrying out early prevention and rehabilitation of AD are the basis for formulating and improving my country's AD prevention and control system, and are of great value to the formulation of many national policies on medical care, elderly care, economic and social development.

Scientific evidence shows that increasing physical activity and strengthening exercise can delay the aging of the elderly brain and improve the quality of life of the elderly. Based on the increasing prevalence of AD, in addition to some necessary aerobic and resistance exercises, coordination exercises are essential for the elderly. If the brain is a precisely operated machine, then coordination is the dispatching center for the coordinated operation of multiple components of this machine, and it is a basic function for the efficient operation of the brain. In addition to being closely related to motor control and balance, coordination also has an important impact on learning and cognitive abilities. Among all the organs of the human body, the hand is the most flexible and complex organ, consisting of fingers and palms, in which finger movements play an important role. The fine movements involved in our lives are mostly completed by the small muscle groups of the hands and fingers, mainly including grasping movements, and the self-care skills of painting, writing, etc. developed on this basis, as well as the flexibility of the hands, hand-eye coordination, and coordination of both hands. Studies have shown that the projection area of ​​finger movements accounts for the vast majority of the surface motor area of ​​the brain. Various fine activities centered on fingers can effectively stimulate the cerebral cortex and effectively delay the decline of cognitive function in the elderly. Although the cause of AD has not been elucidated so far, if family members can pay attention to the cognitive changes in the elderly, they will be able to effectively prevent the occurrence and development of AD.

So, what kind of finger fine motor exercises can be done to effectively prevent cognitive impairment and prevent or delay AD? Finger fine motor exercises are exercises that increase the hand-eye coordination of the elderly.

The following are some finger exercises. It is recommended that the elderly can practice them more often in their daily lives to improve their hand-eye coordination and prevent cognitive deterioration.