The Brainpower Game Plan by Cynthia Green: Book Review

This is a fun activity-based book that provides a comprehensive 4 week plan to eating, exercising, and doing activities for brain fitness. The book is extremely well laid out and easy to use. If you are interested in taking a month and working on brain fitness, this may be the book for you.

Unlike other brain fitness books, this one is predominately written by people who know how to layout pages and write for a general audience. Specifically, it is written and laid out by the editors of Prevention Magazine (with the guidance and leadership of Cynthia Green, an expert on brain fitness).

Because of the work of the editors, this book feels more like a giant magazine than a book. Every page is directed toward concrete actions and explaining the how of the program. That includes ton of images (like ones showing how to do certain exercises).

The plan seems solid and is based on a mix of common sense and research in brain health. The main issue I have with the book is that, unlike some other brain fitness programs, this particular program has not been thoroughly researched. In other words, the program makes complete sense and the book is excellent; but we don't have a research study telling us what level of benefit one might expect through doing such a program.

That said, the nutritional and exercise advice is a no-brainer. What is good for your brain in this book is good for your whole body. Whether the brain games and activities in this book will help prevent dementia and memory loss is anybody's guess; but at least the games are fun and interesting.

Another good feature is that you take an initial test to give your "Brain Q" and then retest throughout the program. You can do these tests in the book, or simply go online to have an automated experiences.