Mahjong can be more than merely an entertaining pastime; research has proven it can actually improve cognitive health and overall well-being. Playing mahjong improves hand-eye coordination and manual dexterity, showing increased speed of finger activity and reduced response times. Furthermore, mahjong helps mental wellbeing by alleviating depression and anxiety. Gracmahjong.com even states that “together with its social benefits, mahjong has proven to enhance clarity of thought” in those who play the game.
Mahjong Benefits for Cognitive Health and Well-Being
Improves Memory
Mahjong is an engaging game of chance and strategy, requiring concentration, visual perception and cognitive processing power. For elderly individuals in particular, it can serve as an excellent brain exercise – even less likely than usual for them to succumb to dementia in recent studies conducted at the University of Georgia!
Research involved 56 Chinese elderly participants residing at Nanchong City’s First Social Welfare Nursing Home who were randomly divided into mahjong and control groups for 12 weeks. Results demonstrated that those assigned to playing this game three times weekly significantly enhanced their executive functions and activities of daily living compared with their counterparts from the control group.
Researchers believe that playing mahjong helps stimulate neural circuitry in the brain and boost memory, because building winning mahjong hands requires players to keep tabs on both their own tiles as well as those placed by opponents.
Improves Concentration
Mahjong demands high concentration to track tiles discarded by your opponents and spatial awareness to identify different patterns on tiles – which makes mahjong one of the brainiest games around! This makes the game such an engaging challenge.
Recent research suggests that this game can help older adults improve eye-hand coordination – an essential perceptual-motor function which declines with age. To assess its effects, this study evaluated MoCA-B, STT-B and FAQ scores before and after six and 12 weeks of mahjong intervention.
Playing this game not only improves cognitive performance, but it can also help elderly people feel connected with their communities, thus preventing depression and hypochondriasis – key components in maintaining mental health and reducing dementia risk. As social scientist Kam-shing Yip states: mahjong provides an important foundation for healthy aging.
Increases Socialization
Mahjong not only enhances memory but it can also provide an effective means of socialization and friendship formation – something especially valuable to older adults as isolation can contribute significantly to health-related problems.
It is an engaging game that requires social interaction and numerous calculations, as well as keeping track of which tiles have been discarded by other players. With all this mental activity involved, mahjong provides an ideal way to stimulate socialization while keeping one’s brain sharp – thus helping prevent dementia and age related conditions such as Alzheimer’s.
Skye Deng’s grandma plays mahjong as an enjoyable way to spend time with her friends and family, keeping active throughout her life thanks to it, making her happier and healthier in general. This article draws upon Skye Deng’s personal experience as well as research conducted on its benefits at South China Normal University.
Reduces Stress
The game requires strong concentration and memory skills, making it a fantastic way to relieve stress and relax. While playing for fun is important, remember to take frequent breaks so as not to overexert yourself as this will prevent mental fatigue.
Researchers found that elderly individuals who regularly engaged in this game had improved self-reports of daily health status and resilience levels as well as lower demoralization levels, along with having lower risks of cognitive decline.
Mahjong can greatly improve the mental health of elderly people by combatting depression and relieving feelings of loneliness, which explains its widespread popularity with this age group. We should encourage older adults to continue playing the game as it could help prevent dementia or motor dysfunction from setting in as they get older; additionally we should promote this game among children so as they may further their intelligence and cognitive development capabilities.
Check site “mahjong spiel kostenlos” and take the offer, to start playing Mahjong, as it can help reduce stress.
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