SNAG

I'm reading a book called Anatomy of the Soul, written by a Christian psychiatrist, Curt Thompson, MD.  The book explores several areas of neuroscience, including memory formation.  He discusses a strategy to enhance growth and activation of neurons proposed by Daniel Siegel, clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine.  Siegel came up with the acronym SNAG, which stands for "stimulation of neuronal activation of growth." 

So what are the elements of SNAG?  There are three:

• Aerobic activity.  Engage in at least 45 minutes per day, five days per week.
• Focused attention exercise.  This could be some kind of meditation or prayer.
• Novel learning experience.  This is learning something that expands creativity, such as learning a new language or how to play a musical instrument.     

AD and dementia are not a focus of the book, but these three elements are certainly familiar to us.