Posted on 3 March 202211 March 2022 by Alla Bohdan

Keep your brain healthy

Why is it important to keep your brain healthy

The brain is an amazing organ. It’s complex, extraordinarily dynamic and manages more than just our mental function and Why is it important to keep your brain healthy cognitive health.

Our senses, emotions and thought processes; what we see, hear, smell, remember, feel, say and do, are all controlled by our brain.

While at the same time, our brain keeps our heart and lungs functioning, manages the motor control of our limbs and muscles, while balancing and working closely with both the digestive and immune systems.

It is just an incredible thought to contemplate how well the brain multitasks on a daily basis and gives us more reasons than one, why we need to look after it.

A healthy brain long-term

The question is, how do we actively support the health of our brain over a lifetime, to keep it healthy?

For one thing, developing a healthy lifestyle, like eating a balanced diet and incorporating habitual exercise are extremely important.

senses, emotions and thought processes; what you see, hear, smell, remember, feel, say and do, are all controlled by your brain! While at the same time, your brain keeps your heart and lungs functioning, manages motor control of limbs and muscles, while balancing and working closely with both the digestive and immune systems.

Just incredible to contemplate how well the brain multitasks.

Your senses, emotions and thought processes; what you see, hear, smell, remember, feel, say and do, are all controlled by your brain! While at the same time, your brain keeps your heart and lungs functioning, manages motor control of limbs and muscles, while balancing and working closely with both the digestive and immune systems.

Dreams

Your brain function goes even deeper than that. For example, dreams are something we consider a sleep time phenomenon, however when we do this while we sleep, our whole brain is actually just as active as it is when we are awake.

Research shows that dreaming may be a way that our brain performs memory reactivation and consolidation. In other words, we process our memories from the day while we dream.

Relationships

The brain also produces the chemicals that cause you to fall in love and form relationship bonds with other people. High levels of dopamine and related hormones, norepinephrine and oxytocin, are released during an attraction response to another person.

These chemicals make us feel giddy, energised, even euphoric and the love centers of the brain even ‘light up,’ at just the thought of a loved one. In turn, love increases circulation to the brain, emphasising a mutual, nurturing relationship between the emotion of love and our brain.

Healthy brain

The question is, how do we actively support the health of our brain over a lifetime, to keep it healthy? For one thing, developing a healthy lifestyle, like eating a balanced diet and exercise are extremely important, however research shows that using our brain in novel ways to support healthy brain function over the long term.

Let us look at ways to support our brain health, more in depth.

Mental Stimulation

Research shows that solution games, such as crossword puzzles or Sudoku, can actually help support and even improve brain function and help prevent cognitive decline.

However, here are some significant tips to help support brain health, long-term.

Learning new information

Experts have deduced that learning in itself trains the brain to be mentally active throughout our life. Continuing to challenge your brain with mental exercise may stimulate existing and new communication lines between your brain cells, supporting healthy brain thought processes.

Something as simple as taking up a new hobby or learning a new skill or language, can be a fun way to both challenge and exercise your brain network.

Remaining positive

Believing in yourself and having a positive attitude about the aging process and brain function in general, may help shape our brain and its thought processes in a healthier way as we age. Instead of emphasising on moments when you feel you may be experiencing memory decline, instead, believe you can help your memory and then turn that belief into daily practice.

We recognise this when a particular smell suddenly brings back a vivid memory. Always try and use your senses to experience a task in a different way so that it makes an ‘imprint’ in your mind. Notice the smells around you, the patterns, the colours.

Memory tools

Don’t expect your brain to remember everything, give those brain cells a break. Instead challenge yourself, by putting your glasses or keys somewhere different, or use a calendar to keep track of important events like birthdays or meetings.

Make lists and use maps or a GPS to get to places you wouldn’t normally go. Your brain does so much you might as well help it along the way.

Repetition

Repeating what you want to know helps you to remember and repeating it out loud or writing it down, helps even more.

This reinforces the connection of information into the nerve cells of our brains network, our memory. And remember to do it more than once at different intervals, doing this practice over hours and even days.

Physical exercise

We all know exercising regularly is important and benefits our physical health. But what we now know is that exercise majorly influences brain health too.

Research shows that not does physical exercise support mood, stress and energy levels and sleep, but also supports circulation in the brain and indirectly stimulates proper hormone release for better mental function and cognitive health.

Blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol

Habitual, regular exercise and physical activity have a variety of positive effects on the human body, including brain health support. From regulating heart health and fitness and reducing risk factors i.e., high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, to improving insulin response, resulting in healthy blood sugar levels.

This highlights a key way of maintaining not only a healthy body, but also a healthy mind at any age, adopting a strategy to delay the effects of both natural physiological ageing, but also pathological neurodegeneration of brain cells.

Get social while exercising

Benefiting your brain health can be as easy as doing one to two sessions of regular exercise per week, or shorter sessions of exercise, spaced routinely throughout the week. Even regular brisk walking can help.

It’s not just exercise that has tremendous benefits, it’s the social aspect of exercising with a friend or a loved one that matters too.

Brain healthy foods

A healthy diet feeds the brain and supports brain health over time. The tried and tested foods that support the brain are well documented. Eating healthy brain foods would include the following.

Green leafies

Spinach, kale, broccoli and other leafy greens provide important nutrients for supporting brain health and nutrition, such as; vitamin K, folate and carotenoid antioxidants like beta carotene and lutein.

Omega 3

Wild-caught, fatty fish provide an abundance of omega-3 fatty acids, essential fats that we need to get from our diet. These omega-3 fats are rich in specific components EPA and DHA that feed and nurture our brain health, even the structure of our brain.

DHA assists as a building block for the following; the brain, eyes and the nervous system. If you are not consuming enough fish regularly in your diet, then it may be a good idea to supplement with a high-quality fish oil product, to ensure that you are getting adequate levels, daily.

For vegetarians, or those who choose not to eat fish in any form, a quality algae supplement is an excellent, direct source of omega-3 EPA and DHA that doesn’t contain any fish.

Antioxidants

Cranberries, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries are bright and colorful, ensuring us of their amazing antioxidant content and benefit.

The natural plant pigments that create the colour of berries are beneficial antioxidant flavonoids that support our circulation in the body, including the brain.

Let the information in this blog encourage you to think about your brain health and cognitive function more often, both on a daily basis and long-term. After all, our brain is here to stay with us for as long as we live, so why not keep your brain as healthy as you can.

References:

https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/12-ways-to-keep-your-brain-young

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111021074640.htm

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6770965/

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