While you may know a lot about how to maintain your overall health as you age, like eating right and exercising, we struggle to be mindful about how to keep your brain youthful too. Here are some things you can easily do to ensure you also take care of your brain health.
Eat for your brain.
A major way to your brain health is through your stomach. Eating food rich in antioxidants help you neutralize harmful free radicals that directly affect your brain health. As free radicals break the neurons in your brain, eating food packed with antioxidants such as colourful fruits and vegetables is a sure way to promote brain health. Further, beans, nuts, whole grains and spices also work well.
Be on the move.
One of the most striking brain researchers has concluded that there is strong evidence that any form of exercise averts some form of mental decline. It’s concluded that fit people have a sharper brain and as unfit people try to achieve fitness, their brain intelligence improves. This is true across all stages of life, more so in older age when brain cells tend to lose tree-like connections among them.
Use that brain.
A harsh reality is our brain starts naturally slowing down the mere age of 30! But the great news is that we can train our brains to be more effective and faster. Playing table tennis, solving puzzles, learning a language, conquering bonsai technique, engaging in many such simple activities can keep your brain supple and youthful. The trick is doing anything that closely engages you and offers a strong reward!
Laugh a lot; it always helps.
Humour is pleasurably addictive to the brain. It stimulates the area of the brain that releases dopamine, the feel-good chemical messenger. It is established via studies that humour improves short term memory and also reduces the stress hormone cortisol. This combination is anti-aging, assisting both your mental and physical wellbeing.
Try tostay calm.
Any form of traumatic or long-term stress is bad for your brain. While it’s proved that challenging your brain is important, what’s equally important is remaining calm. Stress negatively impactscognitive processes such as memory or learning and subsequently impairs the quality of life. Sleeping adequately is also instrumental in ensuring the brain perform at its peak in waking hours.
Simple tasks like social relationships are also great in keeping your brain and body youthful. All of these simple things can substantially improve your quality of life.
