Do you get regular exercise? If so, good for you. But do you also exercise your brain? Like any of your other muscles you have to use or lose it. Your brain is healthiest when it is regularly being utilized, stimulated, and challenged.
Certain activities and behaviors strengthen the neural connections in your gray matter through a process of neuroplasticity. “While it is actually an umbrella term referring to many capabilities of your brain to reorganize itself,” experiencelife.com reports, “neuroplasticity is your brain’s ability to physically adapt its form and function, throughout your life in response to your environment, behavior, and internal experiences.”
It probably won’t come as a big surprise that these six lifestyle behaviors are your best defense against mental (and physical) decline:
- Eat healthy
- Exercise regularly
- Maintain strong social connections
- Don’t smoke
- Refrain from alcohol consumption
But there are additional ways to improve your cognitive functions and overall quality of your life. Here are five activities suggested by medical experts and researchers.
Care for your emotions
“People who are anxious, depressed, sleep-deprived, or exhausted tend to score poorly on cognitive function tests,” say experts at the Harvard School of Medicine. “Poor scores don't necessarily predict an increased risk of cognitive decline in old age, but good mental health and sleep are certainly important goals.”
Sleep
Speaking of sleep, Mayo Clinic expert Prashanthi Vemuri, Ph.D., who researches the brain and neurodegenerative disorders says “sleep is one of the most important — though often overlooked — strategies to maintain your brain health and reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia. Researchers believe that sleep disruption is associated with beta-amyloid, a protein that can harden into plaque — an early sign of the Alzheimer’s cascade.”
“During sleep, the brain clears itself of toxins like the amyloid protein,” Dr. Vemuri explains, “potentially lowering the risk of Alzheimer’s. In fact, studies show that people who don’t sleep enough may be twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, in addition to having an increased risk of dementia.
Challenge Your Brain with Puzzles
CBC Radio, explained in a recent podcast that “we may think that regularly playing Wordle, crosswords, or other vocabulary puzzles will help us avoid cognitive decline. The evidence for that is scant, according to a systematic review published in 2021 — but that doesn't mean they're a waste of time…Puzzles work on multiple parts of the brain including helping us pay attention, recognize patterns and stimulate vocabulary. Crosswords, challenge your general knowledge and help with problem-solving.”
Dr. Veena Dwivedi, a psychology and neuroscience professor at Brock University who researches the brain and language, suggested on the podcast “you could create a group chat or schedule a meetup around your daily Wordle. So, if you do the Wordle, plus you have the social [connection], and then you walk to your friend's house to talk about it — it's a game changer."
Travel
“You learn subconsciously the entire time you travel,” notes orlandohealth.com. “Being in a new place, especially a foreign country, upsets your autopilot settings and forces you to actively make decisions, such as:
- Figuring out how to get to a destination via subway, other public transit or car
- Remembering your hotel room number and navigating throughout the hotel
- Making the choice of where to have breakfast “
Learning a New Language or Skill
If your travels will take you to a foreign country, why not try learning at least a few words in the native language? Thebestbrainpossible.com points out that “research shows that learning new skills, particularly complex ones like speaking a new language or playing a musical instrument, stimulates and grows your brain by forming new neural connections. When we learn new skills, the density of your myelin, or the brain’s white matter is also increased. One study showed that bilingualism improves the brain’s executive functions, including memory and attention.
Additionally, science confirms that musical training changes your brain to enhance cognitive skills such as verbal memory and spatial-temporal skills. If you’re not a musician, don’t worry. Just listening to music also has brain benefits too.”
Healthy Aging
Rob Glick, senior director of group fitness programming and innovation at Life Time explains, “keeping your brain engaged and consistently rewiring itself is key to both your long-term cognitive functioning and overall well-being. Creating new pathways in your brain may help mitigate cognitive and motor decline symptoms associated with aging, which can also help address common aging issues, including balance, spatial awareness, tracking, and reasoning.”
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