Your brain is one of the most complex organs in your body. For this reason, looking after it and ensuring you do all you can so that it functions properly is essential. This is important because your brain plays a key role in your daily life helping your balance, coordination, personality, decision-making, and reasoning amongst other things. If you want this organ to work effectively in old age, it’s key that you begin nurturing and caring for it now. There are several ways that you can do this including making a conscious effort to eat the rights food, stay active, and keep your brain alert. You will find five specific ways that you can take care of your brain in the following article.
Enhance Your Memory
One of the first things you can do in a bid to make your brain healthier is enhanced your memory. It’s likely that you’ve often heard jokes made about old age when someone happens to be forgetful and that’s because memory loss tends to be associated with old age. One of the reasons for this is that the hormones and proteins that protect and repair brain cells and stimulate neural growth usually decline as you age.
When you start getting old, it’s also common that you’ll begin experiencing decreased blood flow to the brain which could also affect your memory. You should, therefore, think about looking for ways to enhance your memory as a means of improving your brain. Some ways that you can do this include using mnemonic devices, quizzing yourself, replaying the events of your day every night, as well as testing yourself on trivial things such as the names of people you’ve met or capitals of foreign cities. You could also speak to your doctor about trying Eliquis as a way to help lower your risk of having a stroke, or read a review here for more information on the drug.
Go for Walks Regularly
Another simple way of taking care of your brain and making it smarter is by taking walks regularly. If you aren’t a hardcore fitness type of person, this is a less intense way of keeping your brain healthy. As mentioned earlier, as you age you could experience decreased blood flow to the brain. However, by walking on a regular basis, you could increase the amount of blood sent to the brain. In addition to the neurological benefits, going for walks also gives you a chance to exercise your brain by paying attention to the landscapes around you, replaying the details of the events going on in the surrounding environs, and analyzing in detail what’s going on around you.
If you don’t walk much but happen to exercise, then you may be pleased to know that doing so can help reduce insulin resistance and inflammation as well as stimulate the release of growth factors which are chemicals in the brain that affect the health of your brain cells. In addition to this, regular exercise can also reduce the risk of you experiencing a stroke which is usually a result of blood flow to a certain area of the brain being cut off. By walking, you get to improve both your mental and physical health.
Be More Social
If you happen to be quite the socialite, then you may like the next tip for taking care of your brain which is to be more social. Interacting people can prove to be an effective form of brain food as you create the opportunity to engage in conversation as well as mentally stimulate one another. Being social also gives you the opportunity to listen, learn and about what’s happening in the world around you, being better informed, and getting fresh information. You should also know that research shows that maintaining rich and meaningful relationships and social interactions with the people around you can improve cognitive sharpness. On this note, feel free to hang out more often and meet a variety of different people who expose you to different cultures, experiences, and perspectives. Doing so could prove to be a great as well as pleasurable way of looking after your brain.
Eat Brain Food
You’re probably exhausted of hearing about healthy eating and the positive effects that it can have on your holistic health, however, you shouldn’t be. It has been proven time and time again that what you eat has a significant impact on how your body functions. Although there are no guarantees in life, eating food that is good for your brain could improve your chances of maintaining a healthy brain. You should also note that the brain is the most energy-demanding organ in the human body, so feeding it with the right things is key. Some foods that happen to be good for the brain include blueberries, dark chocolate, walnuts, avocados, beans and freshly brewed tea. Ultimately, you want foods that do things like enhance your memory and focus, stimulate the production of endorphins, are rich in omega-3 essential fatty acids, and are rich in vitamin E to help prevent cognitive decline.
Relax
You have probably heard it time and time again, but relaxation is key when trying to care for your brain. Allowing stress to weigh you down can not only negatively affect you physically and emotionally, but it can also take a toll on your brain. Research suggests that high levels of stress hormones can increase your risk for age-related brain damage. In light of this, learning to not take life too seriously and laugh from time to time could go a long way in helping keep your brain healthy for years to come.
Your brain is one of the things that enables you to experience, feel, as well as live your life in the best way possible. For this reason, you should try and take care of it and give it the things that it needs to function. By doing so, you can increase the chances of enjoying a healthy brain in old age.