We at Fit Brains, have come up with ten tips we think are primary if not critical components to a lifelong lifestyle for brain health. These behaviors are pulled from existing research on aging from the biological, psychological, social, and gerontological sciences. It is important to recall that our brain does not operate in isolation from the rest of the body. Rather, the human body operates as a symphony producing a behavioral harmony of life. The heart has a particularly important relationship with the brain with nearly 25 percent of the oxygen and blood from every heartbeat designated for the brain. Accordingly, some of the lifestyle behaviors proposed for brain health have similar benefit for the cardiovascular system.
Engage Yourself in the Complex and Novel
Learning new information and skills across your entire lifespan helps to keep your brain strong even in the later years of life. Activities that have the highest value for brain health are those that are novel and complex to each particular person. What is easy for one person may be challenging for another, so the things that challenge you the most have the most value for your brain.
It is the novel and complex that will challenge the brain, stimulate learning, and promote synaptic density, decreasing the likelihood that neurodegenerative disease will manifest. With practice of an activity or skill, your synaptic density increases, and what was once novel and complex can easily become rote and passive. Therefore, continually learning new things will ensure your brain is always expanding and staying sharp!
Mental Stimulation Exercise
This activity is designed to help you understand what is personally novel and complex for you, versus what is rote and passive.
- Take out a sheet of paper, and divide the paper in half.
- In the left column, list five activities that you enjoy and have fun with, and do most frequently. This list represents activities that are rote and passive. Your mind is already comfortable with these activities, which lessens the benefit it has on your brain.
- In the right column, list five activities that you find complicated, and don’t engage in frequently. This list represents activities your brain has not yet formed strong neural connections with, they are the complex and novel. These activities which will likely benefit the development of new connections in your brain.
Exercise Regularly
Exercise is a significant contributor to overall health and is a direct lifestyle behavior that helps to counter risk of disease. It has been demonstrated to have the positive effect of enhancing successful aging. Exercise performed on a routine basis may not only reduce the risk of neurodegenerative disease, but may also help to slow the course of an existing disease such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Exercise can improve our energy levels, sense of well-being, sleep, and brain health. Engaging in regular exercise also reduces the risk of depression and anxiety. Identifying our personal roadblocks to exercise represents the first step to a more healthy and robust body and brain. Identification of why we do not exercise, permits us to systematically breakdown our barriers and to slowly change our behaviors towards a healthy lifestyle.
Socialize and Have Fun
Friends provide opportunities to enable the sharing of experiences, new learning, challenges, emotions, trust, and understanding. Friendship can also provide the necessary motivation towards activity and involvement. Engaging in new pursuits with friends often helps develop new life roles, which provide us with an opportunity to feel appreciated, enjoy, laugh, and have fun. Parent-teacher organizations, church, sports teams, and other group organizations are great places to develop relationships with other people.
Be Health Conscious
It is important for us to take control of our health and understand that we are in charge of managing of our bodies. Physicians work for us, and when it comes to our bodies, we are the boss. Once we establish our own role in the management of our health, the importance of a close and trusting relationship with our physician becomes apparent.
