Seniors Site

Secrets to a Healthier Brain

Truth be told, you could delay dementia, if not prevent it altogether. You just have to avoid known risk factors such as smoking and inactivity. Of course, you still have to consider genetic factors but if you make your brain healthier thus stronger, it could overcome your tendency to encounter problems in that area on its own.

Healthier brain means giving it the exercise it needs, the right kind of rest whenever needed, the right kind of diet and of course, taking brain boosting supplements. Below are some of the things you need to do to ensure a healthier brain:

Exercise! If you would like to keep dementia at bay, make sure you keep moving or at least, maintain a very active lifestyle. This is to keep your weight at its healthiest level thus avoiding obesity which contributes to your risk of having dementia. Also, physically active seniors are found to have better memory. They also belong to a group which has a lower rate of dementia cases. The connection between exercising and healthier brain lies on brain shrinkage. Ageing causes our brains to shrink while exercising promotes growth, or helps the brain maintain its healthy size. So, in a way, exercising reverses the brain’s natural aging process and effectively keep dementia at bay.
Step up on your resistance training. Resistance training such as weight lifting is known to encourage growth hormones which of course, can encourage cell growth in the brain as well.
Continually challenge your brain. It doesn’t matter if you don’t remember half of what you are doing now after 30 minutes or so, or if you always forget where you put your keys, what matters is that you continually challenge your brain and feed it information. Activities like solving a puzzle or just plain surfing the net can do a lot of improvement on how your brain processes information and how quickly it responds.
Prevent stress as much as possible. We all know stress cannot be prevented, in some instances, it can be healthy too – but certainly not in overwhelming doses, right? However, stress triggers the hormone cortisol which impairs the memory.
Learn how to meditate. While you cannot really escape stress, meditation can help you calm your nerves and in a way, lessen the impact of the stress, if not completely obliterate it.
Lessen your meat intake while loading up on fish, fruits and greens. You’ll need all the omega 3 fatty acids you can get and there’s really no room for red meats now since red meats will only bring more harm to an aging body than good.
Make sure you are well supplemented. Not all vitamin supplements are made equal. You really have to check with your doctor what you need and not need to take and let them build a supplement plan that is personally designed for you.