When it comes to staying happy and healthy, you want to feel your best and support your body and internal functions so you can perform at your best. But, being healthy is about more than maintaining a healthy weight, exercising, and practicing healthy habits—although they’re great pillars of health to aim for. It is about taking a holistic view of your entire body, especially your brain.
Neglecting your brain health can have many impacts on your health and wellness, and it can lead to social and behavioral problems, mental health issues, poorer physical health, and so much more.
Yet, when people talk about being healthy, it is typically in relation to your body, not your brain. But it’s never been easier to protect your brain health and adopt habits that support your body and brain for improved overall health and, potentially, the future of your cognitive abilities. These habits are not only beneficial but also easy to incorporate into your daily routine, giving you the power to take control of your brain health.
Let’s take a look at some ways you can boost your brain health easily.
Nutritious Diet
A healthy, nutritious diet is a great place to start, and it will benefit all aspects of your health, not just your brain health. Incorporating brain-boosting foods into your diet can have a significant impact on your overall well-being, giving you more reasons to stick to a nutritious diet.
Whole foods and a diet that is rich in fruit and vegetables, etc., are a great foundation from which to build. Including the following foods can add a bit extra to your brain, too
- Nuts and seeds
- Berries
- Leafy greens
- Fatty fish
- Eggs
- Dark chocolate
On top of this, you need to remember that your brain runs off sugar (the form of glucose) and carbohydrates as its primary fuel source, so eating foods that can deliver these will be massively beneficial, too. But too much, like with anything, can be a bad thing, so studies suggest that around 120g of glucose is enough for your brain to function correctly.
Studies have actually found that people who eat a Mediterranean diet that focuses on fruits, vegetables, fish, nuts, and unsaturated oils are less likely to develop cognitive impairment and dementia in later life.
Get Mental Stimulation
Mental stimulation is vital for a healthy brain, and if you’re not stimulating the brain, you are only going to experience a decline in your cognitive abilities more easily than someone who focuses on engaging their brain. While a cognitive decline is expected as you age, slowing it to push back the age-related deterioration is possible. Specifically, as it occurs at different rates in different people, so there is no one age, you will start noticing changes that can occur at any time.
What you need to aim to do is stimulate new connections between nerve cells in the brain and develop neurological elasticity that provides you with some support against future cell loss. You can do this by engaging in any type of brain-stimulating activity, such as learning something new, i.e., a new language or an instrument. You can play games or those that push your memory, such as wordle. You can play math problems such as sudoku or practice art like drawing, do complex puzzles or jigsaws, or you can do an activity that requires some amount of mental effort.
Keep Blood Pressure in Check
High blood pressure, especially in middle age, can increase your risk of cognitive decline. While people are genetically predisposed to developing high blood pressure, there are lifestyle changes you can make to help you with your blood pressure, as well as medications that work to lower it. Tips like staying lean, exercising, limiting alcoholic drinks, reducing stress, etc., are all designed to help you lower your blood pressure.
Get Active
Research has shown that getting active and using your body and muscles also gets your brain active and delivers many benefits. Not only do you need to think about the activity you are doing when exercising especially for strength training or yoga and pilates, when you need to be aware of your form and breathing, but exercising regularly increases the number of blood vessels in the brain that bring oxygen-rich blood. This blood is delivered to the thought region of your brain, thus boosting cognitive abilities.
On top of this, exercise can help with the development of new brain cells and increase synapses, too. This gives you a more efficient, plastic and adaptive brain that translates to a healthier brain for longer as you age. Exercise can help to control blood sugar and blood pressure, both of which are important for good brain health.
Stop Smoking
Smoking is bad for your health, and everyone knows this. Stopping smoking can have multiple health benefits, including for your brain. Smoking can accelerate brain aging, reduce cognitive abilities, contribute to brain shrinkage, create structural changes in the brain, and increase oxidative stress. Even if you don’t know exactly what all these are, you know they don’t sound great or even healthy, and if a healthy brain is a goal, remove tobacco from your life immediately.
Sleep Well
Sleep is the foundation of good health in all aspects of life. Good quality sleep is essential for brain function, and ongoing sleep deprivation can have unwanted effects on the brain.
Sleep deprivation can contribute to impaired memory, reduced decision-making abilities, slower reaction times, executive function impairment, increased irritability and mood swings, increased appetite, and difficulty regulating emotions, to name a few.
You want to focus on getting a good night’s sleep each and every night to boost brain health, even if you don’t engage in any other activities related to supporting a healthy brain.
This could be doing things like
- Removing electronics from the bedroom
- Going to bed and waking up at the same time every night and morning
- Finding the right temperature for your sleep environment
- Using white noise to help you drift off
- Avoiding heavy meals, exercise, and alcohol before bed
- Reducing caffeine intake later in the day
Get Social
Humans aren’t designed to be isolated from everyone all the time, and lacking social engagement and interactions can be detrimental to your brain health. Even if you are not the most sociable of people, you need to make social connections in some way to help you keep your brain healthy.
You can avoid the impact of loneliness, which is sadly endemic in senior communities, by connecting on a regular basis with family or friends, joining clubs, finding online communities of like-minded people to talk to, volunteering, or simply getting out and about and talking to people. However, you do need to make sure you are being as social as you can be, even if it’s not much, as a lack of social activity can exacerbate cognitive decline and increase your risk of developing dementia.
Protect Your Head
Common sense tells you that the more times you experience head injuries, the more likely you’ll get to experience damage that might not be able to be rectifed. Moderate to severe head injuries can increase the risk of cognitive impairments, and this means protecting your head from any activities that could potentially cause damage to your brain.
Regulate Emotions
Studies have found that people who are depressed, anxious, sleep-deprived, and exhausted perform worse on cognitive function tests. This isn’t really something you couldn’t connect the dots on anyway. However, improving your mental health can not only protect the risk of preemptive cognitive issues again but can also lead to a happier, healthier life that is more enjoyable. So whether you need to change your lifestyle habits, get help from medical professionals to assist you in working through depression and anxiety, or make an effort to improve your emotional health, this is an area that benefits you in many ways than just improved brain health.
Improve Cholesterol
Cholesterol is vital for brain health and is involved in cell membrane function, neurotransmitter function, and myelin formation. Meaning that maintaining healthy levels of cholesterol can be beneficial for your brain and your heart health.
Unhealthy cholesterol levels, especially the bad type LDL, can impact brain function and cognitive decline. Cholesterol imbalances have been linked to multiple neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s, Huntington’s Disease, and Alzheimer’s.
Talk to your doctor if you have high cholesterol and want to improve your diet to keep it at a healthy level and reduce the harmful cholesterol in your body.
There are so many ways you can improve your brain health, and these tips are just a few that are easily actionable and, for the most part, something most people do for overall health and well-being. However, small tweaks to your diet, exercise levels, and activities can further support good brain health and prevent premature cognitive decline. And mental impairments as you get older.
So, eat a balanced diet, exercises, focus on good sleep, remove bad habits, and get social so you can support your brain as it needs you to.
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