According to the neurobiologist P. Murali Doraiswamy, if you look after your brain you can add ten years to its life. What follows are ten easy to implement ideas to ensure your brain is well looked after.
1 Drink moderate amounts of alcohol
Excessive drinking long term can lead to the development of alcohol-related brain impairment (ARBI). With this a person will struggle with thinking, memory and coordination. Too much alcohol is not good for the central nervous system, of which the brain is a part. Also the brain needs thiamine (vitamin B1) a deficiency often found in alcoholics. It is possible to develop Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome, a brain disorder through a B1 deficiency. Furthermore, excessive consumption of alcohol can cause liver damage, which can also have a negative effect on the brain.
2 Meditate
If you include meditation in your daily routine, your brain will change for the better. Meditation thickens the cerebral cortex - including the right anterior insula (responsible for monitoring bodily functions) and the prefrontal cortex (responsible for attention and sensory processing). It also offers protection from thinning that normally occurs with ageing. This evidence comes from Lazar et al at Massachusetts General Hospital who analysed brain scans of people who meditated for around 40 minutes every day. Furthermore, the longer the person had been meditating for, the greater the benefits.
3 Go to a yoga class
Given the benefits that meditation can offer the brain, it is perhaps not surprising to learn that yoga is also beneficial. Researchers at Boston Medical Centre note that yoga can benefit people with depression, anxiety, chronic pain, epilepsy and stress-related conditions. They hypothesise that people with these disorders have low activity of gamma amino-butyric acid (GABA) in the brain and yoga increases GABA activity.
4 Get psychotherapy for depression
When a person is depressed, different parts of the brain are affected. A review by Kumari (2006) published in the journal Acta Neuropsychiatrica found therapy for depression has been shown to change the brain. Brain imaging has found decreased activity in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and increased activity in the cingulate, frontal lobe and hippocampus. All these areas of the brain have a role to play in our emotional responses and motivation.
5 Have self belief
Do you hold negative stereotypes of yourself? Perhaps saying I am no good at x, y, z because I am a certain way? A study by Aronson and Steele in 1995 found that the brain did not perform as well as it should when confronted with stereotypes. African Americans dropped 6 points on their IQ test when were confronted with the stereotype that African Americans are not intelligent. The lesson for you is to ignore any negative assumptions you or others may have about your abilities and go for it. Oh and remember practice really does make perfect.
6 Effectively manage stress
People who do not respond well to stress and tend to worry or get depressed when faced with life's difficulties can end up with memory problems. Research by Wilson of Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago indicates that people prone to worry and depression were 40 times more likely to develop mild cognitive impairment. Mild cognitive impairment is characterised by memory loss and is a brain change that is associated with Alzheimer's disease.
One easy way to reduce stress (and prevent depression) is to exercise. This in itself brings brain benefits. Most of the tips in this article have stress relieving properties as you are making time for yourself and looking after your health.
7 Accomplish goals
There's a chemical reason why achieving a goal makes you feel good. It produces endorphins, which increase mood and wellbeing. So to get a regular release of endorphins, make sure your goals are not so huge it takes months or years to achieve them. If necessary, break big goals down into smaller goals that you achieve sooner. Even better set daily and weekly goals that you know you can achieve. Of course the endorphin release you get from reaching a goal will act as an incentive to accomplish even more. This means more endorphins and more achieved!
8 Maintain a healthy weight
If you can keep your weight in the healthy range your brain will thank you. Excess body fat can cause a decline in cognitive abilities. A Korean study of 250 people between 60 and 70 years indicated that those people with a high body mass index (BMI) and large waistlines did worse on cognitive tests than those with normal BMIs and smaller waistlines.
9 Learn a new language
Learning anything new does your brain good. However, you may get greater benefits if you choose to learn a second language. A University of Toronto study in 2007 found older people who knew two languages were less likely to have dementia than those who could only speak one. Speaking a second language requires exercising your attention and your memory. In 2012, Northwestern University researchers analysed the brainwave patterns of bilingual and unilingual participants. The bilingual group were superior in both their response to and attention to sounds and were better at ignoring background noise. All this showed up in their brainwave patterns.
10 Get your sleep in
Your brain will appreciate a good night's sleep on a number of levels. Not only will it ensure you remember all those interesting facts you came across during the day, but it will also help you learn the next day. The theory is that sleep deprivation prevents information from being shifted from the hippocampus to long term storage. So the next day our hippocampus is still full, making it harder for us to learn new things.
Copyright Julia Barnard
Julia Barnard is an author and qualified counsellor living in Adelaide, Australia. She runs the website http://makethechange.com.au where she writes about health, happiness and wellbeing.
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