Boost Your Brain Health

 

Healthy, fresh, agile and active mind is often the result of great brain health and leads to the  longevity of self. Brain act as the command center while enabling thoughts into action, memory into emotions and handling the most critical piece of your life. A healthy brain helps you to communicate, make decisions, do problem-solving and make your life productive and fruitful.

Facts about brain

1.    The brain weighs about three pounds or 1.36 kg.

2.     The brain comprises about 2% of your total body weight and uses 20% of your total energy and oxygen intake. 

3.     Brain is 73% water, and 60 % of the total dry weight of the brain is fat, making the brain the fattiest organ in the body. 

4.     As low as 2% dehydration of the brain can affect your attention, memory, and other cognitive skills. 

5.      Ninety minutes of sweating can temporarily shrink your brain as much as one year of aging. 25% of the cholesterol in the body is found in the brain.

6.     The spinal cord is the primary source of communication between the body and the brain. 

7.     You are using your brain all the time even during sleep time.

8.     Storage capacity of the brain is unlimited.

 

Tips to keep your brain healthy

To keep your mind active, it is essential to continue to work, rest and play. All these three activities will help boost your brain health. There are many more ways to keep your brain healthy these are-

1.    Quality Sleep

Quality sleep is a must for brain health as it plays an important role in removing toxins from the brain that build up when you are awake. Sleep quality is all about an individual’s self-satisfaction, regarding sleep duration, sleep onset and sleep efficiency. A good sleep always helps in improving your brain performance, mood and health. Not getting good sleep raises the risk of many diseases and disorders like stroke, obesity and dementia. For a healthy adult 7 to 9 hours of sleep is termed good quality sleep.

2.    Digital detox

Digital detox is referred to the period of time when someone keeps himself/herself away from digital or tech devices like smartphones, televisions, computers, tablets and social media sites. Detoxing leads to real-life social interaction rather than virtual. A digital detox can re-train your brain to focus on a single task making you focused and productive. Digital detox also helps to lower stress and calm your mind, which makes you self-confident. A relaxed mind will help you relax and sleep properly.

3.    Meditation

Meditation can help your brain function better as your focus and productivity get a boost. Meditation in due course of time can decrease negative mood, and anxiety and improve attention and memory. Meditation can make you feel more relaxed, grateful and fulfilled and will start removing the negative feelings of anxiety, anger and depression. You can practice meditation for at least 10 minutes a day and it will increase the density of the part of the brain connected to memory and learning. As a result of meditation, your brain health will improve and you will find yourself less stressed, sleeping better, motivated and cheerful.

4.    Stop Worrying

If you are always waiting for disaster to strike or excessively worried about family, money, work and health, it means your worrying habit is leading you to generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). This process will fill your mind with negative thoughts always and may lead to depression. So, it is better to stop worrying always instead find out ways to come out of it, practice self-compassion, share your fears and feelings with friends and family and fix a sleep schedule to calm your mind.

5.    Move your body

One of the best ways to keep your brain active is to be active always no matter your age or your fitness level. Moving your hands and legs as well as regular body movement in some capacity every day can help you get better sleep at night and reduce your risk of cognitive decline and dementia. Good sleep will lead to better mental alertness and a decrease in the level of stress. Studies have shown that each time you move your body, many beneficial neurotransmitters like dopamine, endorphin, serotine and acetylcholine get released in your brain. These neurotransmitters decrease the feeling of depression and anxiety, makes your brain stress free and help contribute to brain health.

6.    Eating fresh and healthy

Plant-based food items like spinach, kale and broccoli contain brain-healthy nutrients like vitamin K, lutein, folate and beta carotene and can help slow down cognitive decline. As the brain uses more than 20% of our caloric needs, eating healthy is essential for memory, mood and focus. Fruits like oranges, guava, kiwi, tomatoes and strawberries contain a high amount of vitamin C. Vitamin C helps prevent brain cells from being damaged and potentially prevents Alzheimer’s disease. Similarly, food item like fatty fish contains omega 3 fatty acids and are good for improving memory.

7.     Lead an active social life

Building social networks and participating in social activities, work as an exercise for your brain as they keep your mind agile and improve cognitive function. Socializing can help reduce mental decline and lower the risk of dementia. Socialization reduces loneliness, sharpens memory, increases your sense of happiness and well-being and helps you live longer. But this requires real-life social networks among people instead of virtual social networking sites. It is said that the brain of lonely people changes the neurochemistry of the brain, produces more cortisol and can cause severe physical illnesses like cancer, diabetes and the production of tumor cells. Developing social bonds always fosters better physical and emotional health.

8.     Learn new skills

A brain training activity doesn't always have to be exercise-related. Much research has found that creative outlets like painting and other art forms, learning an instrument, doing expressive or autobiographical writing, and learning a language also can improve cognitive function. But the cusp of this thought is that you don’t have to indulge or be tempted into too many activities to stress out your brain. Devote your time and attention to one activity at a time and be consistent with practicing it daily. You need to constantly challenge your brain to make it grow, taking up new activities can give your brain the chance to learn something new and improve itself at the same time.

9.     Brain exercise

Many exercises are in vogue today to train your brain to boost memory, cognition and creativity and keep it healthy too. Exercise for the brain can be a crossword puzzle, sudoku, meditation, solving jigsaw puzzles, playing chess, knitting, card game, dance moves or building models. This will make you have fun and sharpen your memory at the same time.

Food for better brain power

• Green, leafy vegetables: The researchers suggest that adding a daily serving of green leafy vegetables to one's diet may contribute to brain health. This includes kale, spinach, cooked greens, and salads.
• All other vegetables: Try to eat another vegetable in addition to the green leafy vegetables at least once per day. It is best to choose non-starchy vegetables like okra, gourds and capsicum because they provide a lot of nutrients for a low number of calories.
• Berries: Eat berries at least twice per week. Berries such as strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries provide all the antioxidant benefits to your body.
• Nuts: Try to have five or more servings of nuts like walnut, almond and pistachio each week.It is best to vary the type of nuts that you eat every week to obtain a variety of nutrients.
• Whole grains: Aim for at least three servings daily. Choose whole grains like oatmeal, quinoa, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, and 100% whole wheat bread or roti.
• Fish: Eat fatty fish at least once per week. It is best to choose fatty fish such as salmon, sardines, trout, tuna, and mackerel for their high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids.
• Beans: Include beans in at least four meals per week. This category includes all beans, lentils, and soybeans.
• Poultry: Try to eat chicken or turkey at least twice per week.

Methods to boost brain power

Good memory and better concentration are the rewards of a healthy brain and there are some good practices to boost brain power.

1.  Eliminate distractions to improve your concentration and focus. Sometimes physical as well as mental health issues cause distractions to the brain or lack of focus on a particular task are the culprits. To eliminate the distraction, find out the most important task needed to be completed first or set priority to the remaining tasks.

2.  Reduce multitasking if you think that multitasking is negatively impacting the quality of your life and making you struggle too much. Make some changes in your daily routine that will increase your productivity and efficiency. Set the 20-minute rule instead of constantly switching between tasks and try to fully concentrate and put your attention to one task for 20 minutes before switching to the other.

3.  Get more sleep for good brain health, as sleep is as essential to our body as food and water. Sleep is essentially important for a number of brain functions, including how nerve cells (neurons) communicate with each other. In fact, your brain and body stay remarkably active while you sleep. Studies suggest that sleep plays a housekeeping role for the brain and body and it removes toxins from the brain that build up while you are awake.

4.  Focus on the moment or being mindful is all about focusing attention on the present moment, and practicing mindfulness is to rewire the brain so that attention is stronger in everyday life. To improve focus, concentrate on what to exclude, or not pay attention to, every unrelated thought, idea, feeling, or sensation. At the same time do not pay attention to the numbers, beeps, new messages, new updates, a new “like,” or a new follower on social media.

5. Take breaks regularly as studies show that taking purposeful breaks of 5 to 50 minutes from study or work has the power to refresh your brain and body and increases your energy, productivity, and ability to focus. These short breaks or rest periods strengthen memories of the new skill you just practiced or working on. Breaks can improve our moods, overall well-being and performance capacity. The simplest way to take a break is to get outside and enjoy the fresh air to renew your energy.

6.  Connecting with nature and spending time in greenery is linked to both cognitive benefits and improvement in mood, mental health and emotional well-being. Green as well as the blue or aquatic environment has a great effect on increasing happiness, subjective well-being, positivity, social interactions and a sense of meaning and purpose in life, as well as decreases in mental distress. All these are good for brain power improvement.