5 Ways to Keep Your Brain Healthy as You Age

When people turn 60, they sometimes lose their keys or forget the names of movies they love, and when that happens, they wonder: Is this the beginning of cognitive decline? Or  worse, are we going to get dementia?

According to neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta, author of the new book Keep Sharp: Building a Better Brain at Any Age, the answer is no. Forgetting is usual at all ages, and your genes aren't always responsible for your dementia. He believes that what matters is taking care of your brain in the best way possible.

“You can influence your mindset and memory far more than you realize or appreciate, and the vast majority of people haven't even begun to try,” Gupta writes, concluding hundreds of research studies to help readers understand what is known and unknown about keeping your brain healthy while refuting common myths, such as the myth that solving puzzles is a viable way to prevent dementia, and replacing it with scientific advice on how to live a longer, healthier life with a more effective brain.

It also distinguishes typical memory lapses, such as forgetting the name of an acquaintance, from more dangerous memory lapses, such as not remembering the way home from a road you always go through, which is a very reassuring distinction. While it praises the cognitive strengths of older people as their common vocabulary skills, it also indicates that our cognitive abilities may begin to deteriorate much earlier than we think, even in early adulthood. That's why he recommends making lifestyle changes now to improve brain power at any age, not just when you're in your 60s.

The new book includes a questionnaire to assess the risk of cognitive decline with some interesting questions, such as: “Do you spend most of your day sitting?” Or "Do you suffer from chronic depression?" Understanding these risks may inspire you to take corrective action. To help you do so, Gupta recommends a variety of ways to make your brain healthier.

Five ways to make your brain healthier:

1. Exercise:

“When people ask me what the single most important thing they can do to boost brain function and resistance to disease, I answer with one word: exercise,” Gupta says. lethargy may be the most dangerous factor for dementia, and keeping fit may help prevent it. Luckily, it doesn't take much exercise to make a difference, even a two-minute walk a day can have a positive effect on your brain health.

Exercise provides many benefits in general, such as improved endurance, strength, stress control, and immune function. Still, the main reason why exercise is beneficial to the brain is that it reduces inflammation while stimulating growth factors that enhance the function and growth of nerve cells, which is why aerobic exercise confers more cognitive benefits than static exercises, such as weightlifting, although weight lifting helps build muscle.

2. Get Enough sleep:

“Good sleep is one of the easiest and most effective ways to improve your brain function, as well as your ability to learn and remember new knowledge,” Gupta writes. This is because sleep seems to clear the brain of thoughts that would accumulate and lead to problems without sleep.

Of course, some people have a hard time getting a good night's sleep, so Gupta reminds them of the principles of healthy sleep that may help them sleep well, points out the importance of rest in general, and suggests stress-relieving walks in nature or meditation instead of daytime naps.

Gupta recommends people practice gratitude and volunteerism to serve the community, take regular breaks from email and social media, and avoid multitasking to reduce stress and ruminate on the disturbing thoughts that keep us up at night.

3. Learning, discovering, and finding the purpose of life:

Since puzzles are not the answer to cognitive decline, we must stimulate our brains with learning and discovery, as Gupta writes. Learning creates new neural pathways and enhances brain flexibility, which may help prevent apparent symptoms of dementia, such as memory loss, even if there is a sign of aging plaques in the brain associated with Alzheimer's disease.

“Look at it as a big brain reserve system that results from rich life experiences like education and career,” Gupta writes. He warns that building cognitive reserve doesn't happen overnight. It's about activating your brain during your life through learning, work, social relationships, and other activities. However, not having a college education doesn't mean you'll experience massive cognitive decline. Trying to activate your brain throughout your life protects it more than earning an academic degree.

He also warns that most commercial games designed to activate the brain are ineffective at warding off dementia. Although they may improve memory because they are not trained in problem-solving or logical reasoning, which are essential for cognitive retention, they say  people should learn in a traditional classroom or learn a second language because these activities present more complex challenges, provide the opportunity for social contact, and play an essential role in brain health.

Finding a purpose in life may be beneficial for the brain, especially if it involves communication with people of different generations or personal learning and challenge. Research suggests that people with a sense of purpose have been able to reduce the risk of suffering the harmful effects of dementia even if their brain contains plaque aging, perhaps because having a purpose drives them to take better care of themselves.

4. Eat healthy:

“What's good for the heart is good for the brain,” Gupta writes. However, there's a lot of conflicting information about diets and supplements. Gupta does his best to dispel myths about gluten and so-called “superfoods” like cabbage and fish oil. There's no evidence to suggest that gluten affects brain function, or that cabbage and fish oil, while useful, prevent cognitive decline, while it's hard to recommend an ideal brain diet based on research.

Epidemiologist Martha Clare Morris recommends a Mediterranean-style diet rich in vegetables, berries, beans, grains, fish, poultry, and olive oil.

However, this diet may not be palatable or available to everyone; therefore, Gupta offers more general diet advice as well, such as:

• Do not overeat refined sugar.
• Drink water and hydrate your body regularly.
• Eat more omega-3 fatty acids from dietary sources, not supplements.
• Cut back on meals. Try intermittent fasting.
• Plan ahead; keep healthy snacks near you, so you don't resort to junk food if you're hungry.

5. Communication with others:

Having  close relationships with people you can rely on to live a happy and healthy life can help you live longer and boost your brain health, too. Research suggests that the opposite - loneliness - may be a contributing factor to Alzheimer's disease.

Gupta recommends mixing with people and other activities, such as sports and learning, such as hiking with a friend, taking a course with them, joining a team sport, or volunteering. Mixing with different people or belonging to different generations may be an added advantage, and online communication, although not ideal, may be helpful when one lives in a remote place where social activities are unavailable. Learning how to use social media for the first time can also help to enhance memory.

While these lifestyle factors are good for preventing cognitive decline, Gupta also advises people who are already experiencing cognitive decline. He devotes part of his book to help readers with cognitive decline assess the degree of disease and figure out how to proceed based on the assessment.

For others, his book is a very useful and easy-to-read primer for sharpening your intelligence at any age, for preventing dementia, and for enjoying life to the fullest too. "We can enrich the brain continually throughout our lives no matter what age we are or what methods we can use," says Gupta. "If you change your lifestyle even a little bit, both your brain and body will enjoy it."