Help your brain help you

Brain power is something you can have control over, to some extent at least. You’ve probably been advised many times by doctors and even by mothers and grandmothers to eat right or watch your blood sugar if you want your mind to function to its maximum potential. It’s probably all so fixed in your head that you don’t even consider actually listening to them anymore.

Still, there’s a lot you can do to improve your brain power and it’s mostly effortless. The brain is influential in everything we do so if we want to improve our lives why not start from there? From a different stand point,  you might simply be in the position where your brain is failing you, for example with old age. If you start blanking on a name and maybe forgetting where your keys are there’s no need to call it a lost cause and learn to live with it. You can chance this because, as Dr. Stephen Kritchevsky, put it best:  “You can build up your brain, just like a muscle“.

Alzheimer is another thing exercising the brain can help prevent or slow down. There’s still a cure to be found for this disease but many defenses have been developed against mental missteps. As I said before, simple, effortless things can keep you on track with owning a perfectly oiled brain. For example, just by ordering fish when you go out or by simply cleaning your house you can actually achieve a lot in what concerns the brain.

Here are some simple strategies that can serve as tools for cleaning, maintaining, refreshing and enhancing your brain functions.

Specialists recommend that you first test your hearing as your memory is likely to be suffering too. You might not directly understand what this has to do with how your brain functions. However, there has been research conducted by specialists from Brandeis University that has concluded that people with hearing loss don’t remember stuff because they have spend too much effort with trying to understand what was said. Like with a disease, before taking measures to improve something you must first know what you’re dealing with. The recommendation is that you check your hearing every 3 years after age 50. This is important also because, if you have trouble remembering things but nothing seems to be wrong with your hearing you can consider Alzheimer, and an early diagnosis is the best thing you could have hoped for.

Another thing you must keep in mind is to keep your BMI below 25. Memory tests clearly favor people with a BMI of 20 as opposed to those with a BMI of 30 (from where obesity begins). The differences in memory are not so dramatic but are enough to carry a lot of weight in our daily lives, especially today when competition is so intense in many sectors. Can you really afford the extra pounds? Are they worth it? Not likely. Ask your nutritionist on how you can cut back on calories in order to reach your ideal weight. This matters much more than you think and it’s not just about how you look and feel, but also how you think and process information.

Now here’s the effortless part. A study from Rush University shows that people who eat three or more salads a day have a 40% slower cognitive decline on a 6 year period than those who avoid eating vegetables. Green leafy vegetables are the most potent foods we can consume so if you also like them here’s your chance to deliciously boost your brain functions. If you care for an explanation, vitamin E is probably what causes this effect in the most part. You can also take vitamin E from almonds, spinach and other seeds. What’s even greater is that you can mix these all in a salad and by keeping consistent with a diet that includes a salad a day you can soon feel the change.

The next trick that probably doesn’t come as new to you is concentrating and paying better attention. Environmental conditions and distractions can interfere with your memories and your ability to sift through different types of information from the senses. A recent study has actually discovered that from two groups of people asked to do some mental tasks the ones performing these in noisy rooms had higher scores. Simply put, you should turn on the tv or the radio and exercise your mind with a Sudoku or a puzzle or other games popularly used to oil your brain, so to speak.

Let’s move on to the next mind strengthening strategy. Eat fish. Research supports this though it’s been a part of common knowledge for a long time. If you care for an explanation you should know there’s still a debate on whether the omega-3 fatty acids or another element is responsible for helping the brain work better. Either way, all you have to do is eat two fish dishes a week.

Once you’ve checked these off your list you can go on to check your blood sugar. This links to brain functions through the fact that elevated blood sugar is accompanied by a greater risk for cognitive impairment. Elizabeth Barret-Connor, MD and professor at the University of California, tells us that high blood sugar can lead to blood vessel damage and the rest is pretty clear. What you can do is check you blood sugar levels once a year and your fasting level should be under 100mg/dl. Another thing you can do is exercise as this burns glucose and helps stabilize blood sugar levels. Eating more small meals rather than few big ones is also recommended. Since you’re already thinking about meal plans make sure you include at least three servings of calcium-rich foods every day. These reduce risks of developing hypertension, a condition that can speed the process of brain shrinkage. 

Above all these, self-discipline is the most important element so make sure you cultivate it as much as you can.