When you’re young, it’s hard to imagine ever being old. Aging is a strange process that happens every day, and yet somehow sneaks up on all of us. There’s a tendency to focus on the body and physical health in order to stay young. But a healthy brain is vital in preventing many age-related diseases.
Unlike your muscles, it can be difficult to remember to exercise your brain. You can’t see it, measure it, or compare it to anyone else. It’s easy to take the brain for granted, after all, it does an excellent job keeping you alive on its own. But there are habits you can develop that will ensure your brain stays active, healthy, and operating at peak performance. Here are five ways you can keep your brain young.
Learn Something New
One of the best ways to keep your brain healthy is by keeping it engaged. And the best way to do that is through learning. In 1968, a study began on a group of nuns at the School Sisters of Notre Dame. They were continuously monitored and despite their advanced age, they all remained mentally agile well into their 90’s. When researchers looked at the variables contributing to their brain health, they discovered that one major reason for their mental agility was that every nun was a lifelong learner.
Other studies have shown that learning a new skill later in life can help offset symptoms of dementia. Learning strengthens neural connections in the brain, but adding varying degrees of difficulty creates strong networks throughout the brain rather than singular connections. And just like with physical exercise, you want to engage in a variety of activities to ensure your whole brain stays fit.
The best part is that learning doesn’t mean you have to go back to a classroom or endure the terror of a pop quiz. Simply cooking your way through a new cookbook that challenges your culinary abilities works. You can learn a new language, play an instrument, take dance lessons, or have your children or grandchildren teach you a new game. Some daily activities that have been shown to keep your brain mentally and neurologically engaged are word-of-the-day challenges and daily puzzles like Sudoku or crosswords.
You want to make learning a habit by embracing your curiosity and turning every encounter into an opportunity to ask questions and discover something new. By building on your skills and seeking out ways to add to your skillset, you are protecting the neurological networks that keep your brain active and alert. The more you make learning a habit, the healthier your brain will be as you age.
Exercise
While the mantra of eating right and exercise can seem like catch-all advice, research is unlocking the link between physical activity and good brain health. Exercise promotes neurogenesis—the growth of new neurons. This neural development happens largely in the hippocampus which is a key part of learning and memory. Further studies have shown that this growth extends to the prefrontal cortex and healthier white matter, both contributing to sharper executive functioning.
Aerobic exercise tends to be better for the brain in general. Just doing twenty minutes of moderate aerobic exercise three times a week can increase cardio-vascular fitness and promote better oxygen flow throughout the body and brain. Your brain uses approximately 20% of the oxygen you inhale, so improving oxygen flow can significantly improve your overall health.
Engaging in outdoor activities first thing in the morning helps reset and regulate your circadian rhythm through early exposure to the sun. This in turn, helps you get better sleep. In addition to regulating this natural process, studies show that exercise in the morning improves deep sleep later that night, even in individuals who have trouble falling asleep regularly, and sleep is a vital component in maintaining your overall brain health.
Finally, exercise balances the neurochemicals in your brain. When you exercise, you release endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine. These neurotransmitters work to not only help improve your mood, but reduce your overall levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Too much cortisol can cause significant long-term health problems, including anxiety, depression, and memory impairment, and can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke. By engaging in moderate exercise several times a week, you can help keep your body and brain healthy and happy.
Maintain your gut health
This might seem like a strange connection, but research shows that the brain-gut connection is vital in improving and maintaining your overall brain health. The connection between the brain and digestion is so strong, many doctors refer to the gut as the body’s second brain.
One of the largest nerves in the body, the vagus nerve runs from your brain to the large intestine. It’s responsible for regulating several internal organs, is integral to your immune system, and plays a key role in your parasympathetic nervous system. It’s also the location of over 100 million neurons. When your digestion is interrupted or slowed, it affects how efficiently the vagus nerve can communicate with the brain. This can impact cognition and stress levels, but can also impact anxiety, depression, and other mood disorders.
There are also several gut hormones that have been connected to efficient cognitive capabilities—ghrelin, leptin, and insulin. Ghrelin is secreted on an empty stomach and has been linked to hippocampal growth, which enhances memory and spatial learning. Leptin elevates brain-derived neurotropic factors, or BDNF, a key element involved in neurogenesis and neuroplasticity. And insulin directly impacts synaptic activity, in addition to your overall cognitive processing.
There are several ways you can take care of your gut health. Eating a healthy diet with some of my favorite brain foods is essential. Depending on your dietary requirements, you may need to work with your health care practitioner to add supplements to your daily routine. Another method that has been effective in elevating gut health is intermittent fasting. There are several methods available, so be sure to consult an expert to find the right method that works for you.
Read a book
Reading is one of the best daily brain exercises. And the best part, you don’t have to read exclusively nonfiction books either. Fiction activates entire sections of your brain as much as informational reading, and in fact, those areas can remain active for days after you’ve finished the book.
The more you read, the more your brain works. It takes a lot of neural activity to track plot lines, translate vocabulary words, string individual words into descriptive sentences, and follow those over several hundred pages. Reading has been shown to increase white matter through increased neural connections, increasing cognitive functionality, language fluency, executive decision making, and memory.
Reading also lowers stress—no matter the genre. A 2009 study showed that reading for thirty minutes a day lowered scores on stress surveys along with heart rates and blood pressure measurements. And this decrease occurred even in stories with thriller or horror elements. Because the reader knows there is an end, reading helps regulate the stress response in the nervous system, and finishing a book releases neurochemicals like dopamine and serotonin.
The emotional arcs in novels also build empathy, which helps regulate emotional responses in real life. These help build deeper relationships and increase your overall sense of well-being, both of which have long-lasting impact on keeping you healthy as you age.
Daydream
When was the last time you let your mind wander? If you’re like most adults, it’s probably been awhile. Daydreaming is something we typically associate with childhood, but research shows how important it actually is when it comes to your brain health.
In fact, daydreaming is an essential element in brain efficiency. An efficient brain means your attention can wander during tasks and even conversations without missing important elements of either. This allows your brain to rest without tuning out entirely, helping maintain higher levels of productivity throughout your day.
Daydreaming has been linked to higher cognitive abilities, increased creativity and innovation, more efficient problem-solving and decision-making, and more. It’s also been shown to lower stress, help reduce pain, and elevate your mental well-being.
One of the added benefits to daydreaming is learning how to use your imagination. It can be easy to get caught up in the tangible world we live in. But that keeps certain problems firmly within only what you know, and sometimes the answer lies in what you don’t know. Imagination helps you look at problems and situations differently. If there weren’t any limits, what could you imagine for yourself or a situation? This visual exercise activates your reticular activating system, which then looks for answers that you may have overlooked.
If you’re not sure where to start, remember that while daydreaming may have come naturally to you as a child, it’s something most adults have to practice. Next time you have some free time, instead of grabbing the remote or your phone, practice daydreaming. It helps to do something mildly engaging like doing the dishes, folding laundry, or going for a walk. This isn’t the time to review your day or think about upcoming tasks. Instead, think of things that are positive and meaningful to you, and see where your mind takes you.
Conclusion
It may be impossible to do a push-up with your brain. But there are healthy habits you can engage in that will keep your brain happy and fit. Everyone ages, but that doesn’t mean you have to succumb to old age. By actively engaging your brain, you can ensure that your mind stays fit no matter how old you get.
