4 Tips for Brain HealthBy Jenny Ferguson [Health & Your Life]
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How can hanging out with your friends help keep your brain healthy? Jenny Ferguson has some suggestions for keeping your mind sharp.  While we’re always worried about how to keep our bodies in tip-top shape, most of us forget that keeping our brains fit is just as important. As we age, things like memory and mental alertness can slow down. Also, reducing your risk for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia is linked to a healthy and active brain. Here are a few tips that are easy to incorporate into your day that will help you keep your brain in great shape, whether you’re just out of high school, going to your 10-year reunion or you’d rather not disclose your age!Take Care of Your Body The first step to taking care of your brain is to take care of your body. Eat well, exercise regularly and get enough sleep. Exercise three times a week for at least 30 minutes. Take the stairs at work instead of the elevator. Go for a walk or take up a new sport. Get the blood flowing! Sleep is key to living a healthy life and to keeping your brain working well all day. Remember how hard it is to think clearly when you haven’t slept well the day before? Indulge in brain foods, which are also healthy foods, that is, foods with a low glycemic index (GI) and foods that are high in fatty acids. Some easy to incorporate into your diet brain foods include wild salmon, blueberries, coffee beans, broccoli and, of course, plenty of water. All of these crucial factors for good physical health affect your mental health as well. Crosswords Are Brain Friendly Crosswords are really mental exercise, although they might seem like entertainment. You have to use your brain to decipher clues, which will eventually lead you to the right answer (or not!). This kind of stimulation lets you work through your catalogue of knowledge by finding the associations between the clues and the answer and this means you’re exercising your brain. If you can’t stand words, alternative crosswords like sudoku give your brain the same kind of exercise. Frankly, any puzzle requires brainpower to struggle through it, so they’re all a good workout for the mind. Find a puzzle that you enjoy, whether its crosswords, sudoku or one of those “figure out how to get the ring off the base” metal puzzles and get to it. |
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