Brain Basics—Get To Know and Love Your Brain

Heather Glen Senior Living believes in smart living. That means the lifestyle at Heather Glen includes physical, social, spiritual, emotional, occupational, and intellectual wellness. The staff is focused on providing the utmost quality care to promote a more active and healthier lifestyle—smart living. Protecting and maintaining brain health is the key to smart living.

The brain is the most complex part of the human body. This three-pound organ is the seat of intelligence, the interpreter of the senses, the initiator of bodily movement, and the controller of behavior. It is the crown jewel of the human body.

Your brain regulates everything you do, like your senses, emotions, thoughts, memories, movement, and behavior. It even controls body processes you don’t have to think about, like your breathing, body temperature, and your heart rate. Everything that makes you uniquely individual comes from your brain.

The brain is one of the hardest-working organs in the body. When the brain is healthy, it functions quickly and automatically. But when problems occur, the results can be difficult. Knowing more about your brain can motivate you to maintain brain health and improve many areas of your overall health.

You can see how important it is to keep your brain healthy. As of now, there is no standard definition of “brain health,” but there are many resources and guidelines available to help you keep your brain as healthy as possible.

You have heard about building a better mousetrap. How about building a better thought-trap? The brain you are born with is not necessarily the brain you have all your life.

“We’re having a brain-health revolution.” So says Dr. Sandra Bond Chapman, founder of the Center for BrainHealth at the University of Texas at Dallas. Dr. Chapman believes we have entered a new age of understanding brain health that is benefiting brain research and giving hope to those of us who are aging—which is all of us.

Recent medical journals have reported that perhaps “35% of dementia cases might be prevented if people do things including exercising and engaging in cognitively stimulating activities” (The Lancet). Many factors weigh in when seeking to prevent dementia, most of which are under a person’s control. These include obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, inactivity, social isolation, and low education levels. Of course, there are other variables and risk factors, but there is increasing evidence that positive lifestyle changes can improve one’s chances of maintaining a healthy brain.

Simple brain exercises that stimulate learning, such as reading books and magazines, playing games, and using computers, help delay the onset of memory and thinking problems. Makes sense—if you want to build up your thinking “muscles,” do thinking exercises.

The brain we are born with is constantly developing neurons and neural connections, and that means it is possible to turn back the clock on aging, even for people with mild cognitive problems. With certain lifestyle modifications, people with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) showed significant improvement in abilities that decline with age, such as planning, judgment, and processing speed. Studies show that people with MCI are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s, so reducing MCI can help prevent—or at least slow down the progression of—Alzheimer’s.

Since there is evidence that it is possible to delay or avoid age-related memory loss, you are probably anxious to learn some broad strategies for building that better brain.

Dietary changes include drinking more water and eating healthier foods. The brain is composed of 80% water. So, dehydration is detrimental to brain health. Drink more water! Inflammation can affect the brain, so eat more plant foods, healthy fats, and omega-3s, and less saturated fats and processed foods.

Take heart—and get it pumping with periods of heart-pumping activity, like a short walk or bike ride. This produces chemicals that help grow and protect brain cells. And, keep that blood pressure down!

After all that exercise, get plenty of sleep. While you rest, your system flushes toxins, so if you have sleep problems, consult your physician.

Mental exercise is valuable as well. Find a way to meditate and practice mindfulness. There are also programs that sharpen attention, reasoning, and creative thinking skills.

Bottom line: Don’t let your brain sit around—socialize, read, write, play, ponder, and do anything that wakes up your brain cells and keeps them alert!

So, use the brain you were born with, and don’t forget to keep it growing and glowing with health!

If you’re interested in learning more about life at Heather Glen Senior Living in our personal or memory care community, or would like to see our community for yourself, give us a call at (610) 841-4478 or fill out our online form today.