Tips to naturally protect your memory and brain as you age.
Tips to naturally protect your memory and brain as you age.
Recently I came across a video of a doctor who specializes in memory loss, dementia, and Alzheimer’s.
Therefore, I ordered his book, The Unbreakable Brain.
Dr. Will Mitchell shares the tools and mechanisms that can keep a brain healthy and sharp, while preventing and even reversing the signs of dementia. Through simple yet powerful diet and lifestyle changes.
So, due to myself and others in my life, who are having some moments of not recalling a word or name, this intrigued me.
Since I enjoy doing research and sharing with others, tips that can help you live a healthier, joyful life, I thought I would share my findings with you.
As we age, our neuropathways in our brain become weaker and some die.
Developing new neural pathways, it was thought in the past, could not happen. They used to think, the adult brain was “fixed” and incapable of producing new neural pathways, but we now know better. The brain is capable of “neurogenesis”.
First, here is a list of things for you to do, to increase your memory and help produce new neural pathways:
- Reduce stress in your life. Stress not only ages our brain, but it also shortens our telomeres. Telomeres are the sequences at the end of our chromosomes, that protect the chromosome from aging. They regulate our lifespan. As we age, our telomeres shorten.
- Get plenty of sleep and rest. For me it’s at least 8 hours each night. As I have shared in past articles, daily meditation, lowers your brain waves, and is extremely helpful. Even taking 5 minutes each day to close your eyes, take deep breaths as you listen to ocean wave music or something soothing is good.
- Drink plenty of spring water. This keeps our cells hydrated and helps our brain function more healthfully.
- Eat lots of vegetables and healthy fats like extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil or eat a fresh avocado.
- Eat a Tablespoon daily of coconut oil. It comes in two forms, unrefined (also known as “virgin” or “raw”) and refined. The refined in this case only means that the coconut proteins have been removed, which reduces or eliminates the taste of coconut, which can be helpful for people who don’t like the taste of coconut. It’s not only been known to increase memory fairly quickly as you eat it daily, but it also helps with your skin health and many other things.
- Eat organic as much as possible. Wash your fruits and vegetables to remove any dirt or toxins.
- Lower your sugar intake.
- Increase your intake of Omega 3 fatty acids. Salmon, tuna, walnuts, eggs, pumpkin seeds chia seeds, and flaxseed are just a few great choices. Taking a high-quality fish oil each day helps not only reduce the effects of age on the brain, but helps your heart and joints.
- Eat blueberries often, whether you add them to a healthy shake or enjoy them fresh, they are beneficial. Blueberries are chock-full of antioxidants which help promote overall health, reduce inflammation and circulation, including obviously in the brain.
- Eat dark chocolate in small amounts. Dark chocolate contains cocoa flavanols, which are antioxidants that circulate through the body, fighting free radicals and prevents cellular damage and decay. Dark chocolate has also been shown to enhance memory by protecting and supporting a special part of the brain known as the dentate gyrus.
- Regular physical exercise. It helps increase blood flow to the brain, which can slow or stop dementia or memory loss. Whether you are walking, working out at a health club, doing weight baring exercises, yoga, jogging or sports of some kind, you are significantly dropping your chances of cognitive decline.
- Do a challenging brain activity, such as sudoku, word search, or any of the brain games online.
- Play, sing, and listen to familiar music. Music evokes emotions and memories, some from your past. When you listen to music as you are doing your daily chores, it helps people with memory loss fall into a rhythm of normality.
- Social interaction. COVID-19 has hindered our social interactions. Zoom or phone calls have helped. Even if you aren’t able to go to your church or social groups, in person, being together through zoom helps.
- Finally, taking great supplements. Here are some that target brain health:
Vitamin A • Eight B Complex Vitamins – B1 – thiamin -B2 – riboflavin B3 – niacin B5 – pantothenic acid B6 – pyridoxine B7 – biotin B9 – folic acid -B12 • Vitamin C • Vitamin D • Vitamin E • Vitamin K. Of these, Vitamin D and the B vitamins are often thought of as the “brain health” vitamins. Also, CoQ10 and ginkgo biloba.
As a result of making a list of all these tips above, and adding them into your life, you will be increasing your brain health and memory.
Because I value health, I hope you will begin now to add these things into your life.
As always, check with your physician about all of this first!
I wish you greater health, joy, love, and peace in this new year of 2021,
Connie
Here is a link to watch a video about memory loss on Dr. Will Mitchell’s site. You can buy his book on here as well.
Leave a Reply