Unlocking Mental Agility: Essential Habits to Safeguard Your Brain’s Fitness
If you’ve ever felt that you weren’t as sharp as you once were, such as when you couldn’t name an actor or someone famous who had been in the news or when you weren’t as quick at mental arithmetic, it might have made you wonder about the health of your brain and whether things would get worse from here.
It’s important to start thinking about these issues early because the brain normally ends maturing in our twenties, after which there is a steady slowdown of cognition with age. Thankfully, however, ‘modifiable risk factors—as doctors refer to them—have an impact on both rates of cognitive decline and dementia risk. Looking at the silver lining, there is cause for optimism since there are steps you can take and lifestyle habits you can adopt to retain mental acuity and lower your risk of dementia.
ALSO READ: How Does Exercise Improve Mental Health?
Here are a few ways through which you can keep your brain fit:
Staying Mentally Active
The ability of your brain to adapt in the face of disease or aging is referred to as “cognitive reserve” by psychologists and gerontologists. For instance, if a person has a strong cognitive reserve, it’s feasible that they will still do well on mental performance tests even if they have some molecular indicators of Alzheimer’s disease. It seems as though they have more mental resources that enable them to handle the harm.
Socialise
You’ve probably seen the digital brain games that claim to keep your gray matter sharp. You’ll improve at the games, but you won’t see your improvements transfer to other areas of your life, which is the problem with these games. If excessive game playing prevents you from socializing with friends and family, the games could even cause more harm than good.
That’s because socializing is the best thing you can do for your brain. So, when you can, look for company and engaging conversation because both will benefit your mental health. It will also offer your brain a terrific workout. Join a debating club or consider volunteering if you’re unsure of where to begin. The goal is to keep exploring, allowing your mind to be exposed to new people, new learning, and more diversity.
Stay Physically Active
Since your brain needs oxygen and other nutrients to function properly, it stands to reason that your cardiovascular health will also affect how fit and healthy your brain is. Obesity and a sedentary lifestyle are both linked to an accelerated rate of cognitive deterioration and a higher risk of dementia.
Therefore, make an effort to incorporate exercise into your daily routine. If regular walking and taking the stairs aren’t your thing, try staying active by regularly engaging in gardening or another activity that gets your heart pumping, like a choir singing. Regular running, cycling, swimming, or similar exercise classes will also work.
ALSO READ: Achieve Your Fitness Goals: Top 10 Home Workouts for Men
Eat Well
Maintaining a healthy diet also proves to be quite beneficial for your brain. Consuming a lot of fruits and vegetables will provide your body access to enough antioxidants that will help clear the brain of “free radicals,” a type of detrimental byproduct of numerous biological processes, and avoiding too much-saturated fat will prevent your arteries from being blocked.
The so-called “Mediterranean Diet,” which is high in fruit, vegetables, legumes (such as lentils, beans, and peas), nuts, grains, and olive oil while being low in saturated fats and meat, is advised by the World Health Organization to achieve these aims. If that seems daunting, try increasing the amount of fruit you eat each day and cutting back on the number of store-prepared meals.
Keep The Curiosity Alive
Perhaps even more unexpectedly, personality and brain health are linked. Openness to Experience, one of the so-called Big Five attributes linked to creativity, curiosity, and a willingness to try new things, is connected with a greater IQ and a lower risk of dementia. Higher openness was associated with higher psychomotor speed, cognitive flexibility, and working memory in depressed and non-depressed older adults, according to a study at the University of Georgia.
ALSO READ: The Top 6 Lifestyle Factors That Contribute to Back Pain
Fortunately, there are behaviors you can develop to increase your Openness to Experience, including seeking out more awe (for instance, by going for walks in beautiful settings or watching nature documentaries), visiting far-off locales, and taking part in mind-expanding cultural experiences (for example, live theater).
Conclusion
Once you’ve developed a variety of healthy habits, such as engaging in both physical and mental activity, engaging in lots of social interaction, maintaining an open mind, and eating well, you should now feel quite optimistic about the future of your brain, particularly as you age. This completes the jigsaw puzzle.
A rising body of studies indicates that how you feel about getting older may affect how healthy your brain is. It may well become a self-fulfilling prophecy if you anticipate becoming slower and more forgetful with time. Alternately, if you understand that some of your brain health is in your control and that you can maintain mental agility throughout your life with the correct lifestyle and habits, that is likely to be beneficial for your brain.
