Boosting Brain Health Naturally

It is never too late to support your neurological health. Remember, even small changes you make each day reap big rewards over time. Seek to change your habits consistently and persistently to support your memory, cognitive function and ultimately your enjoyment of everyday life. Here are several strategies you may use to improve your brain health:

Vitamin D

There are strong links between low levels of vitamin D in Alzheimer’s patients and poor outcome on cognitive testing. Optimal vitamin D levels may protect brain cells by increasing the effectiveness of the glial cells in restoring damaged neurons. Additionally, vitamin D has anti-inflammatory properties.

Carotenoids

These antioxidant compounds are found most often in orange colored vegetables, such as sweet potatoes and carrots. Some carotenoids, such as lutein and zeaxanthin, are found in dark green vegetables, namely kale and spinach. Lutein and zeaxanthin are best known for the role they play in vision health, but accumulating evidence suggests they play a role in cognitive health as well by enhancing neural efficiency.

Probiotics

You are likely familiar with the importance of probiotics for your gut health but may not know of the role they play in your cognitive health. Certain beneficial bacterial strains, such as those found in fermented foods, have a positive effect on your brain function.

In a study by the University of California Los Angeles, scientists found women who regularly consumed beneficial bacteria via yogurt experienced changes in multiple areas of their brain, including those related to sensory processing, cognition and emotion.

Exercise

Physical activity produces biochemical changes that strengthen and renew not only your body but also your brain — particularly areas associated with memory and learning.

Diet

Reducing overall calorie and carbohydrate consumption, while increasing healthy fats, has a powerful effect on your brain health. Beneficial health-promoting sources of healthy fats that your body — and your brain in particular — needs for optimal function include organic olives, organic virgin olive oil and coconut oil, nuts like pecans and macadamia and avocado, for example.

Increasing your omega-3 fat intake and reducing consumption of damaged omega-6 fats (i.e., processed vegetable oils) in order to balance your omega-3-to-omega-6 ratio also has a significant benefit for your brain.

Sleep

Sleep not only is essential for regenerating your physical body, but imperative for reaching new mental insights and being able to see new creative solutions to old problems. Sleep removes the blinders and helps "reset" your brain to look at problems from a different perspective.

Research from Harvard indicates that people are 33 percent more likely to infer connections among distantly related ideas after sleeping, but few realize that their performance has actually improved. Sleep is also known to enhance your memories and help you "practice" and improve your performance of challenging skills. In fact, a single night of sleeping only four to six hours can impact your ability to think clearly the next day.

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Migraines

There are millions of people who experience migraines. But three
times as many women than men experience migraines. In fact, about 70% of all migraine sufferers are women.

Migraines not only ruin the quality of your life, they can leave you on a
roller coaster of doctor’s visits, prescription drugs and their side
effects, with migraine sufferers using twice the amount of prescription
drugs and visiting doctors and emergency rooms twice as often as those who don’t have the disorder.

For many, no matter how many doctors they visit, no relief is in sight. And, even when prescription drugs help, they bring their own dangerous side effects to the mix, like fatigue, racing heartbeat, difficulty thinking, tightness in the chest or throat and more.

It’s no wonder that more and more people are looking for natural relief from their migraines. If you’re one of them, here’s a list of the top seven
natural ways to get rid of your migraines and get back to your life.

·         Exercise- Regular exercise can reduce the frequency and intensity
of headaches and migraines. In fact, one study showed that exercise was as effective as taking a prescribed migraine medication, at preventing
migraines. It works because when you exercise, your body releases
endorphins, which are your body’s natural painkillers. Exercise also reduces stress and helps you to sleep at night. This is vital since stress and lack of sleep are two of the most common migraine triggers.

·         Quit smoking- Tobacco is a known trigger for headaches,
specifically migraines. And, one study demonstrated that not only do smokers have more migraine attacks but that smoking more than five cigarettes a day results in these headaches.

·         Maintain a healthy weight- Carrying around extra weight isn’t just bad for your joints, it can actually cause migraines. In fact, the combined results of 12 studies showed that people with obesity have a 27 percent higher risk of migraines than people with a normal weight. The study also showed that being underweight carried risks as well, with a 13 percent higher risk than people with a normal weight.

·         Establish a sleep schedule- lack of sleep is a common migraine
trigger. Keeping a set schedule and getting at least eight to ten hours of
sleep per night is vital to reducing the number of migraines you have.

·         Practice good posture- Poor posture causes a strain on your neck
and back muscles and can result in a migraine. Practice good posture and
strengthen your postural muscles to help alleviate your headaches. Check
your posture throughout your day. Is your head back? Is your spine straight?
Are your shoulders hunched? Correct any problems you find. And, don’t forget the importance of balance. If you’re carrying items, try to distribute the weight evenly rather than holding all of the weight on one side, which
throws off your posture.

·         Reduce stress- Since many migraines are caused by stress, you want to take steps to lower your levels and learn to relax. Yoga, meditation and aerobic exercise are all good stress relievers. Or, just soak in a bath of Epsom salts with a good book. This gives you an added boost of magnesium, also good for preventing migraines.

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A SUPER AGER- WAYS TO KEEP BIG BRAINS

Imagine being 80 or even 90 years old and still having the memory and mental sharpness you did when you were 25.

It’s everyone’s dream. And for some, this dream is a reality…

There are “super agers” who have astonishingly resilient minds well beyond the ‘norm.’ In fact, their minds are so resilient that they give people decades younger than them a run for the money in intelligence and memory. A few years back, researchers noticed that super agers who were in their 80s had memories that were just as sharp as people 30 years younger than them. So they decided to dig a little deeper. They did an MRI scan of their brains and found that their cerebral cortex (the part of the brain responsible for intelligence and memory) appeared middle-aged. Their cerebral cortexes were just as thick as those forty to fifty years younger than them. Their brains never shrunk!

The great news is… yours doesn’t have to either. There are a lot of simple ways to keep your cortex thick and your memory sharp. Here are the top seven scientifically-proven ways to keep your brain from shrinking:

Ø  Take a walk. One study found that people who walked six to nine miles per week had significantly less brain shrinkage than people who were sedentary. Walking is great because it’s easy and practically everybody can do it. But any type of exercise will prevent brain shrinkage. Basically, the more you move, the less gray matter you lose.

Ø  Eat a Mediterranean diet. A 2015 study published in the journal Neurology found that older adults who had eaten a Mediterranean diet for a year or more had heavier brains and more gray and white matter than those who didn’t follow this type of diet. That’s why the Mediterranean diet is one of the go-to diets for Alzheimer’s prevention.

Ø  Be a teetotaler. A 2007 study found that the more you drink, the more brain volume you lose. For example, non-drinkers had .25 percent more brain volume than former drinkers. Former drinkers had .25 percent more brain volume than low drinkers. Low drinkers had .25 percent more brain volume than moderate drinkers. And moderate drinkers had .25 percent more brain volume than heavy drinkers. So put down that cocktail! And if you smoke and drink  — you brain faces a double whammy.

Ø  Relax and stay positive. Stress and depression are ominous forbearers of a shrinking brain. In 2012, Yale scientists figured out why. They both trigger a genetic switch in your brain that stops synaptic connections between your brain cells and ultimately leads to a loss of brain mass.

Ø  Avoid brain-shrinking drugs. Some of the top culprits when it comes to shrinking your brain are antibiotics and anticholinergic drugs like cold medicines and allergy medications. Avoid brain-shrinking drugs. Some of the top culprits when it comes to shrinking your brain are antibiotics and anticholinergic drugs like cold medicines and allergy medications. Next time a cold virus takes hold, you might want to the ditch over-the-counter cold medicine for natural cold remedies — many BACKED BY SCIENCE — instead:

Oregano oil is a powerful anti-viral that actually stops the cold virus from replicating… and also kind of tastes like pizza. You can put a few drops in juice or water to knock out a sore throat or put some in a diffuser or vaporizer to relieve stuffy sinuses.

Olive leaf extract is another anti-viral and immune booster that can be incredibly effective at curing a cold… not just covering its symptoms.

Pau d’arco is an herb with anti-viral properties. It’s also an expectorant, which means if your cold includes a cough, it can help you get mucus out of your system. You can take it in pill form or brew it as tea.

Apple cider vinegar, when mixed with some lemon juice and honey, makes for a potent throat-soothing and immune-boosting tonic.

Ø  Make meaningful social connections. A 2015 study conducted by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that seniors who volunteered to teach young children how to read in understaffed schools libraries were rewarded in more than just warm, fuzzy feelings—they were rewarded with more brain matter.

Ø  Sit in the sun. Low vitamin D levels have been linked to more brain shrinkage. If you don’t get enough D, your brain is doomed. So make sure you sit outside in the sun for at least 20 to 30 minutes per day without sunscreen to get your daily dose of D.

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Building a Better Brain

People over the age of 65 have some sort of age related memory loss, creating real problems in their day to day lives from issues with concentration to the inability to complete tasks, like paying bills. And, of those people, 15% will go on to develop Alzheimer’s, and have their life stripped from them… memory by precious memory. It’s no wonder many of us are more scared of getting Alzheimer’s than of being diagnosed with cancer.

There are a couple ways you can get started today to make a better brain for tomorrow…

Lutein — best known as the “eye vitamin” — is a nutrient that your body can’t make on its own. You can only get it through your diet where it’s found in high quantities in green leafy vegetables. But here’s something you may not have known… lutein accumulates in your brain tissues, and in addition to offering outstanding eye protection, it’s been shown to have a very positive impact on cognition.

A study performed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that middle-aged participants with higher levels of lutein had neural responses that were more on par with younger individuals than with their peers. In other words, their brains performed like younger, healthier brains. So instead of living in fear of mental decline, be sure to beef up on lutein power. Your eyes will also thank you…

We know too much about healthy lifestyle habits to put them off any longer. Eating for optimum nutrition, and daily exercise — even if it’s just walking — are healthy habits that keep us going strong in our senior years. And a study at UCLA showed that these habits that keep your body young can do the same for your brain….

In their study, researchers looked at the effects of a variety of different lifestyle modifications to optimize metabolic parameters — such as inflammation and INSULIN RESISTANCE — that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Participants, all of whom who exhibited sign of marked cognitive decline prior to the study, were counseled to change their diet (eat a lot of veggies), exercise, develop techniques for stress management and improve their sleep, among other interventions. What they found was striking… Every participant demonstrated such impressive improvement that almost all were found to be in the normal range on testing for memory and cognition by the end of study.

Both of these studies provided valuable information on simple ways to whip your brain into shape to keep your memory sharper longer.

First, add more lutein into your everyday diet. A good way to do this is to eat more green leafy vegetables such as spinach and kale.

Secondly, be sure to get regular, moderate exercise daily. To really pump up your brain, try an aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercises not only prevent the brain shrinkage and cognitive decline associated with aging, but also reverse it!  In fact, recent research reveals that dancing may be the best exercise for a bigger, stronger brain.

The sooner you get started — the better (and longer) your brain will serve you!

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