Keep Your Mind Young and Sharp With These Helpful Tips

It might seem natural that as you age you become more forgetful. It’s even been popularized in modern media as something that is inevitable and even scientists agree that memory changes can be a normal part of aging. As you get older, changes occur in every part of your body, including your brain. Your brain is no longer as elastic as it was when you were younger. Even in your 30s and 40s, you might notice that it’s harder to learn new things and retain new information. With that said, that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to slow the aging process.

While even the healthiest person can develop mental deterioration as they age, those who consistently work to keep their mind sharp are less likely to develop dementia as they age. With that said, the older you get, the higher your risk of developing diseases like Alzheimer’s. Around one in six people over 80 have dementia. While there’s no guarantee that following the advice below will prevent you from developing dementia, it will increase your odds. The trick is to start as soon as possible.  

Exercise for a healthier mind

Exercise isn’t just good for the body, it’s good for the mind as well. Regular exercise can improve your memory and cognitive skills as it increases blood and oxygen flow to your brain. Luckily, you don’t have to go to a gym to get a good workout. You can work up a good sweat in the comfort of your own home by doing some stretches, bodyweight exercises, and cardio. 

Before you start exercising, make sure to do a light warm-up beforehand to loosen up your body. Do not do any static stretching as studies have shown that it can hamper your workouts. Instead, you’ll want to do some light cardio to get your heart rate up. From there, you can jump into your cardio or weight training. In general, you want to get in around 150 minutes a week of moderately intensive exercise. That’s about 30 minutes, five days a week. 

When people think of cardio, the first thing that comes to mind is running. Now, if you love running then that’s not an issue. However, for those that dislike the activity, you can still get a good cardio workout from hiking, swimming, or biking. You can even get your workout in by doing an activity you love like tennis, dancing, soccer, or ultimate frisbee. 

Don’t neglect weight training either. Not only will it make your body stronger, but some studies show it may boost brainpower. In a small test, those who did strength training twice a week showed significant improvement in their cognitive function after just 18-months compared with the control group. Resistance training thickens the gray matter in the part of the brain that is affected by Alzheimer’s. If that’s not enough of a benefit, weight training also helps boost your mood, makes it easier to maintain your weight, lowers your risk of type 2 diabetes, improves your balance, and prevents sarcopenia (the loss of muscle mass and strength due to aging).

Reading

For many of us, reading has been reduced to looking over someone’s social media posts, skimming instructions, glancing at the bills, and maybe reading the occasional article or two. It seems that despite having more convenient ways to consume books and articles thanks to the rise of smartphones and e-readers, people do less reading now than ever before. 

Reading benefits your brain in measurable ways regardless of whether you’re reading a textbook or a romance novel. Studies have found that adults who learned to read from a young age had a more developed occipital lobe, which is the visual processing center of the brain. This means readers can process visual information more efficiently, translating to greater imagination and creativity which led to better decision-making and planning.

As you would imagine, reading also keeps your brain mentally stimulated. You’re not just reading the words on the page, you’re also imagining the scenes in your mind and also trying to figure out the character’s motivations and ultimately where the story might go. You may even run into a few words that you don’t know, which you can either figure out from context clues or look up in the dictionary. Rather than passively consume entertainment like you would when watching a movie or show, reading requires you to be active and engaged to follow the plot. 

The very act of reading itself lowers the level of beta-amyloid, a brain protein involved in Alzheimer’s, by keeping your mind stimulated. You don’t have to read Dostoevsky or Herman Melville to reap the benefits of reading. Much like exercise, the point is to read something that you will enjoy as this will encourage you to continue reading. So if you like romance novels, then don’t be ashamed to pick some up! 

If you’re not sure you can stay committed to reading, join a book club. Having a monthly meet up to discuss a book in detail with others is a great way to hold yourself accountable and expand your understanding of the book. Plus, the socialization aspect of book clubs can also act as motivation to read more since you’ll want to be part of the discussion.

Eat Healthily

Following a healthy diet isn’t just good for your body, it’s also good for your brain. A heart-healthy diet with a limited intake of sugar and saturated fats helps protect your brain by reducing cholesterol and increasing your intake of healthy fats. Studies have found two diets that may reduce your risk of developing dementia:

• Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) - this diet emphasizes vegetables, fruits, fat-free or low-fat dairy products, whole grains, fish, poultry, beans, seeds, nuts, and vegetable oils. DASH diets limit sodium, sugar, and red meat.

• Mediterranean - modeled after the diets found in the Mediterranean, this diet includes little red meat and emphasizes whole grains, fruits, vegetables, fish, shellfish, and healthy fats like nuts and olive oil. 

As you can see, the best food for your brain tends to be fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, and fish. You can narrow this further by eating more of these specific types of foods:

• Fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel, and sardines are full of omega-3 fatty acids, which help build membranes around each cell in the body, including brain cells. A study found people with high levels of omega-3 had increased bloody flow to brain, which leads to better cognition.

• Dark chocolate contains cacao, which is full of flavonoids, a type of antioxidant. These flavonoids appear to encourage neuron and blood vessel growth in parts of the brain linked to memory and learning.

• Berries also contain flavonoids so if you’re not a chocolate fan, you can always eat a handful of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, blackcurrants, or mulberries. All of these are rich in flavonoids.

• Nuts and seeds contain high levels of omega-3 fatty acids so you can still get that brain-boosting effect even without eating fish. Many nuts also contain vitamin E, which helps protect cells from oxidative stress. The best seeds and nuts to eat include sunflowers seeds, almonds, and hazelnuts as they are all high in omega-3 and vitamin E.

• Avocados are a great source of unsaturated fat, which can reduce blood pressure. Lower blood pressure has been linked with cognitive decline. If you’re not an avocado fan, you can also get unsaturated fat from almonds, cashews, flaxseeds, soybeans, walnuts, and even fish.

• Broccoli is rich in compounds called glucosinolates, which helps your body produce isothiocyanates. These may lower the risk of neurodegenerative diseases. Plus, broccoli is also full of vitamin C, a known antioxidant, and iron. Other vegetables that can provide the same effect include brussels sprouts, kale, cabbage, cauliflower,  turnips, and bok choy.

Strive For Good Posture

When most people think about the negative side effects of bad posture, they probably think about back, neck, and shoulder pain. However, bad posture can limit your oxygen intake and blood flow, which affects every part of your body including your brain. Maintaining an upright posture whether standing or sitting can be difficult, especially in the beginning.

When you practice good posture you are making sure your spine, neck, and hips are aligned properly. Proper standing posture means your shoulders are pulled back, your head is level with your earlobes in line with your shoulders, and your weight is evenly distributed on the balls of your feet. When seated, you want to make sure both your feet are on the ground, your arms and knees are bent at a 90-degree angle, and your head is aligned with your shoulders. It’s very easy to fall into bad posture, so make sure to consciously check yourself every hour or so and adjust.

Sleep

Sleep is essential for your health. Unfortunately, around 21 percent of adults have trouble falling or staying asleep most nights while around 68 percent of adults struggle with sleep at least once a week. Why are so many people struggling with sleep? There many reasons. People are working longer hours at work with 17 percent of adults logging 60 hours or more. When combined with long commute times, domestic chores get pushed until the later hours, leaving less time for sleep.

Of course, not everyone is working long hours. Many are staying up late to binge the latest Netflix show, play video games, or just scroll mindlessly through social media posts. It might seem harmless, but these activities can keep your mind awake well past the wee hours of the night. Plus, the blue light emanating from your TV, laptop, and smartphone also keeps you up longer as it interferes with your body’s production of melatonin.

While many sleep experts aren’t as prescriptive about how much sleep you need a night, most people do not function well on less than seven hours a night. Lack of sleep can lead to reduced concentration, exhaustion, poor decision-making, and memory loss. When you get enough sleep your memories and newly learned skills move to a more permanent region of your brain, making them easier to recall. 

Play an Instrument

It’s never too late to learn an instrument. Whether that’s picking up the piano or ukulele, learning an instrument gives your brain greater plasticity, which helps improve your cognitive function. Some research has found that musicians have more gray matter than non-musicians, especially in the parts of the brain that handle processing sound and higher-order thinking.

While taking music lessons is probably the best way to learn a new instrument as you’ll get hands-on instructions from a teacher, you can try to learn on your own. There are many YouTube tutorials that can walk you through how to play almost any instrument you can imagine. It’s not just about learning how to play well, you’ll also learn how to read music, various techniques, and more. If you don’t have an interest in playing an instrument, even listening to music can keep your brain engaged. Research has shown that listening to music can help reduce anxiety, blood pressure, and pain as well as improve sleep quality, mood, mental alertness, and memory.

Find a new hobby

Learning a new skill or craft can stimulate your brain and liven up your daily routine. More importantly, it helps your brain make new neural connections, thus improving your brain’s plasticity. Many colleges offer low-cost lectures and classes. There are also many videos and online tutorials you can find before you jump into a hobby. 

What hobby you choose depends on your interests, time, space, and money. Still, if you’re very interested in a topic, you can usually find a workaround. For example, if you enjoy pottery, but you don’t have space for a kiln or to store all of your clay, there are many pottery studios where you can rent a spot and make some items. If you want to get into photography, you can start by taking pictures on your smartphone, and so on. If you’re not sure what you want to do, try a topic for a month and then gauge how excited you are to continue learning more. If you’re not interested, move on to something else. The more you experiment, the more you’ll learn.

Write Letters

Thanks to computers, gone are the days of cramped fingers from clutching a pen for too long. Today, the laptop has replaced pen and paper in many classrooms as it’s an efficient way to capture large amounts of information. Perhaps you have replaced your notebook with your laptop as well.

While typing might be convenient, there are some studies that suggest handwriting actually is better for effective learning. Writing by hand boosts your ability to retain information, comprehend new ideas, and be more productive. Why is that? When handwriting, you’re most likely recapping events, which means your brain is working overtime to digest, summarize, and capture the heart of the information.

Even if you’re not writing down notes, handwriting has many benefits. If you want to reach a goal, writing them down makes you 42 percent more likely to achieve them. There are two reasons for this. Writing something down on paper makes it easy to access and review it at any time. More importantly, writing something down leads to encoding, a biological process where the things we perceive get analyzed by our brain. From there, decisions are made about what gets stored in our long-term memory and what gets discarded. Writing improves the encoding process.

Limit Your Alcohol Intake

Alcohol is fine in moderation, but consuming large quantities can negatively affect your memory. If you’ve ever had a drinking spree when you were younger, you might have experienced blackouts. This occurs because drinking reduces your REM and slow-wave sleep, both of which are important for retaining memory. 

Long-term heavy drinking can shrink your brain’s frontal lobe, which leads to memory problems and impaired thinking. Of course, you don’t need to cut drinking out entirely from your life. In fact, moderate drinking can have a positive effect on your memory. Reading a glass of red wine can help prevent age-related memory decline thanks to the antioxidant resveratrol. Just make sure you don’t go over the recommended one glass a day.

Stay Active and Keep Your Mind Stress Free With A Helpful Lifestyle

Keeping your brain active throughout the day can stave off boredom and stress. More importantly, it can keep your brain and mind healthy for longer and reduce the risk of cognitive decline. Many of these activities are a part of a healthy lifestyle such as exercising and eating healthy, so should be something you are already following.

Unfortunately, these tips won’t necessarily prevent you from developing Alzheimer’s as these degenerative diseases often have many risk factors such as genetics, lifestyle, and environment. However, these tips can help combat the normal, age-related mental decline and keep your brain healthy for years to come.

Jessica Lauren is Founder, contributing Author and Owner of Citrus Sleep. Citrus Sleep is an online publication that highlights brands, sleep products, women’s fashion, subscription services and ideas creating positive social change and promoting a healthy lifestyle. After spending nearly a decade working in PR and marketing for several brands and startups, Jessica knows what truly drives conversions, sold-out launches and guest posts.

Follow Jessica at @jessicalaurencs | Jessica Lauren

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