hey there everybody and welcome to this video on enhancing cognitive function
the quick start guide i'm your host dr dawn elise snipes
in this video we're basically just going to talk about some strategies that may help you enhance
your cognitive functioning we're not going to go into a lot of the reasons why it may not be
optimal so first step you want to look at or first area you can look at are physical strategies
sleep is important quality and quantity even adults need seven to nine hours of quality sleep
that means sleeping through the night that means controlling for any obstructive sleep apnea that
means not getting up throughout the night to go pee you need that good quality quality solid sleep
and i have lots of videos on the youtube channel on sleep
circadian rhythms that's not the same as sleep circadian rhythms actually regulate a lot of stuff
in your body and when your circadian rhythms are out of whack it is going to impair your sleep
but it's also going to impair your immunity and your cognitive functioning
when you're not getting quality sleep when you're not getting enough deep sleep then
your body isn't able to clear out the adenosine from your brain that builds up throughout the day
which leaves you feeling kind of groggy and foggy the next day nutrition and hydration are also
really important for cognitive functioning dehydration even as little as one percent
contributes to a decline in cognitive functioning they've also found that b vitamins which are
water-soluble and omega-3s tend to be very important for nutrition for cognitive functioning
along with that and i'm going to jump down to inflammation is eating an anti-inflammatory
diet inflammation contributes to activation of the hpa axis that contributes to physical
stress that contributes to oxidative stress which causes more inflammation and that can cause the
depletion or the paring back of neurons because it creates a neurotoxic environment
so you want to eat an anti-inflammatory diet you want to control inflammation as much
as possible and finally oxygenation your brain needs oxygen to function
when you yawn a lot of times it's because your brain's not getting enough oxygen it's not so much
that you're sleepy so it is important to practice deep breathing two benefits to that number one
oxygenation but number two if you take a moment periodically throughout the day to take a few deep
breaths breathe in for four or eight hold and then exhale for four or eight it slows your breathing
and triggers the relaxation response which slows down or counteracts the stress response
the next area you can look at is your affective or your emotional strategies
the first one is hpa axis regulation now remember hpa axis is your stress response system and again
more videos about that on the youtube channel that go into depth but what's important to know
is when your stress response system is activated when that fight-or-flight system is activated
because of emotional stress cognitive stress environmental stress whatever kind of stress
you are in a fight or flight mode that means you tend to have more tunnel vision your brain is not
focused on focusing on anything except for getting safe and getting away from the threat
so if you need to concentrate it's going to be more difficult when you are under
stress even chronic low-grade stress when you're depressed when you're anxious when you're angry
or even when you've experienced trauma or grief when you are in a dysphoric as we say
frame of mind that often indicates the hpa axis is activated that threat response system is activated
so you're going to have more difficulty focusing on other things your memory is not going to be
all that it could be because guess what your brain is focused on fight or flee
anything that you can do in order to address some of those affective things that prevent you from
being able to use your energy to focus on the things that you want to is going to be helpful
another affective component is a part of the learning process and when we learn we need to get
the information into our brain you know we need to get it in somehow um then we need to conceptualize
it figure out kind of what does it mean to me but in order to commit it to memory in order
to be able to really use it effectively we have to care about it think about the stuff that you
learned in high school or in college when you were cramming for a test you didn't care about it you
just wanted to remember it long enough to pass the test and then it was in one ear and out the other
same thing with phone numbers these days because it's all stored in our in our mobile devices a
lot of us don't care enough to memorize phone numbers because we know that it's going to be
somewhere where we can look it up in order to trigger those aspects of your brain that are
engaged in committing things to long-term memory you need to figure out why it matters
why do you care about this why is it important to remember these things
so a journaling prompt before we go to the next slide in the past
when you are able to think clearly and focus more easily problem solve what was different
the next area you want to think about for enhancing your cognition is guess what cognitive
get the information in your preferred learning style if you're trying to learn how to operate
machinery and you do best by hearing it well find a youtube video if you do best by reading get the
manual if you do best by getting someone to show you how to do it well go back to that video again
but it's important to try to take in information in the way or ways that you learn best
for more complicated things sometimes you may
benefit from the use of acronyms or mnemonic devices that prompt you to
remember a list of different things for example for secure attachment we use the mnemonic device
craves consistency responsiveness attention validation encouragement and support so i can
always remember those three things or i'm sorry those six things by using that mnemonic device
another way you can enhance your memory and your cognition and even your problem solving
is to relate it to something you already know so how have you solved a similar problem in
the past and what might you be able to use from that experience to help you now
the next one is flex your mental muscle and yes your brain is not a muscle however researchers
have found repeatedly that when you engage in cognitively stimulating activities it can be
arts and crafts it can be playing chess anything that's listening to music anything that stimulates
your brain and especially stimulates your brain in different ways builds up what they call
cognitive reserve so you're using more of your brain you've got more to work with
one suggestion that i encourage you to do and one i do for myself i tend to be more on the creative
side and less on the analytical side so some of the activities that i engage in for hobbies
tend to be more analytical playing checkers um doing games on my mobile device that tend to be
more analytical in nature like minesweeper yes i know that's a really old game but
it gets the job done finally environmentally eliminate distractions it's really hard to focus
if you are getting bombarded by all kinds of stimuli and all kinds of information so eliminate
distractions so you can focus on what is important i don't have it on here but break it into chunks
sometimes it's better to do multiple 15-20 minute segments than to try to sit down and
do something for four hours straight most people find it easier to chunk it
and that can help a lot with improving your memory and retention add reminders
or write it down sometimes life is just happening and you can't eliminate the distressful things you
can't eliminate some of the sources of stress so instead of getting frustrated because you
can't remember everything which is not a real realistic thought anyway add reminders it can
be on your mobile device or just write it down make lists write things down to remind yourself
what you need to remember and finally essential oils now remember with essential oils you do
not need to imply them and you do not should not ingest them essential oils function through their
ability to trigger the pineal gland when people inhale them so all you need to be able to do is
detect the aroma it doesn't even have to be strong you just need to be able to detect it and again
there have been multiple studies on that that you can find on pubmed but lavender eucalyptus jasmine
forgot the e on that one rosemary black pepper and peppermint have all been found to be extremely
uh helpful in improving cognition in both humans and animals your final journal prompt what things
currently impair your cognitive functioning and how can you address them so going back through
this list of things that you can do to help yourself which ones aren't you doing right now
and what can you do or what are you willing to do to try to improve even two or three of them
more in-depth videos can be found on the youtube channel preventing cognitive decline is available
at all ceus.com dementia prevention now this talks about a lot of different things that you can do
to maintain healthy cognitive functioning it's not just for people who have dementia
and the second one is the neurobiological impact of psychological trauma and that
is at all ceus.com ptsd dash neuro and that one helps you understand the impact of chronic stress
and or trauma on your brain and how those things can impair cognitive functioning