I was really struck by a paragraph I read, how even a 60 or 70 year olds,
a few simple lifestyle changes with patients or with the public
has been shown to increase their performance on cognitive tests.
And I think that's really empowering for people, when they think,
“oh, well, I didn't do this, I've had a stressful life”.
Wait a minute there are still things you could do.
So let's go through what are some of the things that people can do,
whether it's their diet, whatever you go through some of the tips you
think are useful.
Let's do a 24 hour day.
If you have the luxury, so first of all, food, I mean, people are starving in this world
and food scarcity, bad food, I'm respectful of that.
That said, if you wake up consider skipping breakfast
a couple of times a week.
In neuroscience journals and from what we know about the biology of
it, that intermittent fasting going 16 hours couple
of times a week without eating glucose
your liver will run out of its glucose reserves, it will burn fat into these things called
ketones.
The brain is a hybrid vehicle, it's not all gas, it's not all electric, it likes both.
And so if you have dinner at 8:00 and it's Monday evening, consider having
your next meal by midday the next day, that's an easy way to get to 16 hours,
it doesn't mean you're fasting for days and days.
There is neuroscientific literature that intermittent fasting
is good for attention and focus.
Now it's lunchtime and you're thinking about what to eat.
Before that, I would consider taking five minutes
to just breathe deeply like you're doing now, just big deep breaths,
a couple of times a day, three times a day for three minutes, make it easy,
see how that works for you, just the pause might be helpful.
Now it's time to eat, the food you choose is important,
and there's delicious food to eat that's actually good for your brain.
And how do I know that?
Well we don't have a pill for Alzheimer's, but we do have the mind diet which is essentially
Mediterranean food, that if you look at a group of thousands of
people over a long period of time they had less dementia.
So now that you've figured out the cadence of eating,
which is intermittent fasting, skipping breakfast a couple of days a week,
now that you've brought in pre lunch, three minutes of just deep breathing,
that's meditative breathing, choose plants, choose nuts,
choose occasional fatty fish, the fatty fish has omega 3s which is an essential
component of your brain, it's the wrapping around all those connections
that keeps those electrical signals firing faster.
So now you're at lunchtime, you've chosen the Mediterranean diet,
more plants, less meat, the right kind of meat,
and your day goes on and then the question is,
what's next to improve your health?
A bit of exercise is great, the brain likes exercise because it is flesh.
Don't clog the plumbing to your garden because swaths of your garden will wither.
So people have strokes and injuries, it's because blood flow is not getting into
their brain, that's the way to hurt the structure your
brain, so what's good for the heart is good for the
brain.
When the brain exercises it showers itself, it's not like thigh muscles release
a healthy brain chemicals that swim up there, it's got its own pharmacy,
you give it the right behavior and interaction, it will reward itself.
So exercise keeps the plumbing open to the flesh of the brain,
as well as releases molecules that serve as Miracle-Gro for the brain,
a couple of times a week is a good place to start,
just the postural elements of standing is a first step.
Next thing you know, you're walking, next thing you know, you're taking the stairs.
So these are simple things, these are free things.
And so exercise and then the day moves on and you're getting to the evening
if you can, I like to read something completely unfamiliar,
I've got a stack of old magazines that I just flip through,
just new content for your mind.
And I think since it's thinking flesh and of course, it likes blood It likes to
be irrigated, of course it likes a certain kind of diet
because of the components it needs, but it also wants to think,
if you ask you Usain Bolt, “how do you get your thigh muscles stronger?”,
it's to take some stairs.
Well, how do you get your brain to be healthier?
Think.
And everybody's next level of thought and challenge is individual,
we don't all have to do the same puzzles, we don't all have to have the same career,
but get out your comfort zone, if you will, just with the thoughts.
So flip through something different on your phone,
read something different on your phone, develop a new habit, I think that's important.
So language, music, the act of learning makes your brain say, “I got to pull from
different pathways, I've got to get to different corners of my
mind”, it's actually an energy consuming activity
and that's what engages, the greatest corners and recesses of your
mind is to learn new things, particularly music, particularly languages,
social interactions, we know these things and now I'm just trying
to give you a biological basis, the brain's efficient if it wants to fall
into its rut.
And breaking the rut in a constructive way is going to be good for your brain globally
as your mind, thoughts and emotions as well as the flesh,
that's one strong way to stave off dementia.
The other things that I would do is, I would consider getting some of these apps.
Now, it's an interesting place to start, I don't know which ones I'm recommending,
but there are brain training apps.
Brain training works, certain governmental agencies are using it,
we use brain training as brain rehab on our patients.
Find some puzzles, find some content, read a book,
do something unusual, that will also be good.
And the fourth one, I would say is, you know, try to find happiness is the most elusive
thing, but we also know that people who have mental
health issues or people who are depressed,
their brains start to change.
They are brain injured from the way they are thinking,
so if it's within your power to be happier, to pursue relationships and crafts that make
you happy, that will probably be the best thing for your
brain.