5 Ways to Improve Your Brain Fitness Today

On Monday, I posted a list of 5 ways to improve your brain fitness almost immediately. Things like decreasing stress and improving your attention can be done immediately. Today I have a list of things you can do at some time today, and incorporate in your life every day. Here they are:

• Take two minutes to focus on something around you. Look at something near you – a chair, something on the wall, anything. Pay attention to it. Look at its color and shape. Attention may be a key in improving your memory, and improving attention skills may be a way to improve your brain fitness.
• Find a new way to the grocery store. More and more, my reading of the research on ways to maintain and improve cognitive functioning is that novelty is a key. It’s probably the element of experience that can stimulate new nerve cell growth. Research has shown that people with lives that include travel, learning new languages, and education are less likely to have cognitive problems as they get older. So find a new way to the grocery store or to your work. Explore your neighborhood, or take a look at the store next to the store you always visit. Give yourself a new experience.
• Park farther away from your job or at the store. Many people try to find the closest parking spot at work or at a store. Increase the amount of exercise you get today by parking farther, rather than closer.
• Identify one hassle today and deal with it. Odds are that the things that annoy or bother you are causing you stress. One of the worst things about stress is that over time we tend to forget it. We get used to it, and no longer pay attention to it. But the stress is still there, associated with increased levels of things such as cortisol and immune system factors. Your goal today: find one hassle and do something about it. If driving through one intersection makes you nervous, find a new route. If something your spouse, partner, or children do bugs you, say something about it. Some hassles can’t be eliminated. Figure out how to cope with the hassle by not reacting to it.
• Eat an extra serving of broccoli today. Experts say we all should eat 4-5 servings of fruit and vegetables a day, and research shows that the substances in fruits and vegetables can improve your brain fitness.

Brain fitness is probably not a one-time computer program. It’s a way of life. Try these 5 things for a week and then ask yourself how you feel.

Beagles and Your Brain

Just last week I had the opportunity to attend the second Cognitive Aging Summit sponsored by the National Institute on Aging. It was an outstanding opportunity to find out what researchers in the field of cognition and aging are doing.

One of the most interesting presentations was by Dr. Carl Cotman at the University of California—Irvine. He reported on research showing that a combination of antioxidant diet and an enriched environment can actually prevent memory impairments in aging beagles.

Why study beagles? Because as they get older, they show age-related memory problems similar to those in humans.The changes in their memory are mirrored by increases in amyloid in their brains, a substance that is associated with cognitive decline in humans. So beagles are a useful animal for the study of age-related memory decline. Cotman compared the effects of the antioxidant diet plus an environment full of interesting toys, exercise, and interactions with humans and other dogs to a standard diet and sedentary life style – the doggy equivalent of being a couch potato.

Cotman’s and his group’s research showed that an antioxidant diet that included antioxidant supplements combined with an enriched environment helped prevent memory problems as the dogs aged. And when the researchers looked at the dogs’ brains, they had less evidence of amyloid. They also showed greater levels of brain-derived neurotrophic growth factor (BDNF), a critical substance for the growth of new nerve cells.

Cotman argues that the antioxidants made cells better able to respond to environmental stimulation and preserve their function.

Reference:

Pop V et al. (2010). Synergistic effects of long-term antioxidant diet and behavioral enrichment on beta-amyloid load and non-amyloidogenic processing in aged canines. Journal of Neuroscience, 30, 9831-9839.