What is Brain Health?
And What Can You Do to Improve yours?
Do you have trouble relaxing after work?
Does it take you more than 15 minutes to fall asleep?
Do you struggle to focus on a specific task during the day?
The various things we do during a normal day require different levels of consciousness and awareness. Your brain needs tremendous flexibility to shift from one “mode” to another. The heightened state of awareness necessary to complete a work task is obviously not the best state for sleep. That’s why brain flexibility is so important.
What is Brain Health?
According to the NIH National Institute on Aging, brain health refers to how well a person’s brain functions across several areas. Aspects of brain health include:
Cognitive health — how well you think, learn, and remember
Motor function — how well you make and control movements, including balance
Emotional function — how well you interpret and respond to emotions (both pleasant and unpleasant)
Tactile function — how well you feel and respond to sensations of touch — including pressure, pain, and temperature
Luckily, there are lots of ways to improve brain health.
Physical Health and Brain Health
Research overwhelmingly shows that exercise is one of the most important daily habits for brain health. Exercise is not just beneficial for our heart, muscles and joints, it also encourages the formation of new neurons in the brain, and the production of proteins labeled Neurotrophins, which are critical in the development and maintenance of new brain cells.
The increased oxygen we take in during exercise also benefits the brain. The brain is one of the largest oxygen-consuming organs in the body, this higher supply of oxygen to the brain has been shown to positively affect cognitive processes, such as learning and memory.
Sleep and Brain Health
Research has shown that sleep plays an important role in dendritic growth in the brain. Dendrites are the growths at the end of neurons that help transmit information from one neuron to the next. By strengthening these connections, you may be able to encourage greater brain plasticity.
You can find ways to improve your sleep by practicing good sleep hygiene. This includes developing a consistent sleep schedule and creating an environment that contributes to good sleep.
Diet and Brain Health
The brain is an energy-intensive organ, using around 20 percent of the body’s calories, so it needs plenty of good fuel to maintain concentration throughout the day.
The brain also requires certain nutrients to stay healthy. Omega-3 fatty acids, for example, help build membranes around each cell in the body, including the brain cells. These fatty acids can be found in oily fish such as salmon, tuna, and sardines. Antioxidants are also especially important to brain health, reducing cellular stress and inflammation, which are linked to brain aging and neurodegenerative disorders. Incorporating high-antioxidant foods like dark chocolate and berries into your diet can minimize oxidative stress, which contributes to age-related cognitive decline.
Neuroptimal and Brain Health
Just as physical exercise benefits the body, NeurOptimal® helps the brain re-organize itself, keeping the brain fit and resilient. Without pushing it in any specific direction, the NeurOptimal system interacts with your central nervous system in a way that improves neural plasticity.
