Strategies for Maintaining Optimal Brain Health: A Comprehensive Guide

There are different things which can affect the function of the brain, such as stress, diabetes, smoking, hypertension etc. Some of the things that can help with your brain function and to keep your brain healthy are discussed in this article.

According to new research, the condition of the blood vessels in the body plays a big role in determining the health of the brain. Experts from the University of Edinburgh found that there are different types of factors, such as hypertension, smoking, diabetes that affect the blood vessels or increase vascular risk factors and these can also cause damage to the brain.

With time, all these factors can also lead to deterioration of the brain function and increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia. A new study published in March 11 assessed the MRI scans of brains of 9,772 people who were between the ages of 44 and 79 ⁽¹⁾. They analyzed the association between seven vascular risk factors consisting of hypertension, smoking, pulse pressure, diabetes, increased cholesterol, waist-hip ratio, body mass index (BMI), and the brain structures, which are responsible for complex thinking. All these regions are known to deteriorate as there is development of dementia.

It was found that hypertension, smoking and diabetes were the three major vascular risk factors with the most consistent association to brain atrophy and loss of both white and grey brain matter ^{(1, 2, 3, 4)}.

Some of the best ways to keep your brain healthy are:

Move More: In today’s time where sedentary life is the norm, it has become more important to physically move your body for better overall health and better brain function. One should try for 150 minutes or more of cardiovascular exercise once a week. If you can’t exercise then opt for walking. It was shown that older adults who regularly walked for one year had considerable improvements in memory performance, which was also associated with growth of memory areas in the brain ⁽⁵⁾.

Build Muscle and Strength: Cardio exercise combined with strength training done at least twice a week has shown to improve the brain and heart health.

Brain Healthy Diet: Consumption of foods, which increase the function of the brain, such as nuts, blueberries and fatty fish along with reducing the intake of processed foods, frozen meals, takeout, deli meat and cheese, which were a few of the highest sources of sodium responsible for hypertension helped a lot in boosting brain function.

Get a Good Night’s Sleep Daily: Inadequate or poor sleep is associated with vascular risk factors, such as hypertension, weight gain and worsening health ⁽⁶⁾. The human brain needs to shut off daily for few hours, which comes in the form of daily sleep. Sleeping helps in cleaning neurons and synapses and making memories. If someone does not get good quality sleep, then the health of the brain and body are significantly impacted.

Cut down on Stress and Meditate: Stress and anxiety take a huge toll on the mental health along with also affecting the physical and brain health ⁽⁷⁾. Mindfulness practice done with meditation on a regular basis benefits by reducing the risk of deteriorating vascular health.

Exercise Your Brain: For the brain to remain healthy and alert, it is important that one remains cognitively active by indulging in social activities or brain exercises, such as solving puzzles ⁽⁸⁾. All this helps in preventing memory loss and depression that comes with aging.

Keep an Eye on Your Blood Pressure: It is important to regularly check your blood pressure as increased blood pressure also affects the health of the brain.

There is increased research and studies that connect poor physical health with aging brain health. According to studies, vascular risk factors also damage the health of the brain, which leads to slow thinking skills and also changes similar to Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. The good news is that most of these vascular risk factors can be prevented.

Adopting a healthy lifestyle consisting of daily exercise, good sleep, and good diet goes a long way in preventing risk factors, such as obesity, hypertension and diabetes. This in turn benefits the health of the brain too.

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