The brain is our most precious organ, others are good, too, but they pale in comparison to the most powerful brain. The brain works very hard all day (we need a certain amount even while sleeping), used an extraordinary amount of energy, and nutritional support to keep going. In the other words, is maintained. But a healthy one as an example to the brain is about to be misunderstood, Omega top 3 supplements or green smoothies fatty acids and very little evidence that it is usually much more than just good nutrition Is. Tell us what science actually says that our brain can help? This is what we know now.
Exercise
Physical activity is quite clearly related to brain health and cognitive function. People who exercise seem to have more brain volume, better thinking skills and memory, and even a lower risk of dementia. A recent study in the journal Neurology found that older people who exercise vigorously are results of cognitive tests that place them at the equivalent of 10 years younger. It is not entirely clear why this is, but it is probably due to increased blood flow to the brain that comes from physical activity. Exercise is also believed to help generate new neurons in the hippocampus, the brain area where learning and memory live, and is known to lose volume with age, depression and Alzheimer's disease. Stark one exception to the rule exercise is impact sports such as football, which has been proven time and again to be linked to brain damage and dementia, as even low-level impacts may accumulate over time . The same is true for football headers.
From a routine exercise early in life is probably the best way to go, and the most pronounced effects starts the youngest. More research is needed, but in the meantime, enough research has shown that exercise it is beneficial to the brain that is quite difficult not to recognize that, at least, even if we do not so much as we should.
Foods and Spices
The brain is an enormous energy to suck that uses glucose way out of proportion with the rest of the body. In fact, approximately 20% of the energy resources of the body, although its volume is only a very small percentage is required. This is justified by the thought, learning, memory and body control are all big jobs. But the origin and quantity of sugar matter: Eating highly processed carbohydrates, which break down very quickly, leading to the famous tip-accident blood sugar, which your brain definitely feels. However, eating whole, unprocessed foods leads to a slow and steady rise, and a constant source of energy and causes the brain much happier.
Beyond giving energy, sugar in the diet especially too much of it also it appears to affect the way the brain is plastic, or how capable of change. A study last year, for example, found that rats fed fructose water after a brain injury had severely impaired recovery. "Our findings suggest that fructose alters the plasticity of creating fresh pathways between brain cells that occurs when we learn whose work it has also shown that sugar affects cognitive function in healthy animals. Interestingly, omega-3 fatty acids appear to reverse some of the damage. And in humans, fatty fish has been related to cognition, presumably due to fats that make cells more permeable brain. capsules of omega-3, however, has not been shown to do much good.
Mixed evidence that antioxidants of plant origin can improve cognitive function, at least in isolation. While some studies have found no effect, others have suggested that compounds in foods such as cocoa and blueberries can do something good. Finally, turmeric, curry a key component, if used regularly, it has been linked to a lower incidence of Alzheimer's disease, presumably by its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
In general, however, researchers are divided over whether to eat only one thing cut-for example, the addition of blueberries to a poor diet probably will not do much.
Vitamins and Minerals
Although there is little evidence that multivitamins do us much good, there are certain vitamins that the brain needs to function. Vitamin B12 is one of the most critical to the function of the central nervous system, and whose deficiency can lead to cognitive symptoms such as memory loss. Vitamin D is also essential for brain health, and although there is no causal link, low levels have been linked to cognitive decline. Iron is another that the brain needs to function especially for women that are menstruating, because it carries oxygen. But as always, although supplements are certainly necessary for certain people, get your nutrients from food seems to be the most efficient way to take in and absorb form.
Coffee
This is a fun. Many coffee lovers know instinctively that coffee does something good for their brains in the morning, and indeed our cognition seems a little blurry without it. But coffee appears to effect any real change not only keeps us alert, but blocking adenosine receptors, but coffee consumption has also been linked with a lower risk of depression, and even diseases Alzheimer's and Parkinson. This is partly because, like cocoa, coffee compounds to improve vascular health, and can also help repair cell damage by acting as antioxidants.
This connection is fascinating, because even though there are thousands of years of anecdotal evidence that meditation help a person perhaps neurologically, scientific evidence on the effects of meditation on the brain has exploded in reality only in the last five or 10 years. Meditation has been linked to increased brain volume in certain areas of the cerebral cortex, with less volume in the amygdala of the brain that controls fear and anxiety. It has also been linked to lower activity in the default mode network in the brain, which is active when our minds are wandering around a thought, which are usually negative and distressing. Meditation also seems to lead to changes in the white matter pathways that connect different brain regions, and to improve attention and concentration.
Education/Mental Activity
Staying mentally active throughout life, starting with education, it is linked to cognitive health that explains why it is believed that crosswords and sudoku to help cognition. Mental activity can or can not maintain a developing brain diseases like Alzheimer's, but it certainly seems to be related with fewer symptoms because it strengthens us what is known as cognitive reserve. Not that cognitive activity is the production of beta amyloid and tangles develop neurofibrillary or propagation is, David Knopman of the Mayo Clinic told me recently, but rather that increasing cognitive activity provides the brain with greater capacity stops withstand the effects of brain pathologies compared to a person with less cognitive engagement throughout life.
The brain does a lot of work while we are sleeping; in fact, it really never sleeps. Always consolidate memories and pruning of unnecessary connections. Lack of sleep, and only a little of it, takes a toll on our cognitive health. It's linked to poorer cognitive function, and poorer attention, learning and creative thinking. The more sleep debt that accumulates, the more time is needed to undo it. Sleep for about seven hours a night seems like a good goal to achieve.
The conclusion is that doing as many of these things as you can is good for the brain; but if you can not do them all every day, do not give up. If you do not make any, simply integrating a couple most likely help. And your brain can appreciate more than you think.