Adding years to your life depends on many things – good genes are a start, but certain lifestyle habits can have quite a significant impact. Living longer is one thing, and living a cognitively strong life can be quite another. Health and Medical magazines have long touted the benefits of certain healthy behaviors for body and mind, and this theme is being expressed in an ever more diverse set of publications. I wanted to share an article you from this month’s National Geographic Magazine. In the article “Complex Miracles of Health and Simple Ways to Enhance It”, they profiled three global hotspots of longevity and found living proof of lifestyle’s powerful effect. Check it out at www.nationalgeographic.com/healthyliving. Also discussed are tips for enhancing your own longevity profile including “Seven Basics for a Better Brain”. These include:

• Laugher has been shown to reduce at least four of the neuroendocrine hormones associated with stress response.
• Children who eat more meals with their families feel happier about their lives and prospects for the future
• Breath deeply for five minutes, twice a day
• Drinking more water helps your brain stay focused, think faster, and remember more
• A short, brisk walk helps clear stress hormones from your bloodstream
• Fish rich in omega-3, like salmon, can improve brain function and may help prevent Alzheimer’s disease
• Exercise sends oxygen to your brain – improving memory, reasoning skills and concentration

It’s all a reminder that we have the opportunity to lead long, healthy, active and cognitively strong lives.

More news suggesting music can help to sharpen the brain.

“Experience with music appears to help with many other things in life, potentially transferring to activities like reading or picking up nuances in tones of voices or hearing sounds in a noisy classroom better,” researcher Nina Kraus, a neuroscientist at Northwestern University”

Read the article here

Another report on how exercise can help our brain.

“Tests on mice showed they grew new brain cells in a certain region of the brain that is known to be affected in the age related memory decline that begins around age 30 for most humans”.

Read more here

Consumer report has 5 tips on keeping your memory sharp, which includes computer based brain games. All great tips which we strongly recommend.

Read here

The right kind of cocoa might be great for your brain.

“This raises the prospect of using flavanols in the treatment of dementia, marked by decreased blood flow in the brain, and in maintaining overall cardiovascular health”.

Read all about the benefits of cocoa here

We found this post that mentions Dr. Paul Nussbaum’s approach to brain health. Dr. Nussbaum does a great job of communicating the importance of a fit brain to the public

Dr. Nussbaum says that a healthy lifestyle characterized by socialization, physical activity, mental activity, spirituality, and nutrition leads to improved brain health. Individuals should reduce their caloric intake to 80% of what they intend to consume at each meal because overeating and obesity do not contribute to brain health.

You can read more here

Another study showing the impact of learning on our brains.

“These remarkable findings suggest stimulating the mind with activities such as reading books or completing crossword puzzles may help delay and/or prevent Alzheimer’s disease in senior citizens.”

The full piece can be read here

The Alliance for Aging Research is encouraging Americans to boost their brain health.

“There is a lot we can do to keep our brains healthy and potentially prevent or lessen the cognitive decline that often comes with aging,” Daniel Perry, executive director of the nonprofit Alliance for Aging Research”

You can see the full article here

Here is another report that links exercise and the brain.

“Physical activity may be beneficial to cognition during early and middle periods of the human lifespan and may continue to protect against age-related loss of cognitive function during older adulthood”.

You can see this story in full here 

Here is a great new study that supports what we are doing at Happy Neuron.

Certain mental exercises can offset some of the expected decline in older adults’ thinking skills and show promise for maintaining cognitive abilities needed to do everyday tasks such as shopping, making meals and handling finances, according to a new study.

You can read the complete article here