If you’ve ever decided to exercise your brain and improve cognition, you’ve probably tried your hand at Sudoku or downloaded a chess app on your phone, determined to become the next world champion (or a somewhat decent player, at least).

But as researcher and author of The Age-Proof Brain: New Strategies to Improve Memory, Protect Immunity, and Fight Off Dementia, Marc Milstein, PhD, says, “Maintaining a healthy brain and strong memory is not all about Sudoku and crossword puzzles.”

“Those can be fun, and they can have a brain benefit, but they aren’t the only things we can and should do to exercise the brain,” he adds.

So, what can we do to keep our minds sharp as we age? And why are age and cognition related in the first place?

Here’s what Milstein has to say on the matter:

• What Makes Our Brains Age?

• 4 Ways to Age-Proof Your Brain

  • 1) Stop underestimating the power of sleep

  • 2) Get a move on

  • 3) Rethink what you eat

  • 4) Train your brain

What Makes Our Brains Age?

The first thing to remember is that, as Milstein insists, the brain does not age simply due to the passing of time.

Our lifestyle choices have been shown to impact how young our brains look, which means that your brain can appear younger (with more mass of grey and white matter, which are made up of brain cells) or older (reduced in volume and with a decrease in brain cell connections) depending on many different factors, some of which are within our control.

Therefore, Milstein explains that just because we’re getting older does not mean our brains necessarily age at the same rate.

What’s more, the brain and the body are deeply interconnected, which means that multiple different elements contribute to a decrease in cognition, including:

• Brain trash: A by-product of the work your brain cells do, brain trash ages the brain and impairs cognition. The two most common types of brain trash found in Alzheimer’s disease are amyloid plaques (they reduce our brain cells’ ability to form connections with one another) and tau tangles (they damage brain cells from the inside). This may happen when brain trash is not removed properly via the glymphatic system, for example, when we are not getting enough high-quality sleep.

• Cardiovascular issues: According to the research Milastein references, coronary heart disease is associated with a 40 percent increased risk of dementia while heart failure increases the risk of dementia nearly twofold. Furthermore, reduced blood flow to the brain is linked to a build-up of tau tangles. This is because the heart and the brain are connected via the vagus nerve, relaying information to each other, and via the cardiovascular system, thanks to which the heart pumps oxygen into the brain and maintains the health of brain cells. Cardiovascular health is therefore very important when it comes to brain health.

• Gut inflammation: The vagus nerve does not only connect the heart and the brain; it also reaches the gut, where certain gut bacteria affect immune function and brain health. A chemical called butyrate, for instance, is produced in the gut and has been shown to protect brain cells. When the bacteria in our intestines are out of balance (for example, when we consume a poor diet), it may lead to an overgrowth of bad bacteria and a release of chemicals that damage the lining of the gut and allow toxins to enter the bloodstream. This may, in turn, lead to inflammation, which might negatively impact the heart, the immune system, and the brain. The microbiome apparently plays a large role in Parkinson’s disease, for instance.

4 Ways to Age-Proof Your Brain

As you can see, our brain health is tightly linked to our general well-being, from heart health to sleep, diet, and immunity. 

Therefore, the most effective way to keep your mind sharp as you grow older is not to play Sudoku once a week (although that might help, too) but to implement certain lifestyle changes, all of which The Age-Proof Brain describes in detail.

Let’s go over the four we’ve picked out.

1) Stop underestimating the power of sleep

“Sleep is perhaps the greatest ally in the fight to preserve your brain – and quality, deep, restorative sleep is crucial to your brain health,” writes Milstein.

According to his book, high-quality sleep does not only cleanse our brains of trash but also boosts our immune system, helps us learn and retain information, repairs our muscles, and decreases the risk of depression by 23 percent, among many other benefits.

Here are just a few of Milstein’s recommendations to improve your sleep and maintain optimal cognitive performance:

• Sleep in true darkness: Studies show that even a little bit of light may disturb your body’s internal clock (known as the circadian rhythm) and reduce sleep quality. Unplug all devices before going to bed or let them charge in another room and get black-out curtains.

• Get outside throughout the day: “Natural light, coupled with movement and fresh air, is a trifecta of goodness to the brain,” says Milstein. Natural light – even if it’s cloudy outside – stimulates the brain clock and therefore helps our circadian rhythm function correctly, making it easier to get a good night’s sleep.

• Keep pencil and paper next to your bed: When a stressful thought keeps you awake, write it down instead of mulling it over. Based on a study Milstein cites in his book, this simple practice may help us fall asleep faster and sleep better, potentially due to the fact that writing something down allows our brains to let go of it.

2) Get a move on

“Exercise is like another miracle drug for the brain,” Milstein writes. He mentions studies that show exercise makes your brain cells communicate with each other more effectively, which may help improve memory, for example.

This is not only because exercise has a positive impact on the immune system but also because getting a move on gets your blood flowing and boosts heart health (which is, as seen above, linked to the brain’s well-being).

Furthermore, another study Milstein references has proven that women who are highly physically fit at fifty years old are much less likely to develop dementia. Similar studies (conducted on both men and women) support this view: a 2016 study, Milstein says, found that people who consistently take the stairs rather than an escalator have a younger-looking brain.

So, do you need to become a bodybuilder in order to boost brain health?

Not at all.

Here are a couple of simple things to do as per The Age-Proof Brain:

• Prioritize moderate exercise: Aim to include 120 minutes of moderate exercise per week in your schedule. Milstein explains that “moderate” means you can talk during the exercise but you can’t sing. Jogging at a moderate pace, walking, or dancing are a few good examples. Vigorous exercise can also be good for the brain, especially when it comes to treating depression, but we should be cautious, and, more importantly, we should remember that “more intense” does not necessarily mean “better” as our bodies are much more complex than that.

• Walk, walk, walk: One study has apparently found that walking thirty minutes a day lowers the risk of dementia. What’s more, living in a walkable neighborhood has been associated with longevity, as Milstein reports. Walking is more powerful than many people give it credit for.

3) Rethink what you eat

“Diet plays a role in essentially every aspect we have discussed so far – our overall brain health, mood, sleep, productivity, as well as heart, immune, and metabolic health,” Milstein stresses.

What you eat may affect you more than you realize. For example, people who regularly eat kale, beans, tea, spinach, and broccoli could apparently have a much lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s. 

Let’s take a look at some of Milstein’s suggestions:

• Add: Healthy fats (fish high in omega-3, such as salmon or sardines, flax or chia seeds, avocados), fruits and vegetables high in vitamin C (kiwis, bell peppers, broccoli), prebiotics (tomatoes, bananas, chickpeas, legumes)

• Limit: Excess sugar (careful: sugar often hides behind different names on food packaging, such as dextrose, fructose, maltose, sucrose, or HFCS), additives and preservatives that keep food from spoiling (Milstein says they increase inflammation), excess salt (avoid products with more than 200 milligrams of sodium per serving)

• Look at your grocery basket and ask yourself 3 questions: Will it spoil (in many cases, this is a good thing as it means there are few to no preservatives)? Are there tons of ingredients in the packaged food (if so, there’s a higher chance there are additives)? Do you see a rainbow (that is, is there going to be variety on your plate)? 

4) Train your brain

Your brain is like a muscle – if you want to keep it in shape, you’ve got to exercise it. Learning new information, for instance, plays a significant part in disposing of brain trash, as Milstein points out.

In fact, Milstein writes that acquiring new skills and information is much more important than playing Sudoku or brain games on your phone (although those can have a brain benefit, too) because the brain needs to make and strengthen connections in order to preserve memory and optimal cognitive performance. An effective way to do so is to simply learn.

Therefore, your best bet might be to:

• Become a lifelong learner: Watch online lectures, read books, play word games, learn a new language, and try your hand at a new musical instrument. When things get too easy, step outside your comfort zone and embrace the challenge – this will help your brain make new connections and evolve.

• Make it stick: Use different techniques to remember new information better. The more you engage your emotions and senses, the more likely you are to preserve certain memories, Milstein says. This is because memory resides in various parts of the brain, and the more widespread a specific memory becomes, the easier it is to encode it and remember it. This is why songs have “a real sticking power” – music has emotion, rhythm, and sound, all of which trigger different areas in the brain (namely, the amygdala, the motor part of the brain, and the auditory part of the brain).

To make new memories stick, repeat the information out loud, walk while studying, make emotional associations (for example, connect the fact that England thrived during Queen Victoria’s reign to your undying love for Victoria sponge cake), make up silly rhymes, or draw pictures that relate to the information at hand.

• Combine deep focus with relaxing breaks: Based on the research mentioned in The Age-Proof Brain, the brain functions at its best when it 1) concentrates on a single task and enters a state of deep focus and 2) takes a break once in a while to recharge. This is because the brain often continues to work on a subconscious level while you’re consciously taking a break, giving way to creative thinking and “light-bulb” moments of eureka. 

When working, avoid multitasking and add regular breaks into your schedule, such as a 10-minute walk, a quick workout, washing the dishes, or a breathing exercise. According to the book, this is an effective way to nurture creativity, learn new information, and therefore boost brain health.

Conclusion

While we often seek quick brain-boosting strategies to help us maintain optimal performance for as long as possible, The Age-Proof Brain shows that, in the end, it really does boil down to the basics.

In many (not all) cases, a healthy brain is the combination of a healthy body, a curious mindset, and the determination to do what is beneficial for us in the long term. If you’d like to learn more about brain health – be it the wonderful effects of social connection on the mind or the link between our brains and our environment – do pick up The Age-Proof Brain.

And if you still want to become a world chess champion, go ahead – your brain will thank you, that’s for sure.

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