Why keeping your brain active later in life is important
We all know that it’s important to keep our bodies strong and healthy as we age. A good diet and a decent level of fitness means we’re less at risk of disease, illness and accidents – which means we can enjoy a longer and happier life doing what we like. But your brain matters too. Do you know why keeping your brain active later in life is important, and how to do it? Read on to find out…
Why is it important to keep your brain active?
Reason #1: It will lessen the likelihood of developing medical conditions. Some medical conditions cannot be prevented, but, an inactive or under-stimulated brain is more likely to develop problems such as Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia (usually caused by strokes) or lewy body dementia (a disease when brain cells die, leaving abnormal, protein-filled nerve cells). As we all know, these diseases are a problem: they impair our mental function and make memory, language skills, perceptions, reasoning, judgement and emotional stability less reliable.
Reason #2: It will slow down the natural effects of aging. Aside from disease, parts of our brains naturally shrink as we age, and the speed of blood flow in our brain slows a bit too. This can cause cells in our brains to diminish and lose connections with other cells, causing our cognitive abilities to decline. The only way to keep your brain sharp, therefore, is to exercise it – just as you’d exercise other part of your body at the gym!
How can you keep your brain active?
To keep your brain in the best condition possible, consider doing these things:
- Challenge yourself. The satisfaction you earn from doing something slightly beyond your comfort zone triggers the reward system in your brain, causing you to feel happy. It also encourages the brain to strengthen connections between existing cells, meaning that you’ll stay sharper than you would if you lounged in front of the television. Studies have shown that you can improve your health with bingo, and it’s worth doing crosswords, video games, puzzles and riddles too.
- Do new things. It’s easy to get stuck stuck in a rut, but our brains respond well if we feed them with novelty. Put yourself in new situations and meet new people often. Doing so will helps your brain to ‘stay on its toes’ rather than switching to auto-pilot.
- Learn something new. This encourages the growth of new brain cells and strengthens the connection between cells, helping to keep your brain healthy.
- Exercise regularly. Regular physical activity is thought to help maintain blood flow to the brain, and reduces the risk of high blood pressure (which in turn lessens the likelihood of strokes causing vascular dementia).
- Stay socially active. Interacting with other people, improving your vocabulary and holding regular conversations are thought to delay the onset of dementia, as well as reducing the likelihood of depression and loneliness.
- Learn a second language. Understanding language is one of the hardest things your brain is tasked with doing, so it’s a good mental workout! Even if you don’t understand very much, try listening to a radio programme in a foreign language to see what you can pick up.