Sam's Blog: Forget Looks. 11 Ways to Make Your Brain Younger

Forget Looks. 11 Ways to Make Your Brain Younger: "

With as many nerve cells as there are stars in the Milky Way (approximately 100 billion), your brain weighs in somewhere around 1.6kg or 2 pounds and accounts for 2.5 percent of your body's total weight, using up to 20 percent of your total energy needs.^[1] And you're in control of how to fuel and run this powerhouse; with proper use, care, and knowledge, you have the means for decreasing your brain's aging during the adult stages of your life.

Brain age doesn't have to be your year age, and it's liberating to know that the more we use and expect of our brain, the better it becomes over time. Indeed, the cognitive decline of aging can be arrested, reversed, and improved at any time through life!^[2] If you've let your brain take a vacation over time, make choices that will help to decrease your brain's aging and keep it (and therefore you as a whole) staying younger for longer.

Edit Steps

Feed your brain nutritiously.
Feed your brain nutritiously. A diet based on foods that humans have long thrived on is your best bet, which means finding balance between food types, keeping processed foods to a minimum, and preferring the healthiest sources of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates to fuel and bolster your brain. Foods that are high in anti-oxidants and phenols are important for the brain; for example, plums are high in phenols and the phenols help to prevent cell damage and the breakdown of the special fats important to your brain.^[3]
- Foods that age your brain include baked products from doughnuts, cakes, and cookies, to pies, sweet rolls and pastries; alcohol; hard cheeses; creamy sauces; trans fats; soft drinks and fruit drinks; hydrogenated and trans fats; mayonnaise; fried foods and fast food; sugary breakfast cereals; processed dairy products; battered foods; convenience meals.^[4]
- Studies have shown more mental decline in those with blood glucose problems such as diabetes than those without.^[5]
- Use healthy oils for cooking and focus on adding more omega 3 fats to your diet (fish, walnuts, flaxseeds, etc.). Phosphatidylserine (PS) is a phospholipid found in abundance in your brain cells and it may be helpful to take supplements of PS and other phospholipids as well, to help boost your mood, memory, and concentration.^[6]^[7] Lecithin granules, gingko biloba, niacin, B12, the amino acid pyroglutamate and B5 are also helpful brain boosters.^[8] Ensure that you get plenty of the B and E vitamin range from foods in your diet, as these are good for your brain.^[9]
- Eat more plant foods in your diet. See the new US government recommended MyPlate approach to eating the right proportions of healthiest foods.
- Drink more water; your brain is 85 percent water and water is good for every part of your body. Most people don't drink enough daily.
- Read How to protect your mind with brain foods for more details on specific foods that help your brain.
Prioritize exercising your body.
Prioritize exercising your body. After 25, our taken-for-granted physical health begins to decline, helped along by inactive lifestyles. Physical exercise is important for your brain because it provides much needed oxygen; improved blood flow to the brain helps the growth of new brain cell 'branches' (dendrites).^[10] Those who exercise have been shown to have denser brains than those who do not; loss of brain density and volume becomes more prevalent as we age, a major factor in mental decline.^[11] In addition, weight bearing exercise has been shown to improve levels of serotonin and dopamine in adults, two brain chemicals related directly to brain aging.^[12] Exercise wards off the effects of stress by burning off the stress hormones and chasing away the cortisol that destroys brain cells. Mood is improved with exercise too, as noradrenaline is secreted and endorphins entering the bloodstream help give you a lift and can even ward off depression.^[13]^[14]
- Remember that your mind and body are not separate; they are a holistic whole and therefore caring for your body will always benefit your brain.
- Naturally, as with anything, excessive exercise is not good for your brain – find the balance between none and too much and your exercise in moderation will guard your brain's youthfulness.
Click on this one to enlarge and give it a try!
Do mental workouts. 'Use it or lose it' is a common adage applied to the brain, and with good reason because it's true; unused brain cells atrophy and die off (probably of boredom). Fortunately, a brain that is given plenty of opportunities to exercise actually improves with age, and the more you use it, the better it grows. There are plenty of things you can do to keep your brain in training and fortunately for all of us, they're all fun things to do. Some examples include:
- Puzzles such as crosswords, Sudoku, trivia games, brainteasers, mazes, and word puzzles^[15] are all superb mental workouts.
- Remembering sequences of numbers, letters, words, symbols, etc. Do this with a friend so that you can both improve your memory.
- Play memory games. There are lots of them but a simple one is to place different objects on a tray, try to memorize them, and then cover them up and repeat what they are. Continuously increase the amount of objects you're trying to remember.
- Play computer games. Focus on ones that require you to solve mathematical problems quickly or other problems with a deadline.^[16]
- Wherever you are during the day, play memory games with yourself. It's a great way of passing time in a queue or on public transport. Try to remember chunks of text, phone numbers, lines of printed letters, anything that you can spot around you. Or, you can even see if you can remember things about people sitting near you - close your eyes and try to remember things about them and check if you got it right (take care not to stare). You can also do this with pictures in a magazine that are filled with action or elements - stare at it for 10 seconds, then write down as many things as possible that you can remember about it and compare your recall after.^[17]
- Be a good storyteller. This is a great way to keep your memories alive and helps you to perceive past events in a positive light, by using the storyteller's technique of finding a moral, a lesson, or a confirmation within the past experience.
- Read lots of good books. Reading has long been a guaranteed way to keep your brain alert, stretched, and attuned to new ideas and perspectives.
- Read How to train your brain for more ideas.
Master your stress coping skills.
Master your stress coping skills. Stress is good for you in small doses; it keeps you on your toes and it helps to remind you that you're alive and need to keep your wits about you. However, excess, continual, and never-ending stress of the type our modern way of living produces kills brains cells and ages your brain faster. The good news is that you have the ability to manage and minimize stress and to help your brain stay younger. To decrease your brain age, reduce your exposure to and intolerance of stress by finding ways that minimize it, ways that work for you. Don't be surprised if not all ways suggested by other people work; you will just have to try out different approaches until you find the ways that fit your personality and needs and actually do dispel your stress quickly and effectively. Once you find that sweet spot, turn it into your new 'personal default position', your de-stressing habit.
- Meditate. Meditation is one of the more effective methods for reducing stress in your life and it can be done at home, work, when traveling, etc.
- Take up an activity for releasing stress, such as yoga, martial arts, kick boxing, running, swimming, etc.
- Learn to be more assertive and to express yourself. Assertive people are better able to state their needs and wants politely but firmly; expressing yourself clearly and refusing to allow yourself to be used or swayed by others is a good way of keeping stress at bay.
- Read widely on stress management skills, including learning how to manage confrontation and difficult encounters with other people. You will find a plethora of excellent books, articles, and information on this topic; take the advice and apply what works from it to your life.
Our brains are very plastic and are open to being remolded
Try something new. 'Neuro-plasticity' is the term used to explain the brain's ability to reorganize its neural pathways based on a new experience.^[18] This is good the age of your brain because you're causing it to continue developing and improving. Trying a new way of doing something you're used to doing is a really good way to shake it up! Learning new skills will continuously push your brain, as well as giving you new opportunities to meet new people, sample new experiences, and introduce variety into your life.
- Learning a new language is one of the most rewarding mental workouts; why not plan a trip at the end of it as an incentive to keep going!
- Trying something new can actually help you to 'declutter' your brain and remove irrelevant information and replace it with useful information. Coupled with stress reduction, physical exercise, and mental workouts, trying something new can give you an edge over people who are stuck in their ways with cluttered minds.^[19]
- Teaching or tutoring others can also be a good way of drawing on past experiences and applying them to new ones; you will need to draw on many problem-solving skills when teaching.
Practice good sleep habits.
Practice good sleep habits. Sleep is a powerful source of anti-aging; research has shown that a regular eight hour sleep pattern slows age decline and protects people against chronic age-related illnesses such as memory loss.^[20] Get into a habit of going to bed at the same time every night and rising at the same time every morning, ensuring that you've had a good 7 to 8 hours of sleep (know your own slight variations in terms of how much sleep you need to function optimally). Your brain will be grateful – and younger – for the much needed consistent and regular recharging.
Go back in time.
Go back in time. It might seem trite but thinking young can keep your brain young. In 1979, a Harvard psychology professor Ellen Langer created an experiment in which elderly people were sent to live in a house set up as if it were 1959, 20 years earlier. They had to watch 1950s TV, wear clothing from the era and act as if it were the 1950s. The study revealed that the clock was turned back for these people and they were found to have improved recall, intelligence, and even eyesight when they undertook tests. They even appeared younger when before and after photos of them were compared.^[21] Seek to see yourself as younger than your biological age; how you think about your age is as important as what you eat, how much you exercise, and other forms of positive thinking. Much aging is in the mind – live and think like a younger person and your brain will definitely cooperate.
- A study by John Bargh showed that people who thought about words related to aging slowed down after they did the test.^[22] Aim to think mostly of words relating to youth, vitality, energy, and pep whenever you consider your own age.
Improve your attitude. Your attitude toward life's ups and downs counts for everything; what you think affects the brain activity and influences your mood and emotional state. A positive outlook that allows you to maintain a belief in your value and self-worth will allow you to live a fulfilled life and one in which your brain remains open to new possibilities. On the other hand, a perpetually negative outlook on life risks shutting down your brain as you focus solely on the bad things around you, both present and past, and on fearing the future. Constantly negative thinking processes can easily shut you off from continued learning and growth, and with it you will cause your brain to age faster. Improving your attitude is something every person is capable of doing, provided the will is there. Be curious, open to novelty, and prepared to make changes that allow you to continue growing mentally and spiritually.
- Learn to control negative thinking. The first step is to recognize them, the second is to change the thought to something more realistic and positive. This is about changing a bad habit, and the more you practice it, the more your brain will respond.
- Work on your emotional intelligence. Understanding the power of your emotions and knowing how to master them is part of being human; every single person has this journey to make but not every person does so successfully. Spend time reading about ways to improve your emotional intelligence and to integrate this learning into your daily life. Emotional competence will help keep your brain younger because you will be more creative, make decisions more accurately for any situation, and implement your solutions to problems in effective ways instead of chewing up your energies with negative and fruitless actions. The better you get at mastering your own emotions, the better you'll become at enabling constructive emotions in others as well, thereby making more fruitful connections in your life.^[23]
- Find a more agreeable past to live with. You may have had terrible things happen to you in the past but if your attitude to those things is one of having learned lessons from them and finding new pathways forward, you are more likely to have a brain ready to make the most of life than if your attitude is one of seeking revenge, blaming, and never being able to leave the shame and hardship of a past long gone. While you cannot change the past, you can change your attitude toward it. In reinterpreting events that brought you shame, guilt, humiliation, sadness, and fear, you gain control over your past so that you can let go of it and move forward.^[24] This helps to decrease your brain age by removing useless, energy-sapping negative drivers from your thinking and replacing them with healthier, forward-looking, self-forgiving ones that energize you.
Whatever you're doing, find the joy in it
Love what you're doing. People who love what they're doing in life tend to experience a greater sense of purpose and happiness. This doesn't always mean you're in your dream job, activity, or even relationship; it's about attitude again, about finding the things to be grateful for in the life you're leading and the things you're doing and about being realistic, organized, and effective. Ensure that there is plenty of variety in what you do; mix up work tasks every day and pursue plenty of other activities to add playfulness, interest, and fun into your life.
- Don't neglect your spiritual self. Whatever your beliefs or lack of them, nurturing your spiritual self or connecting to the awe and wonder of life (the 'peak experience') is an important aspect of keeping your brain young.^[25] In fact, our brains are wired for spiritual experiences, those times when we take a holistic approach to our place in the world and seek complete well-being and a sense of purpose.^[26] Through prayer, meditation, reflection, taking time out, or whatever it is that you do to focus on your spiritual self, you give your brain the space to make connections and to seek 'the flow' of life in which heart, mind, and body all work as one. In addition, nurturing your spiritual self increases your compassion for both yourself and for others, allowing you to connect better and thereby enhance your brain functioning.^[27]
Choose colors that boost the brain.
Choose colors that boost the brain. Some colors have quite positive effects on the way we think. One exceptionally good color for us is purple (and shades of violet and lavender) because this color is thought to improve our ability to think and achieve.^[28] Purple is associated with memory, imagination, creativity, wisdom, and strategic problem-solving, so adding more of this color into your life can help focus your brain.^[29] Use purple paint for the walls in your study at home, use purple background behind inspirational messages in picture frames, wear purple clothes or accessories, have a purple diary/notepad/mousepad, etc. on your desk, have a purple cell phone, put purple furniture in your thinking zones in the home (study, reflection corner), and maybe even a purple visualization board to help you decide the most important things in your life.
- You could hang a map of the world inside a purple frame and stick purple stick-pins into the places around the world where you'd like to visit or revisit.
Be a social butterfly and build social support networks.
Be a social butterfly and build social support networks. A lonely brain tends to age faster and while you don't need to be the life and soul of the party, you do need the lift that regular connection with other people can provide you. However, there is a catch to this – don't hang around only with people of your own age group, especially not if you're older. People tend to think similarly to those they spend time with and 'feeling old' is catching; older people tend to prefer to be around people they're most familiar with while younger people tend to enjoy meeting new people and getting to know a wider variety of people.^[30] If you're going to keep your brain younger, think young by mixing up your social contacts and spending time with people in all age groups, and keep your finger on the pulse of what every generation is switched on by.

Testing your brain age

Test time!
Test your brain age. This section is provided for a bit of fun; it's definitely not intended to replace proper tests with your doctor if you really do have concerns about how your brain is aging. What this section will do is give you a very basic idea of how your brain is coping with reaction time, balance, and memory. As we age, a loss of balance, a slowing in reaction time, and memory loss can reduce our quality of life. The tests are merely an indicator and much can be done to improve your responses through exercise, good nutrition, and practice, as outlined above; talk to your doctor for more information relevant to your needs. The tests are fairly simple and are based on those provided by Tim Bean and Anne Laing in Turn Back Your Age Clock, as follows:^[31]
- Balance test: Stand up. Raise one leg to the front with your knee bent at a right angle and hold your arms out to the sides. Close your eyes and see how long you can hold this position for. Be aware that the older you rate in this test, the higher the likelihood of falling over, so either have someone to help you or have a soft place to land. Here is how you rate (time passed before having to return leg to floor):
  - Over 30 seconds = age 20; 20-30 seconds = age 30; 15-20 seconds = age 40; 10-15 seconds = age 50; less than 10 seconds = age 60.
- Reaction speed test. You need someone else with this one. Ask the other person to hold a 30cm/12' ruler in front of you. Place your open hand under the ruler and have your tester drop the ruler without letting you know. Catch it when you can. Here is how you rate (distance passed when caught):
  - Less than 10cm/4' = age 20; 15cm/6' = age 25; 20cm/8' = age 30; 25cm/10' = age 35; 30cm/12' or miss = age 40 and over.
- Write out a list of 6 different lines. Have someone else place 2 mixed up letters (and/or symbols) on line one, 4 on line two, 6 on line 3, 8 on line 4, 10 on line 5, and 12 on line 6. Read them out in turn, then cover that line up. Now write down what you have remembered next to the covered up line until you've done each line. Calculate the result you remembered correctly as a percentage, add up the percentage and divide by a total of 6 to get an average. Here is how you rate (by percentage correct):
  - 100% = age 20; 90% = age 30; 80% = age 40; 70% = age 50; 60% = age 60; 50% = age 70; 40% = age 80; 30% and under = age 90.

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Edit Tips

Reduce your TV time. TV is energy sapping and is a source of 'doing the thinking'. Do things that are more interactive and require brain input and keep TV viewing to as an occasional treat.
Unless you have a specific disease that kills brain nerve cells, your neurons remain vibrant and healthy until the day you die.^[32]
The younger you start caring about your future brain, the greater your chances of keeping it younger for much longer. All the same, the sooner you start looking after it whatever your age, the better.
When undertaking mental workouts, be sure to focus and concentrate properly. You won't get benefits from simply going through the motions – you must really throw yourself into doing the mental workout activities with full attention.^[33]
This article has not covered medical drugs that have the potential to stop the aging of your brain. This is something you could research more about, or speak to your doctor about, but it's a very specialized area and often pertains to specific aging diseases, so don't expect miracles.

Edit Warnings

Multi-tasking reduces your brain's effectiveness and can cause you stress.^[34] Avoid multi-tasking in favor of completing single tasks with greater focus.
Avoid falling into a belief that you stop learning when you leave school or college. A healthy brain never stops learning and learning keeps it young.
Alcohol, too much sugar, and salt can damage the health of both brain and body; use in moderation. Drinking alcohol can lead to brain shrinkage, even with moderate amounts.^[35]
Some over-the-counter drugs have been found to contribute to memory loss, such as those used for allergies, motion sickness, insomnia, and incontinence.^[36]
Get help for addictions, depression, and any mental illness or disorder that you're suffering from. The worst thing you can do is to stubbornly try to mend yourself alone; seek support networks to get well again and to find your place in the world. A brain that struggles to overcome great hardships alone will age much faster and the confusion, pain, and despair that you'll experience will make it much harder for you to find a sense of well-being and fulfillment.

Edit Things You'll Need

Learning materials
Exercise gear (where relevant)
Healthy meals and snacks
Water
Stimulating activities
Journal, notepad, diary, etc., for inspirational lists, for learning more about yourself, for working out problems, etc.
Friends, support people, networks of connection