Tips for a healthy brain
Your brain is very important. Not just for thinking, learning and remembering. How do you keep your brain healthy? Brain experts Erik Scherder and Dick Swaab provide useful advice for a brain in top condition.
1. Walk every day
Erik Scherder: “Seven days a week, brisk walking for half an hour is good for your body and for your brain. This is because the activity of the hippocampus, a brain region, increases with more exercise. This area plays an important role in learning and memory, among other things. Walking every day improves your memory. Your ability to plan and to focus your attention on something new also increases. This ultimately means that you can continue to function independently for longer.”
2. Avoid damage, for example by alcohol
Dick Swaab: “Whether your brain continues to function well at a later age is 50 percent genetically determined. So you can do something about it during your life. Make sure you suffer as little brain damage as possible. Alcohol is bad for your brain. One glass a day is already harmful, the other can drink five glasses before it has an effect. Damage can also occur when you receive blows to your head, for example in traffic accidents, boxing, by heading in football and by elbow bumps to your head. Also remember: what is bad for your blood vessels is also bad for your brain. So get treatment if you have high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes.”
3. Challenge yourself
“Take the train, go to a concert, visit a museum in another city. You need that kind of stimulus to keep your brain young. It's okay if you find something difficult, that's how you challenge your brain. You become sharp and alert when you "excite" yourself in this way. Your brain will function better and you can process new information faster. That in turn is good for your ability to solve problems. Handy if, for example, you are going to learn the Thai language, with all the difficulties that entails,” says Erik Scherder.
4. Learn to dance
“Learning and doing new things at an older age can delay the onset of Alzheimer's by about three to four years. What you do must demand something from your brain. Playing the same kind of computer games every day doesn't help. Playing chess every day helps, because chess always raises new questions. Doing something that combines thinking and moving, such as learning a new dance, seems to work even better. Elderly people who learned to dance over several weeks subsequently scored better on psychological tests than those who did not. We just don't know yet whether it can prevent dementia in the longer term," says Dick Swaab.
5. Chew well
Erik Scherder: “Chewing your food properly has healthy side effects: your heart beats faster and your brain gets better blood flow. In fact, while you eat, you are walking a bit, as it were, with all the benefits that entails. Research shows that blood flow improves in one of the major blood vessels in the brain in particular. 70 percent of cerebral infarctions occur in the vicinity of that blood vessel. Chewing therefore seems strongly recommended for older people with an unhealthy vascular system, although it has not yet been proven that it really prevents a cerebral infarction. Keep chewing is therefore important, even if liquid food seems easier. Do not cut the crusts off the bread and cook vegetables briefly.”
Erik Scherder is professor of neuropsychology at VU Amsterdam. An enthusiastic teacher who has won the Teaching Prize several times, an annual prize for teachers who are strongly committed to improving education.
Dick Swaab is an international brain researcher. He was professor of neurobiology at the University of Amsterdam and director of the Brain Institute for thirty years. He still leads a research group there.
Source: Gezondheidsnet.nl
About this blogger
-
Known as Khun Peter (62), lives alternately in Apeldoorn and Pattaya. In a relationship with Kanchana for 14 years. Not yet retired, have my own company, something with insurance. Crazy about animals, especially dogs and music.
Enough hobbies, but unfortunately little time: writing for Thailandblog, fitness, health and nutrition, shooting sports, chatting with friends and some other oddities.
Read the latest articles here
EconomyJanuary 15 2025Thailand to reach highest investment level in a decade in 2024
ResearchJanuary 15 2025Research shows: Dutch people prefer to save on health than on vacation
News from ThailandJanuary 15 2025Thailand makes visa program more attractive for international experts
News from ThailandJanuary 15 2025China bans import of durian from Thailand over banned chemicals