Brain Health: The Intro

 How healthy is your brain?

As the saying goes, "If you don't use it, you lose it". We all get caught up in the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives. A lot of us spend hours a day sitting in front of a laptop screen, attending meetings, answering emails and phone calls, and at the end of the day we navigate ourselves home while fuming through traffic. Perhaps you keep yourself healthy by dieting, going to the gym and even fasting throughout the day. But how sure are you that you are keeping your brain healthy? 

As we age our brain undergoes numerous changes on a cellular and systemic level. Oxidative stress, synaptic pruning and neuroinflammation increases with age. However, vital natural processes such as autophagy and neural dedifferentiation decreases with age. Furthermore, studies have shown that there are pathological cardiovascular alterations and changes in the volume of white matter microstructures in various regions of the brain. These various changes that occur naturally with age are associated with a decline in cognitive functions including memory, visuospatial functions and information processing speed. 

But just because research has shown that these neurological changes occur naturally with age, it doesn't mean that we cannot do anything to delay the onset of these neurological alterations. So how do we ensure that our brain is healthy even as we age? It all comes down to six factors that we can control in our lives. These factors are:

• Nutrition🍏
• Water intake 💧
• Quality and Quantity of Sleep 😴
• Regular Exercise- including "green exercise"💪
• Mindset and Attitude 😇
• Socialization 💃

The six factors will be discussed in detail in our blog posts to follow. 

Didn't understand some of the terminology? Don't worry, let's simplify some terminology:

• Oxidative stress

A harmful process leading to the damages in cellular structures

• Synaptic Pruning 

A process involving the removal of synapses that are not used

• Neuro-inflammation

Inflammation that occurs within the nervous system 

• Neural dedifferentiation

The phenomenon where there is reduced localized function and greater activation over wider cortical areas during cognitive processes

• Pathological Cardiovascular Alterations

Changes in blood flow including to areas of the brain. Since cardiovascular health and metabolic health are interrelated, cardiovascular alterations are associated with hypertension and obesity and increased risk of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia.