Memory is a gift. You must treat your brain right so that it will be in a great working condition even when you are 70. With age, we humans experience a gradual decrease in the ability to think and remember. Imagine you wake up one morning and can’t remember or recall anything that had happened the previous day.
Here are some things that can be helpful in preventing brain ageing and preserving it for good.
Do Brain Exercises
We are not so good as we are when we are young to register new information with clear, strong signals. It becomes difficult to memorise and retain information. Brain exercises such as solving a Sudoku, crossword puzzles and others that require intense concentration skills can benefit the brain. A National Institutes of Health study had found evidence of brain exercises to preserve memory.
Walk a Mile Daily
Regular exercise such as walking has been tied to lowering the risk of dementia substantially. Steady walk for a mile or two on a daily basis puts our brains in a neuroplastic state. You don’t need a high intensity exercise to reach such a level of optimum brain health, walking two miles or cycling 5 miles (five days a week) is enough to help your brain.
Learn Something New
An ageing brain requires something to work it out and enhance its ability. You may learn a new dance form, language or a musical instrument! These activities engage a part of the brain called the nucleus basalis, which is responsible for attention and consolidation of ideas in the brain. Practise any of these for an hour daily with focused concentration.
Pay Attention to your Own Voice
Just listening to your own voice with attention can charge you up. You may have noticed that sometimes, you get charged up just listening to the sound of someone delivering a lecture, while at others someone's voice may drain all your energy and put you to sleep.
Meditate
A team of researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles and Center for Research on Ageing Health and Wellbeing, Australian National University examined the effect of meditation on ageing of gray matter present in the brain. They found that taking the aid of meditation may be very helpful in preventing brain ageing.
Rest Well
Getting the rest your body needs is another important aspect of maintaining brain health. A study at the US University of Rochester found that during sleep, brain cells called glia open up special channels that allow waste products and toxic build-up in the brain – including the same proteins that build up in dementia – to be eliminated. Moreover, newly formed connections become consolidated and made more durable when we sleep.
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