Keeping your brain healthy should be on everyone’s mind.
From Alzheimer’s prevention to reducing the symptoms of ADHD, keeping your brain healthy is as important as it is simple. Maintaining the physical health of your brain will not only benefit you now, but it will also let you enjoy clear thinking later in life.
Simple tips to take care of your brain.
Let’s face it, physical health doesn’t mean a thing if your brain is in no condition to enjoy it. Below are a few tips to help you optimize your brain power, stabilize your moods, and enjoy a happy, healthy mind for years to come.
- Put your mind to work. Nothing ensures the health of your brain like exercising it! By keeping yourself mentally challenged and stimulated, you keep your neurons in top shape. Challenging yourself can be as involved as teaching yourself a new skill or as easy as doing a crossword puzzle every day. As the old saying goes, “Use it or lose it!”
- Keep in touch! Maintaining a strong social network is closely related to brain health. Studies show that people with the strongest social networks have significantly lower rates of brain disorders and mood disorders. Nothing keeps us as delightfully challenged as interacting with other people, so keep in touch with friends and family for your brain.
- Stay healthy. Maintaining proper circulation is extremely important to keep all your neurons firing. By getting regular exercise, we ensure that the body is working well enough to take care of all of its organs, including the brain. When we exercise, the increase in circulation can rejuvenate the brain, giving it a fresh supply of blood and elevating our mood. So keep your heart healthy and your brain will benefit too!
- Eat right. Studies have shown that proper nutrition can affect how the brain functions. By maintaining a balanced diet, you ensure that your brain gets all the energy it needs while not clogging it up with cholesterol and fat. A diet rich in fruits and vegetables can provide it with an ample supply of antioxidants, protecting it from gradual decay due to free radicals.
- Take your omega-3 fish oil. No single nutrient has been more extensively studied for its effect on the brain than omega-3. And why not? DHA, an omega-3 fat, is the most prevalent fat found in the brain. From reducing the symptoms of ADHD in children to maintaining proper circulation throughout the body, omega-3 supplementation should be in everyone’s daily routine. In fact, a recent study at UCLA found that a steady supply of DHA in the brain helped prevent Alzheimer’s disease. Click here to learn more about the best omega-3 supplement for your brain.
The experts agree that omega-3 fish oil is critical to a mind.
Doctors, scientists, authors, leading universities, and others are all unanimous in their support for omega-3 fish oil. Here is a sampling of what they have to say:
“Individuals of any age without adequate amounts of omega-3 fatty acids in the brain and body may also be at higher risk for depression, bipolar disorder, and possibly other psychiatric disorders.”
- Andrew L. Stoll MD, Author of The Omega-3 Connection
"After years of clinical observation and direct testing, I have found that almost all my patients with mood and emotional disorders have an Omega-3 deficiency. We work together on a range of natural and pharmaceutical solutions and complement that therapy with a high quality Omega-3 supplement, with remarkable results. I have no hesitation in recommending high quality, high purity, high concentration omega-3 supplements."
- Hyla Cass, M.D., Author of 8 Weeks to Vibrant Health
"The brains of Alzheimer disease patients have a lower content of [omega-3] DHA in the grey matter of the frontal lobe and hippocampus than do the brains of persons without Alzheimer's disease. The entrance of [omega-3] DHA into the brain could correct DHA deficiency in membrane phospholipids in the cerebral cortex in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, and [omega-3] EPA would counter the pro-inflammatory action of [omega-6] arachidonic acid, which is a precursor of cytokine and pro-inflammatory eicosanoids that may be associated with greater cognitive decline."
- William E. and Sonja Connor, MD, MS, RD
“Fatty acid deprivation works against optimal brain power. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is a long-chain fatty acid found in fish, egg yolks, and marine algae, and is the predominant omega-3 fatty acid in brain tissue. As the brain is dependent on dietary fatty acids, reductions in DHA content of the diet may contribute to degenerative changes in the nervous system.”
- Burton Goldberg, Author of Alternative Medicine
“DHA is not only very critical in brain development but also in maintenance of the brain later in life. Don't forget, the brain is constantly restructured throughout life, even into the extremes of age. Unfortunately, because of food-processing methods and industrial raising of animals as meat sources, most omega-3 fatty acids have been removed from our foods.”
- Russell Blaylock, MD, Author of Health and Nutrition Secrets
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