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The brain is often described as the control panel of the body, so it is important to look after your brain and utilize all the natural abilities it has to offer.
As we get older, it is natural for us to feel aches and pains across our body, from a sore back to creaking knees when we stand up. But it is also common for our brain to slow down if we aren’t making the most of what our brain has a to offer.
However, there are ways in which you can boost your brain’s natural abilities and we have put this checklist together to give you an idea!
- Exercise
Regular exercise is essential for your overall health and wellbeing, and physical activity is just as beneficial to your brain as it is to the rest of your body.
By getting your heart rate going, you can develop and protect how your brain works and boost its different thinking and memory skills. For example, aerobics is well-known for boosting the hippocampus, which is the part of your brain that encodes your short term and verbal memory that helps you to learn.
Exercising makes your heart pump faster and increases the blood flow around your body, which means that more oxygen is being pumped to your brain. This can cause the release of hormones that can promote the growth of additional brain cells.
- Vitamin D
Getting out in the sun doesn’t just make you feel better; it also plays an essential role in the overall health of your brain as it protects neurons and can even fix those that are damaged and get them back to working order. Studies have found a link between an increased risk of getting dementia amongst those with a vitamin D deficiency.
However, in the winter months, or if you live in a cold country, then you may struggle to get regular access to the sun, so you can look at including foods in your diet that are high in vitamin D, such as fatty fish like mackerel and salmon.
There are many different supplements available that claim to help your brain’s natural abilities, but this blog post can help you find out what’s real and what isn’t.
- Getting Enough Sleep
Not getting enough rest can be catastrophic to our brain’s health and can instead damage our brain’s natural abilities. While you sleep, your brain is still active as it is resetting itself and all the different processes that it uses throughout the day, such as memory retention, learning and decision making. Innovative research has found that power naps are a great way to boost your brain power and correcting the negative effects of not getting enough sleep.
- Don’t Stress
Suffering from stress can be very damaging to your body and overall health, as it causes your body to go into survival mode and your brain starts to produce more cortisol and adrenaline.
Usually if this happens when you are stressed, then once you calm down again, your body will start to rest. But if you are suffering from stress regularly over a long period, then it may start to have serious consequences on your nervous system.
Just like you try to protect the other parts of your body, it is important that you make positive changes to your lifestyle so that you boost your brain’s natural abilities wherever possible.
