Everyday we are exposed to stress, anxiety and nervousness, which is unhealthy and can lead to mental disorders, which sometimes end up requiring medical intervention. That’s why it is important to keep your brain healthy, so you can keep your body healthy as well.
Once we hit our late twenties, the brain’s ageing process begins and we begin losing neurons — the cells that make up the brain and nervous system. By our sixties, our brains have started to shrink. Though these brain changes may sound a bit scary, the process is natural and it happens to everyone.
Even the healthiest among us cannot stop our brains from changing with time, as some claims that not every ulcer can be attributed to a difficult, stressful life. There are more specific causes for manifestation of certain disease. That is, a particular disease is the result of any personality trait, behaviour and perception of reality.
Looking to that for instance, people who have the hallmark of constant nervousness often complained of gastrointestinal diseases and the sad individual often suffer from kidney disease, sadly often frustration and failure affects the kidneys stronger than low body temperature!?
Fortunately, it’s not too late to switch to a healthier lifestyle. You don’t need to start implementing new expensive brain training programmes as well — although they can be helpful — much of what you need to do well to enjoy good brain health are simple things you can easily do in your daily life to reduce your risk of developing, for instance dementia.
Here, it seems the benefit of enhanced thinking and memory, are associated with meditation. The practice of which can also help you better control your emotions. This ability to regulate emotions may help people suffering from depression and anxiety disorders and stress-related conditions, including those related to the gastrointestinal tract.
Moreover, certain behaviours can help your brain stay as sharp as possible, for example, regular aerobic exercise in addition to walking or cycling for 30 minutes a day reduces brain cell loss. Also, studies show that mentally stimulating activities may help reverse cognitive decline and this can be by reading, writing and work on crosswords... it all counts.
Building relationship with friends and loved ones is very critical, the social interaction requires you to engage brain regions involved in memory and attention, the same mental processes used in many cognitive tasks.
No one can argue that you want stronger mind and powerful brain, but determining your health is the quality of the decisions that you make everyday. It is important to remember that Alzheimer’s disease starts decades before you have any symptoms. If we search beyond that you will find that the risk factors like diabetes, hypertension, obesity, smoking, alcohol abuse and chronic stress affect your brain and led to such illness.
The important thing in our life is judging our mind in maintaining our health. Whatever our brain cares about, immediately affect our body. Take steps to get to know the state of your mind, and then you can begin to maximize its potential and avoid the cognitive decline that comes in our later years.
At the end, Brain health and your general health activities no matter what your age, the choices you make today can help you get a healthier brain tomorrow.
Dr Yousuf Ali al Mulla, MD, Ministry of Health, is a medical innovator and educator. For any queries regarding the content of the column he can be contacted at: dryusufalmulla@gmail.com
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