The brain is like any other muscle in the body that gets stronger with proper exercise and shrivels if neglected. To keep the brain functioning at its full potential, researchers say there are specific lifestyle adjustments which can be made that can benefit many important brain functions.
Memory, one of the pivotal functions the brain performs, can be enhanced by staying mentally active, eating right, and participating in some form of physical exercise on a daily basis.
Mental exercise
Working out the mind with strategies to increase memory capacity are not just for the aging, but can also be used by the younger generations for some short-term payoffs, UCLA memory researchers said.
Recent studies have found that after normal adults are thought to use these strategies for remembering, their brain activity has become more efficient according to scans, said Gary Small, professor of clinical psychiatry at UCLA.
These mental exercises can be easily remembered as the “look, snap and connect,” Small said.
The first step in remembering is to look and focus your attention on your subject, he added.
“You should never multitask since it hurts your ability to attend to information and will cause you not to remember,” Small said.
The next step, snap, involves creating a visual image of the subject matter that you are trying to remember, he added. This helps to recall and retrieve the information later.
Medical school students often use these sorts of techniques when required to memorize complex anatomy, said Linda Ercoli, director of geriatrics psychology at the UCLA Semel Institute.
“The idea is to associate them with things that you already know that have meaning for you,” Ercoli said. “This will allow the processing to happen on a more meaningful level.”
The final step is to connect, which consists of putting the newly learned information into context, Small said.
“If you just memorize facts, it will be in and out,” Small said. “You need to rehearse and repeat the information; a good way to do this in class is to take good notes in class and write summaries after.”
If strategies like this are applied to everyday life, people can bring their memory abilities up to their full potential and even prevent future degenerative conditions of the brain, Small added.
Diet
The brain is affected by everything you put into your body, including your diet.
Recent studies have found that a well-balanced diet can help ward off the appearance of all kinds of mental disorders, including those that involve memory loss like Alzheimer’s.
Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, professor of neurosurgery at UCLA, analyzed 160 studies to understand how food can impact the brain.
“The basic idea of the research is that the capacity of the brain depends on the type of life we have,” Gomez-Pinilla said. “Essentially, the simple things we do may have an important influence on the brain.”
It was discovered that omega-3 fatty acids, found in salmon, kiwi, and walnuts can improve memory abilities and prevent mental disorders as well.
Gomez-Pinilla focused also on the synapses in the brain, which connect brain cells, where it is believed learning and memory occur.
Another study found that children exposed to a diet rich with this brain vitamin, omega-3, performed better in school and had fewer behavioral problems.
Other brain enriching foods include spinach, rich with folic acid which is essential for brain function, Gomez-Pinilla said.
There are foods to stay away from that can cause damage to many systems in the brain, including memory, Gomez-Pinilla said.
Junk foods that are high in saturated fats have been shown to negatively impact the synapses of the brain, he added. Certain fruits, like blueberries, have the opposite effect since they are rich antioxidants and prevent oxidative damages which accumulate in the brain.
Healthy diets are essential not only for physical well-being, but also for the mind, Gomez-Pinilla said.
Exercise and stress
Getting your blood pumping through exercise has been linked to increased brain function and memory.
Several studies using animal models have found exercise can help increase cognitive function in animals as well as reduce the mental decay which occurs with aging, said Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, professor of neurosurgery at UCLA.
“Doing 30 minutes of running exercise a day can make a big short-term difference in memory and mental function,” Gomez-Pinilla said.
The best type of exercise is cardiovascular since it is good for the heart, hence good for the brain, said Gary Small, professor of clinical psychiatry at UCLA.
This form of exercise, like running, gets more blood flowing to the brain, he added.
However, there may be other reasons why exercise has been shown to work wonders for getting the brain in shape.
The endorphin rush which hits the body during exercise may also be a brain-strengthening mechanism.
Other findings suggest that high amounts of stress, which release the stress hormone, cortisol, in to the body can interfere with memory production and storage, Small said.
In terms of test taking and study habits, Small said that cramming is one of the worst methods, especially due to the elevated levels of stress in addition to lack of sleep.
Small added that many students can get by fine cramming, partying on the weekends, and getting little or no sleep because the teenage years up to the early 20s are the prime time for learning and brain power.
But, cramming may work now, but it won’t a few years down the line, Small said.
So the time is now to start taking care of your memory, Small added.