I<\/span>magine this: You are attending a holiday party hosted by your neighbor. You see a woman across the room smiling at you and quickly moving in your direction. You know that you know this woman. You recognize her face instantly and even remember talking to her about her new grandchild during another gathering. You can\u2019t remember her name.<\/p>\n The closer she gets, the more you panic. She reaches you and greets you warmly by name. You cringe inside, say hello without using her name, and make it through the conversation.<\/p>\n Unhelpfully, a few hours later, you recall her name. You promise yourself that you\u2019ll remember it next time. Sound familiar? It should! Difficulty retrieving or accessing names is common as we age. We may also find that we misplace items or walk into a room and forget what we went in for more frequently.<\/p>\n Normal aging is accompanied by predictable changes in the structure and function of our brains that result in predictable changes in memory and other aspects of thinking. These changes are different from the changes that occur in brain diseases associated with aging, such as Alzheimer\u2019s. Still, it isn\u2019t unusual to worry that these changes might signal the beginning of a brain disease.<\/p>\n In fact, most adults over age 60 worry about the health of their brains. So, what can we do to keep our brains healthy?<\/p>\n It turns out that how we live our lives and lifestyles contribute significantly to how healthy our brain remains as we age. Over the past two decades, a wealth of science on brain health and lifestyle has accumulated, paving the road we can follow to keep our brains healthy as we age.<\/p>\n Lifestyle factors like exercise and diet can impact the health of our brains. Engagement in cognitively and socially stimulating activities also keeps our brain aging successfully. And last, even our attitudes about aging can influence how well our brain ages.<\/p>\n So, let\u2019s dig into the specifics so we can consider where we can make changes in our own life to help keep our brains young!<\/p>\n If there were a single magic bullet to improve the health of our brain, it would be exercise. Numerous research studies over the past two decades have shown us that regular exercise is critical to maintaining a healthy brain as we age, particularly aerobic exercise that gets our hearts beating faster and makes us sweat a little.<\/p>\n Exercising 20 to 30 minutes a day, five or more times a week is associated with better memory and thinking as we age and decreased risk of developing dementia. Research has shown us that regular exercise can increase the size of the brain\u2019s memory center, called the hippocampus, by as much as 2% over one year. That\u2019s equal to a 1 to 2-year reversal of age-related decline!<\/p>\n Exercise also indirectly benefits our brain by reducing risk factors, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and obesity, that increase our risk of having a stroke.<\/p>\n While aerobic exercise seems to have the strongest relationship to brain health, weight lifting, and stretching benefit our physical health and contribute to brain health by reducing fall risk and frailty, allowing us to remain active and independent as we age.<\/p>\n Diet is another crucial factor contributing to the health of our brain. Sometimes we hear news stories claiming that one food is the fountain of youth for brain health. Turns out, there really is no single \u201csuperfood\u201d for brain health, but rather a combination of healthy foods and a generally good diet supports the health of our brain.<\/p>\n We like to say, \u201cWhat\u2019s good for the body is good for the brain.\u201d<\/p>\n The Mediterranean diet, named after the food cultures of countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea (think Italy, Greece, and Spain), is the most well-studied diet showing consistent brain benefits. The diet emphasizes eating fruits, whole grains, beans, and vegetables at every meal, with fish appearing at least twice a week.<\/p>\n Consumption of saturated fats and trans fats, found in butter, red meat, cheese, and processed foods, are discouraged, while consumption of \u201cgood fats,\u201d like those found in olive oil, avocado, and nuts, is encouraged. The Mediterranean diet is also often thought of as a way of life due to its emphasis not just on food but on eating as a social activity to be enjoyed with friends and family.<\/p>\n Speaking of friends and family, though most people agree that social relationships are important throughout life, many people don\u2019t appreciate just how important remaining socially active can be for the health of our brain. Staying socially active has been shown to be a protective factor against cognitive decline.<\/p>\n Scientists have found that frequent contact with friends and family reduces the risk of dementia, and, on the flip side, having poor or limited social connections and being isolated and lonely increases the risk of cognitive decline and dementia.<\/p>\n Sometimes aging can bring with it increased threats to our social circles. Some of our friends and family members may pass on or move away to older adult communities, warmer climates, or smaller dwellings.<\/p>\n Retirement may bring with it the loss of daily contact with colleagues that once served as an essential source of social support. As we age, we must continue to find ways to remain social.<\/p>\n Being proactive about scheduling time with family and friends should be a priority. Maybe some of that time can include exercising and eating healthy meals, getting the most bang for your proverbial buck!<\/p>\n Volunteering or engaging with community organizations can be additional ways to increase social activity while adding meaning and purpose to your life. Research also links strong meaning and purpose in life to better cognitive health and lower risk of dementia.<\/p>\n Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. This quote by Winston Churchhill captures a large body of research showing us that how we think about aging can impact how we behave and age.<\/p>\n A number of studies have been done in laboratory settings that have shown us that even brief exposure to negative attitudes about aging can impact the way older adults perform on memory tests.<\/p>\n In these studies, older adults are brought into a laboratory and given tests of memory and thinking. Then they are randomly separated into two groups. One group sees negative words about aging, like \u201cdecrepit and senile.\u201d<\/p>\n The other group sees positive words about aging, like \u201cwise and accomplished.\u201dThen they all repeat the same tests of memory and thinking.<\/p>\n Over and over again, these studies show that the group of older adults shown negative words do worse on tests of memory and thinking compared to the group shown positive words. Just seeing words that reflect negative age stereotypes briefly changes how older adults perform.<\/p>\n These results translate to real-world studies where older adults followed over time show more decline in memory and thinking if they have negative attitudes about aging, such as believing all older adults are frail or forgetful.<\/p>\n One study showed that older adults followed over time had a 30% more decline in memory and thinking if they held negative views of aging compared to those with positive views.<\/p>\n Good news for us: attitudes can be changed! Create a mental catalog of successful agers by looking around and finding examples of older adults aging well.<\/p>\n Laugh at the birthday card poking fun at getting older, but consciously remind yourself that it is just a joke and doesn\u2019t represent reality! Be bold and buck the stereotype!<\/p>\n As we move forward, to help our brain age successfully, we want to engage in regular exercise, eat a healthy diet more often than not, stay connected to our friends and family, make an effort to make new friends, find enjoyable and meaningful activities, and challenge aging stereotypes.<\/p>\n Last, if you are really worried about your memory and thinking, you should talk to your doctor about your concerns. Many older adults worried about memory never bring it up to their treating providers.\nThere\u2019s no time like the present to start caring for your aging brain!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tips on how to help our brain age successfully<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[176,177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2023","category-fall-2023-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14080"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14466,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14080\/revisions\/14466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Exercise Might Be A Magic Bullet<\/h3>\n
The Importance of Diet and the Healthy Brain<\/h3>\n
Social Activity and Its Effect on the Brain<\/h3>\n
The Importance of a Positive Attitude<\/h3>\n
Dr. Andrew Budson and Maureen O’Connor are the authors of Seven Steps to Managing Your Aging Memory.<\/em><\/a><\/h5>\n
Andrew Budson, MD,<\/a> majored in chemistry and philosophy at Haverford College before receiving his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Budson is Chief of Cognitive & Behavioral Neurology at the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, Professor of Neurology at Boston University, and Lecturer in Neurology at Harvard Medical School. His career combines education, research, and clinical care to help those with memory disorders.<\/h5>\n
Maureen O\u2019Connor, PsyD,<\/a> received her doctorate in psychology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and completed her predoctoral internship at Yale University School of Medicine. In 2005, after completing her postdoctoral residency at the Bedford Veterans Affairs Hospital\/Boston University School of Medicine, she accepted an appointment at the Bedford VA as Director of Neuropsychology, where she established the Memory Diagnostic Clinic to evaluate and treat Veterans with memory loss and provide support to their families. In 2019 she was appointed the Director of the Research Education Component at the Boston University Alzheimer\u2019s Disease Research Center.<\/h5>\n