Save Your Brain: The 5 Things You Must Do to Keep Your Mind Young and Sharp_7

74 Save Your Brain of the human brain. We also know that the human brain is 60 percent fat; indeed the brain is the fattest part of the body. It is believed that the lipid, or fatty, substance of the brain helps to insulate neural tracts, propelling information in a rapid and efficient manner. A brain that loses fat evinces slowed informa-tion processing, a maladaptive reality. In recognition of this fact and our better understanding of the role of “free radicals” that originate as cellular breakdown with oxygen serving as a major catalyst, we can propose specific foods that supplement omega-3 fatty acids (good fat for the brain) and antioxidants that combat free radicals. In Chapter 9, a registered dietician discusses specific foods you can eat to get these healthy fats and other brain health foods. Engaging with All of the Critical Areas of Brain Health Your brain reacts favorably to enriched environments that pro-mote the novel and complex, and that life provides us teachings about our brain every day. This includes growth of new brain cells and an increase in your brain reserve. Now that you’ve taken the time to review your current lifestyle and have taken the brain health inventory in the Introduction, you should be empowered by your newfound knowledge about yourself and your brain. Armed with an honest assessment of your current The Five Critical Areas of Brain Health 75 brain health lifestyle, you are ready to learn specific activities to promote brain health through the five critical areas of a healthy brain lifestyle. As you read the following chapters, it is important that you think about why such activities promote brain health and whether you have these activities in your current lifestyle. Most important, think about what you will need to change in your current lifestyle to include these activities in your daily life. Now let’s move ahead and take a more detailed look at each of the five areas that are critical to maximizing your brain health. This page intentionally left blank 5 Critical Area 1: A social brain has a higher potential to be a healthy brain. 7 esearch teaches us that humans who isolate or segregate have a higher risk of dementia than those who remain integrated in society. A brain that does not receive social inter-action becomes passive, and it is the complex and novel (and being with other people is likely to provide this) that is needed for development of brain reserve. When you engage in the novel and complex, you are stimulating your cortex, the con-scious information-processing part of your brain, and you will promote the development of brain reserve. However, when you engage in behaviors that are passive and rote, you will use your subcortex, the part of the brain that helps you with procedures and subconscious action. This is not the pathway to develop-ment of brain reserve. This is a fascinating and robust fi nd-ing that supports the importance of remaining involved and integrated in society and engaging in social interaction with 77 78 Save Your Brain others. It also underscores issues of personal meaning, role, and purpose and goes to the fundamental questions of why we are on the planet and what is our purpose. The Health Risk of Retirement Earlier on, I mentioned that dementia refers to loss of gen-eral intelligence, memory deficit, loss of other thinking abili-ties, personality change, and functional decline. Socialization is key to ward off precipitant mental aging. There are nearly one hundred causes of dementia, and Alzheimer’s is the leading cause in the United States. Socialization’s link to brain health might be explained by the opportunity for communication, critical thought, creativity, and emotional expression, including intimacy, chemical connection, touch, expression of role and purpose, and recreation that arises when two or more humans interact. Personal meaning and identity might also be a result of interpersonal activity or the dedication to an entity or mis-sion “larger than oneself.” When we interact with others on a consistent basis, we create opportunities to learn from them. Kofi Annan, former secretary general of the United Nations, said that the elders in his village were considered “libraries,” and that when an older person died, the village lost a library. If we think of others as libraries filled with information, it makes sense to interact with as many people as we can to better our- ... - tailieumienphi.vn