Improve Your Memory and Prevent Memory Loss

Here you’ll find how to improve your memory and prevent memory loss. In the articles below, you’ll learn what foods contribute to a better memory, what activities you should do daily, and the things you should avoid.

Two Magic Words for Overcoming Absentmindedness and Forgetfulness

by Joi

Overcome forgetfulness and absentmindedness Have you had a problem with absentmindedness or forgetfulness lately? Maybe you find yourself searching through your thoughts more often than you do your sock drawer! Before we determine if you need a little mental “touch up,” ask yourself the following questions:

  • Have you had a recent loss, such as the loss of a loved one (which of course includes pets)?  Periods of grief affect our minds to a great extent. Our entire body is in the process of addressing the tragedy at hand when we’re grieving. Our minds have little time left for sifting through details.  During the months following a great loss, it’s natural to have trouble remembering things – from where you set your cellphone to what your friend’s phone number is.  Give yourself time to process the loss and relax.  Everything will eventually get back to normal.
  • Have you been ill? Illnesses, and the stress that goes with them, will mess with your mind and thought processes.
  • Is it around the holidays? When we get busy with Thanksgiving and/or Christmas menu planning, shopping, decorating, and so on, it’s natural for some things to get away from us.
  • Have you been under stress lately? Stress can make it difficult to think clearly.
  • Have you been losing sleep? A lack of sleep (like stress) messes with your mind.
  • Are you taking any new medications?

If any of the above situations apply to you, take heart. Normal is just around the corner. Take a deep breath and try not to add any stress to what’s already on your plate.

If these situations DO NOT apply to you, don’t hit the panic button just yet. In fact, your personal memory monster may be easier to slay!  You may need to arm yourself with a mere two words: Pay Attention.

We live in a very, very, very fast-paced society.  We’re often, literally, headed in two different directions at once.  If we’re PHYSICALLY this active, can you imagine the extra strain on our minds, just trying to keep up?  Somewhere along the way, someone placed a particular word on the mantel and gave it godlike status.  The word is “Multitask” and it, honestly doesn’t deserve the fame.

When we try to multitask, we’re basically splitting our mind in half.  We tell the halves, “YOU go this way and YOU go that way. Divide and conquer!”

Does that not leave us operating as halfwits?!  And we wonder why we forget things or lose our train of thought.  Isn’t that what halfwits do?  Obviously, we have to find a way to stop multitasking, start really living in the moment, and start paying attention to everything and everyone around us. I’m possibly the world’s biggest advocate of “In the Moment Living.” Just look at the words I’ve always used in my signature on this particular blog:  “Make each moment count double.”  I’ve been signing off and leading my life with these words for years.  My primary infatuation with the words was this: Life is too precious not to slow down and bear hug even a tiny moment.  After a while, I realized that this approach is as important to our health as it is to our happiness.  What’s more, it’s as vital to our brain’s MOOD as it is to its MODE.

The person who regularly multitasks is just begging for absentmindedness and forgetfulness.

Think about this scenario:  If I’m in the kitchen, baking my world-famous (well, they’re famous in my house anyway) buttermilk biscuits, which of the following will yield the tastiest biscuits:

  1. I stay in the kitchen, ever-mindful of the timer. I check on the biscuits a few minutes before the timer goes off.
  2. I try to squeeze everything I can out of the time by putting in a load of laundry, checking the mail, and feeding my cats.

Obviously, number 1 will lead to buttermilk biscuits that beg to be eaten.  Number 2 would lead to buttermilk biscuits that beg to be thrown out to the birds.

If you are, honestly, so busy and covered up with work that you feel multitasking is the only way you’ll get everything done – reexamine your approach, your schedule, and the things you think are so necessary. If you take an honest look at how you spend your time, you’ll realize that there are a lot of things you could cut out.

Don’t look now, but a new year is upon us.  Make a vow to start really and truly living in the moment and giving each task at hand your undivided attention – whether it’s reading the newspaper or brushing your teeth.  I think you’ll be amazed at how fast your absentmindedness clears up.

Make each moment count double,
~ Joi

Improve Your Memory and Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease One Bite at a Time

by Joi

What’s something we do every day, without fail? In fact, woe be unto the person who tries to stand between us and this activity?!

Unless we have a stomach virus from Hell, we eat and drink each and every day. Without fail. In fact, we eat and drink pretty much throughout the day. If you were to count the number of bites and sips over the course of a day, it’d be pretty amazing. Then if you counted them all up at the end of the week, you’d be astounded.

That’s a lot of bites and drinks! What’s really worth spending a little time thinking about is this: Each of these bites and each of these drinks is either ADDING to your overall health and well-being or they’re TAKING AWAY from your overall health and well being. If we’re going to allow so many foods and drinks to pass our lips, doesn’t it make sense to choose wisely?

I spend a great deal of time researching healthy foods for the body and mind. Not only do I do research for this mental fitness blog, I also do research for my food blog and self help blog. The same super foods turn up again and again. I’ve often said that what’s good for your heart is also good for your brain and when it comes to food, this is abundantly true. Did you know that the foods that are unhealthy for your heart (such as salt) are even unhealthy for your brain?

For example, Omega 3 Fatty Acids (cold water fish) help protect your brain from dementia and improve your memory. If you don’t typically eat a lot of salmon, trout, and mackerel – the time to start is now. Make a point of having these amazingly delicious and healthy fish several times a week.  Your brain will thank you for it, as will the rest of your body.

The following are just some of the foods that are known to improve your memory, protect your brain, and help prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease:

  • Walnuts
  • Avocados
  • Peanuts
  • Olive Oil
  • Salmon
  • Trout
  • Vitamin E
  • Vitamin C
  • Vitamin B12
  • Whole Grains
  • Blueberries
  • Cherries
  • Plums
  • Broccoli
  • Eggplant
  • Corn
  • Asparagus
  • Onions
  • Strawberries
  • Bell Peppers

From Everyday Health:

Give yourself a memory boost with dark berries that help keep blood vessels in the brain clear and protect brain cells from damage. Eat fruits like blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries. Blueberries and similar foods have been shown to actually reverse age-related memory shortfalls in humans and animals. Oranges, cherries, plums, and red grapes are also great memory food. – Everyday Health

Make each moment count double,

~ Joi

Brain Games and Puzzles: Your Brain Craves These Challenges!

by Joi

Brain Games

I buy each and every booklet and book Brain Games comes out with.  They’re fun, challenging, mentally stimulating, and downright addictive.  You can find their booklets in just about any store for less than $4.00 – they’re usually up front near the registers or in the magazine aisle.

Brain Games also has OUTSTANDING lines of books on the market. My advice? My approach?  Keep an eye on Amazon and consistently buy each book you see that you don’t already have.

Yes, as a matter of fact, they’re that good.

To keep your mind sharp, your memory sound, and to do all that you can to prevent Alzheimer’s or Dementia, provide your mind with as much stimulation and with as many challenges as possible.  Having plenty of workbooks and books around will provide you with the easiest way of ensuring you’re doing all you can for your mind.  In addition to physical exercise, a good, healthy diet (remember, anything good for your heart is good for your brain), stress management, and healthy sleep, brain puzzles are fuel your brain needs and even craves.

Below is a brain challenge from the most recent issue of Brain Games (shown above with my trusty pen):

Say What?
Below are a group of words that, when properly arranged in the blanks, reveal a quote from Virginia Woolf.

  • details
  • passionate
  • solitude
  • our
  • lives

“In __________ we give __________ attention to our __________, to __________ memories, to the __________ around us.”


 

Click below for the answer…. after you’ve worked on it sufficiently!

[click to continue…]

How Writing Prompts Can Be Just the Creative Outlet Your Brain Needs

by Joi

365 Things to Write About Writing Journal

365 Things to Write About!
I was sent the writing journal, above, to review on my self help blog, Self Help Daily. As I began using it, it occurred to me that its benefits were twofold:

  1. As a writer, I know that the more you write, the better you write. So having daily writing exercises only makes me better at what I do.
  2. As someone utterly fascinated with and committed to brain health and mental fitness, I know that getting in touch with your creative side each day is like caffeine for the brain.

Naturally, it’s the second benefit that I want to concentrate here!  If, however, you are a blogger, writer, or student – you might want to read my review of 365 Things to Write About.  Trust me, it’ll do wonders for your creative flow.

Our minds need frequent stimulation.  The more we challenge them, the more benefits they reap.  However, it’s important to keep in mind (literally) that our brains need DIFFERENT kinds of stimulation.  We have to “address” each part of our brain (reasoning, literal, creative, problem solving…).  That’s why the individual who reads novels and considers herself to be doing all that she possibly can for mental fitness is sadly mistaken. While it’s wonderful to read, it simply isn’t enough.

To give our brains the workouts they crave, we have to do more than just read books.  We have to actively pursue knowledge and we need to consistently push ourselves beyond our comfort zone.  A wonderful way to do this is to write. Don’t JUST read other people’s words all the time, write your own.  It’s a wonderful way to give the creative part of your brain a workout. It keeps him on his toes!

At the risk of jumping off track for a minute, I want you to think about your arms.  Let’s say you worked out your right arm each day for an hour.  You varied your routine, because your clever like that, but every day included strength training, yoga, and even kettle bells… but just for the right  arm. Now lets say you neglected the left arm, completely ignoring it.

At the end of the year, the right arm will be the stuff dreams are made of! Michelle Obama and Lance Armstrong would have arm envy over that arm.  However, the left arm would be spongy, soft, out of shape – a sad victim of mindless neglect.  Sadly, as in tragically, that’s the approach most people take when it comes to physical health (right arm) and mental health (left arm).  As incidences of memory loss, dementia, and even Alzheimer’s climb, it’s safe to say we’re paying the toll.

I urge you – perhaps even beg you – to begin being JUST as mindful of your mind as you are your body. While it’s important to be physically fit, it’s at least as important to be mentally fit.

I’m beginning a new section here on the mental fitness blog called the Brain Gym. In this area, you’ll find resources, brain games, mental exercises, books, quotes, and more.  Basically, I’ll include anything and everything to do just what you’d expect a Brain Gym to do – give your brain the workout it not only needs, but craves.

The 365 Things to Write About! writing journal has the distinction of being the first “workout” in the Brain Gym.  I hope you’ll order your copy today. The paperback edition is just a little over $10 now on Amazon and, you’ll love this, the Kindle edition is under $1!  Click through the link to learn more.

I’m assuming you’ll be ordering your own copy of this writing journal, but I’m eager for you to start getting your creative juices flowing.  Below, you’ll find 2 words or phrases from the book.  Over the next 2 days, use each word to write a poem, short story, or dissertation.  Let your brain run amok!

On the third day, write a short story using BOTH words… and, yes, I did choose two that I thought would be particularly challenging for that!

  1. 24 Hour Diner
  2. Taj Mahal

Bonus use of this writing journal: Not only are the writing prompts beneficial to the creative corners of your mind, you’ll have the opportunity to read, learn, and grow. When you come to a word, name, or phrase (such as Taj Mahal) that you want to know more about, do a little research. You can feel your brain cells buzzing.  As I was working through the writing journal, I chose Medusa to write a story about. I realized that it’d been quite a few years since I’d read about the lovely lady (shhh, let’s not let her know she’s earth-shatteringly unattractive).  I realized that I couldn’t name 10 facts about her (my personal test for judging how well I know something or someone), so I set off on a journey of research.

It’s funny, when I was in school, the thought of spending an hour researching made me coil in horror but now few things are funner than seeking out information, writing it down, and then launching off into other areas of exploration. Each time I read someone else’s name I wasn’t familiar with, he or she got the research treatment.

Suffice to say, I got a great deal of mental stimulation – all from one writing prompt.

Make each moment count double!

~ Joi

Coming Tomorrow: I’ll give you my favorite Mentally Challenging apps for brain fitness.  Get this, they’re free AND fun!

How to Strengthen Your Mind and Avoid Brain Atrophy

by Joi

Stretch and strengthen your mind with reading!

Stretch and strengthen your mind with reading – just be sure to read different books in different genres!

This morning I read a great article on Everyday Health (one of my favorite websites, and one that I visit daily, sometimes several times a day!).  The article was called “Longevity: 10 Ways to Add Years to Your Life.” After finishing here, I hope you’ll go read the entire article – there’s a wealth of information.

One of the 10 ways involved mental fitness, and as a mental fitness evangelista (I totally just made that word up… evangelist just sounded so “male”) I perked right up.  I actually haven’t even finished all 10 yet, I was THAT anxious to share this great advice and information with you.

A study funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) found that people who most often participated in information-processing activities, such as listening to the radio, reading newspapers, playing puzzle games, and visiting museums were 47% less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than those who participated least often in these same activities. The reason? “If you sit around and don’t exercise a muscle, it atrophies — and the same goes for the brain,” says Dr. Kimford Meador, MD, fellow with the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and professor of neurology at the University of Florida. So get your brain working by engaging in mental stimuli that you enjoy. Mind exercises can be anything from reading a good novel to playing cards to working through crossword or Sudoku puzzles.  – From Everyday Health

If I were to condense all of this wonderful advice into a sentence, I’d go with, “Be an active participant in the world around you, always in tune with and in touch with what’s going on.”  When people cut themselves off from other’s and shut out the outside world, they put themselves in grave mental danger. If you don’t use a muscle, you lose a muscle.  Use your brain in many and varied ways each and every day.

  • If you think you’re social enough, become MORE social.
  • If you think you read enough, read MORE.
  • If you think you seek out fresh, new information often enough, learn MORE.
  • If you think you challenge your brain enough, challenge it MORE.

If you want to keep your mind strong and your brain fit, you have to be a proactive participant. PLEASE don’t just read mental fitness advice, heed mental fitness advice.

A final reminder: Don’t keep reading the same types of things over and over. Don’t keep seeing the same genres of movies over and over.  Growth never occurs in ruts and ruts never occur in growth. They’re enemies!  Branch out, spread your mental wings, and challenge yourself in new ways. Pick a subject this week that you know ZERO about and read everything you can get your hands on about it.  Google the subject and/or go to the library.  Make your goal to know as much as you  possibly can about this subject within 7 days.

Here are a few ideas:

If you’re feeling particularly feisty (I like that), choose more than one area of interest. Twice the fun, twice the benefit.  Stretch your mind and challenge it on a daily basis.

Make each moment count double,

~ Joi

Dig in the past! Challenge your mind by reading older books. Reading Shakespeare, the Bible, and books written prior to 1960 will strengthen your mind in ways you never dreamed possible. Your mind will work double-time as it’s challenged to bring the words and meanings of the past into the present. The Bible and Shakespeare are positively beautiful and I’d recommend them even if I didn’t know they were great for you mentally.

How Exercise Strenghtens Your Mind, Body, and Soul: Get That Body Moving!

by Joi

Panther Creek Park Hiking Trail Owensboro Kentucky

Exercise, such as hiking a great trail, is great for your mind, your body, and even your emotions. Exercise reduces stress and brings about a feeling of contentment and happiness.

Everyone knows that exercise is GREAT for you.  Being physically active isn’t only beneficial for the way you look, it’ s healthy for your bones, your cardiovascular system, your respiratory system, your brain, and even your emotional state.  When we exercise, we release endorphins.  Endorphins help reduce stress, improve our mood, and even bring about a feeling of happiness.  Endorphins could give dogs a run for “man’s best friend!”

Exercise also helps us to relax and even improves our sleep.  Obviously these add greatly to the physical and emotional benefits of exercise.

Exercise has also been shown to improve memory and mental ability and is believed by experts to be vital for maintaining desired brain function as we get grow older. Our generation is, for very good reason, concerned about Alzheimer’s prevention, dementia prevention, preserving our memory, and staying mentally fit.  We read everything we can get our hands on and vow to eat better, exercise more, and challenge our minds each and every day.

The problem is, many people stop right there! They don’t change their diet, they don’t seek out ways to become more active, and they keep doing and reading the same things over and over again.

On the mental fitness blog, we spend a great deal of time talking about brain food (foods we should be eating and not eating for optimum brain health) and we certainly look at different brain games and ways to challenge our minds.  Over the past year, we’ve spent more time discussing how exercise benefits the brain and strengthens the mind.   However, we have to remind ourselves daily that thinking about these things or reading about them isn’t going to bring about the desired results.  We have to make up our mind to actively pursue mental fitness.  We must be proactive about all aspects of our health: mental, emotional, and physical.

I hope you’ll vow, today, to become more physically active. The great thing is you don’t have to join a gym, get on a bike, or even play sports.  All of those things are great, mind you, but not everyone has the time or inclination to do any of these activities.  My advice is this: Simply MOVE MORE!

Below are ways to “sneak” more activity into your days:

  • When you go to the store, park as far away from the door as you possibly can!
  • Be mindful of the number of steps you take a day – the more the better.  You may even want to buy a pedometer to keep track of your steps. It’s actually a lot of fun to wear one on your waist and try to hit 10,000 (or more) steps each day.
  • Clean house like you mean it! Clean for a straight 30 minutes, exaggerating each movement.
  • When in the grocery store, take the long route to each item on your list. Remember, get your step count up.
  • Use a push mower for all, or at least part, of your yard.
  • Get in the habit of taking a 10-15 minute walk after breakfast and again after supper.
  • Take your dog for long walks – it’s great for both of you.
  • While watching television, lift weights, do yoga, or simply walk in place.
  • If you have a sedentary job, get up often and stretch, do lunges, and even jumping jacks (this is assuming no one else is around!)
  • If you’re a homemaker or work from home, make a point of having 3 fifteen minute activity bursts during the day. During each burst, get up and walk briskly through the house, turn on music and dance, or simply get in the floor and do the exercises you learned in gym class, circa 1970.  (jumping jacks, leg lifts, push ups…)
  • Find great hiking trails in your area. You’ll have so much fun you’ll want to go again and again and again. That, of course, is the idea.

Bottom line: Get that body moving and don’t ever let it stop.  A body in motion tends to stay in motion. A body NOT in motion tends to succumb to atrophy.  How’s that for shocking imagery?

Make each move count double!

~ Joi

Quote About Reading by Confucius

by Joi

Confucius Quote about Reading

“No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.” - Confucius

I write a lot of book reviews on Self Help Daily.  I’ve noticed that books seem to be getting better than ever. There really have been some remarkable books published over the past few years.  It’s as though authors and publishers “get” what they’re up against with games, technology, and computers.   Instead of caving in, they’re simply stepping up their game like never before.  It’s as though they welcome (and love) the challenge.

Whatever their motivation, I’ll just continue to enjoy the pleasure and growth that they’re providing and pray that they keep it up.

If you don’t already have a passionate relationship with reading, as a mental fitness devotee, I urge you to grab yourself a new book today and begin a lifelong relationship with reading.  It’s one of the greatest habits you can develop and one of the few that you’ll ALWAYS take more out of than you put in.

A few suggestions:

  1. Choose an author and begin reading every single book he or she has ever written. A few I’ve been reading for ages are Agatha Christie, Dean Koontz, Nicholas Sparks, William Shakespeare, and Lilian Jackson Braun.  I’ve recently fallen hard for Nora Roberts and I notice that I have a lot of catching up to do with her books. Does the lady ever take a day off?
  2. Branch out into genres that are completely new to you. I have to admit, I went through a period of time when I thought there were only two types of books: 1.  Mysteries, and 2. Those I’d never touch. When I was a teenager, I always had a Dr. Pepper in one hand and an Agatha Christie book in the other.  When I branched out for a tremendous love affair with the Anne of Green Gables series of books, I realized that there was literary life beyond Hercule Poirot.  Then,  years later when I discovered Dean Koontz… my oh my!  What a crazy world opened before me.  What would Agatha have thought?
  3. Never underestimate how great non-fiction books are. I love non-fiction books every bit as much as I love fiction books. Actually, I think I prefer non-fiction books. Biographies, auto-biographies, and historical novels fascinate me beyond belief.  Choosing a period of time and reading everything you can get your hands on about it is educational AND entertaining.
  4. Read Online. If you’re one of those people who prefers reading online, feel perfectly free to do so.  There are endless articles, essays, and yes, even stories online.  When I have a crisp new book I feel like a kid with a brand new bike.  Oh, the possibilities!  However, finding a fascinating new website – or a new article on a favorite website (such as National Geographic, Discovery Channel, History.com, etc) is just as exciting.

One final piece of the puzzle, so to speak: Be certain that you read about many different things.  Don’t be educationally nearsighted! Don’t just read within one or two genres – branch out, extend your scope, and broaden your horizon.    Our brains LOVE to be challenged and they thrive on learning  new things.    And isn’t a thriving brain what we’re all after?!?!

Make each moment count double,
~ Joi

Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease with the Internet

by Joi

Sudoku Puzzles keep your mind sharp!

Below is a guest post by freelance writer Kathleen Hessing. The information and advice is the sort of thing we’re committed to here on Out of Bounds – keeping your brain sharp, strengthening your mind, preventing memory loss, and preventing Alzheimer’s Disease. The information is truly priceless.

Although the disease is incurable once it occurs, there are steps we can take to help prevent the development of Alzheimer’s. Keeping your brain alert has been proved to do just that.

Even if you have the busiest of schedules, you can work small things into your day to help you stay sharp. One way to do this is to use your non-dominant hand for everyday tasks like eating and opening doors. By doing this, you exercise the opposite side of your brain.

Mind-engaging puzzles like Sudoku and crosswords can increase brain activity as well. Several websites offer games and puzzles to entertain and challenge you. Here are a few to get you started:

  • WebSudoku.com – This website claims to offer billions of  Sudoku puzzles. That should keep you busy for quite a while!
  • BoatloadPuzzles.com – When they say boatload, they aren’t kidding. You’ll find 40,000 free crossword puzzles on this site.
  • JigZone.com – Like jigsaw puzzles, but don’t have the space to lay them out and solve them? This site allows you to put together jigsaw puzzles made up of 6 to 247 pieces. You can play against a clock for more of a challenge, too.

Many local newspapers and magazines publish all kinds of puzzles, from Sudoku and crosswords, to word finds, acrostics, and Kakuro, which is similar to Sudoku, but involves math rather than just number placement.

Reading exercises your brain, too. Do it often. Experts say you should frequently switch up the topics you read so you’ll experience changes in vocabulary, thereby stimulating more areas of your brain.

Video games can actually benefit your brain in a big way, too. Instead of zoning out to TV shows or movies for hours on end, try playing a game. It can help improve your memory, your development of logic skills, increase your creativity, increase your mental speed, and improve your hand-eye coordination.

There are plenty of free gaming websites out there. For starters, try these:

  • Bored.com – This site boasts tons of games in categories such as puzzles, strategy, action, and arcade.
  • AddictingGames.com –  You can either play games on your own, or get a friend to play a two-player game with you on the same computer. There are also games to play with friends via Facebook.
  • PlayedOnline.com – Play classics such as Super Mario World and Pac-Man, as well as many new games.
  • Pogo.com – Pogo has some of the most popular online games like Bejeweled, as well as classics such as Scrabble, Yahtzee, Risk, and Monopoly.
  • FreeOnlineGames.com – Not only can you play games on this site, you can get free games to install on your own website.

If you want to step up the quality of your games and interaction, consider spending some money on a video game console for your home. You can even play games on your cell phone if it has such capabilities.

Another brain-building activity you can try is learning a foreign language. You don’t have to spend any money on this—everything you need is at your local library. You can check out instructional books, CDs, DVDs, and tapes there. You don’t need to go for total fluency. Just learning some words and phrases is enough to get your brain working.

While all these activities can help keep your brain sharp, and can potentially help prevent Alzheimer’s, they can’t cure it. Once a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s is made, it’s important to learn about the disease to be able to cope with it to the best of your ability.

If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, check out the Alzheimer’s Association website for information about the disease and its treatments. Researchers are always looking for ways to improve the lives of those suffering from Alzheimer’s. The site allows you to browse through the various medications that have Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval so you can talk to your doctor about which one is right for you or your loved one.

Caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease can become a heavy burden over time. It requires a lot of patience, but even then, it can be one of the hardest things to do in life. Taking care of a loved one with Alzheimer’s is an admirable endeavor, but it can become more difficult as time and the disease progress. If you ever find yourself unable to continue as a caretaker, consider looking into an elderly care facility that specializes in Alzheimer’s care. It’s a difficult decision to make, but you’ll feel better knowing your loved one is receiving the best care available.

Kathleen Hessing is a freelance writer who enjoys finding new ways to improve her life, and sharing them with others through her writing.



Coffee or Green Tea? For Brain Health, Go with Both!

by Joi

Coffee Beans

If, like me, you’re a rock star when it comes to drinking coffee and green tea, go ahead and pat yourself on the back.  We aren’t just doing our taste buds a favor when we drink coffee and we aren’t just doing something healthy for our bodies when we drink green tea.   Both of these drinks are great for brain health.

A study in Neurology that found drinking three cups of coffee a day reduces your risk of mental decline by more than 50 percent.  More than 50 percent.  Amazing!

Green tea is no slouch, itself, when it comes to mental benefits.  Of course, green tea is known for the many health benefits it offers – from cancer prevention and heart health to weight control and weight loss.  However, did you know that green tea is also very, very healthy for your brain?

Green tea contains antioxidants called catechins that play a role in keeping the brain sharp and fresh. These catechins also promote healthy blood flow to the brain.

While there are tons of delicious bottled green teas on the market, you should try to drink freshly brewed green tea as often as possible.

Your body, mind, and soul will thank you for it!

Learning a Second Language May Delay Alzheimer’s Disease

by Joi

Learn to speak Spanish

As we’ve always known, learning a second language is great for your brain.  However, its benefits seem to surpass anything we ever hoped for.

New studies show that learning a second language can pump up your brain in ways that seem to delay getting Alzheimer’s disease.

While the study focused primarily on individuals who mastered a second language previously (and have kept their skills sharp – as opposed to forgetting everything you ever learned in your high school Spanish class), experts tell us that even people who take up a second language later in life will benefit.

Naturally, the more proficient you become, the better, but “every little bit helps,” said Ellen Bialystok, a psychology professor at York University in Toronto.

As far as scientists know now, learning a second language does nothing to actually prevent Alzheimer’s disease. But once the disease does begin to rear its ugly head, the mental benefits of tackling a second language cushion the individual so that symptoms don’t become apparent as quickly, Bialystok said.

Even if you take Alzheimer’s out of the picture, learning a second language (or, for that matter, anything NEW and CHALLENGING) stimulates your brain cells in fresh, new ways.  The process keeps you sharp, prevents memory loss, and boosts your confidence.   The brain loves to be stimulated and challenged and will reward you in many wonderful ways, including strengthening and improving your memory.

Give it a try!  Pick a language that interests you and begin your own home study course.  Of course, if you have the time and inclination, you could always take a college class.  You’ll want a program that provides audio and/or video, so you can hear the words being properly pronounced.  Just remember to keep studying and never give up.  Your brain will absolutely love the challenge. Think of all you have to gain!

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