Nutrients play key roles in brain function. Several have shown efficacy in clinical trials treating cases of mood disorders, cognitive decline and of course benefiting the physical health of the brain. Nutrients are both the raw materials employed in creating new neural connections and important components in regulating the activity of genes involved in these processes. Specific nutrients involved in mitochondrial efficiency, the energy factories of brain and body cells, are particularly important for many aspects of brain function. Other nutrients are involved in the inner workings of neuronal membranes, responsible for ensuring that electrochemical signals, which make up our thoughts, transmit efficiently and reliably. Finally, antioxidants, important throughout the body, are especially important in the brain due to its high energy production rates and concurrent high capacity for free radical leakage. Keeping this in mind, it is readily apparent that nutrition provides the building blocks for our brain’s structure and function, and therefore cannot be ignored.

Exercise is a clearly established component for promoting brain health as well. No longer can we think that the brain is completely separate from the brawn. Human studies have shown the value of exercise in controlling stress and maintaining positive mood states; in improving cognitive function, including performance on memory and executive tasks; and in improving the brain’s two-way communication streams with the rest of the body. Some of these benefits are likely due to the positive effects of exercise on neurovascular health, which parallel cardiovascular health. Other benefits seem due to increased grey matter in ‘front office’ functions of the cortex; and neuronal birth, or neurogenesis, in the hippocampus, a brain region that controls aspects of memory and mood regulation. Whatever the mechanism, giving your body a workout will produce substantial benefits in terms of brain health. Remember, a body in motion tends to stay in motion, and your brain and body will be together your whole life.

Mental activity is an obvious, and critical, ingredient for optimizing and maintaining brain function. Studies have established relationships between the degree of life-time mental activity and late-life cognitive function. It’s clear that those who engage in intellectually challenging endeavors on a regular basis reap the benefits of a clear mind. There is, however a need for each individual to balance sufficient variety with a proper degree of challenge. Without variety and challenge, tasks become too mundane and too easy, eventually growing stale and losing their capacity to adequately stimulate the brain. We must also realize that mental activity goes beyond ‘cognitive’ tasks. Mental activities also include practices like meditative focus, relaxation and stress reduction techniques, as well as social interaction. These active and dynamic processes challenge the mind as well. Mixing cognitive challenges with emotional regulation provides a more complete mental workout that will help you to use it to improve it.

An often neglected component contributing to brain health is optimal sleep. On average, we sleep approximately 1.5 hours per night less than we did 100 years ago. Modern technology makes it easier to get less sleep and our busy lives encourage us to do it. Sleep is far more than a time of rest, and is too often misclassified as a period of lost productivity. It is an active metabolic period for our brains. Sleep is a time when we consolidate memories of the previous day, a time when we re-synchronize the circadian rhythm of at least dozens, if not hundreds, of hormones controlling our metabolism. Sleep loss is associated with a high percentage of mood disorders and certainly reduces our cognitive efficiencies. We must give ourselves permission to sleep by realizing that it is counterproductive to steal from it.

In our new book BrainFit For Life: A User’s Guide to Life-Long Brain Health and Fitness, we focus equally on the cognitive, emotional and physical health of the brain and all of the lifestyle factors that come into play to maintain them. Today’s aging population is becoming increasingly focused on the maintenance of cognitive health and the value of ‘brain training’ programs. But we must realize that such training is not unlike that of an athlete, who must focus on their diet, sleep needs and psychological preparation in addition to their physical skill development. We explore specific aspects of nutrition, exercise, mental activity and sleep. We discuss how they regulate emotional, physical and intellectual functions of the brain. After all, they are not separable.

“To keep the body in good health is a duty…otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.” — Buddha, circa 500 B.C.

– This article was co-written by Drs. Simon Evans and Paul Burghardt. Drs. Evans and who currently collaborate in the University of  Michigan’s Department of Psychiatry, and the Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute to study the effects of nutrition and exercise on brain function. They are co-authors of BrainFit For Life: A User’s Guide to Life-Long Brain Health and Fitness.

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Ask Not What The Health System Can Do For You…

– By Simon J. Evans, PhD and Paul R. Burghardt, PhD.

With the presidential debates gearing up again we are sure to hear more about health care. But we propose a slightly different question. In addition to asking how we can get more people healthcare coverage, we should also ask why so many people are sick in the first place.

The words of John Kennedy might today be, “Ask not what the health care system can do for you. Ask what you can do to reduce the health care burden”. But before delving into what we can do, let’s take a look at some realities that our next president could face in their first ‘State of the Union’ address.

On the downside –

* We are not healthy: 60% of adults and 20% of kids are overweight; 30% of today’s kids are anticipated to become diabetic; 20% of high school kids have early stages of heart disease. The estimated economic burden of depression for the year 2000 (most recent estimate) was $83.1 billion, and this is just one of many brain-related diseases

* We are aging: within the next couple of decades, about 20% of the population will be of retirement age; 4.5 million people already have Alzheimer’s disease and by 2050 there will be 16 million cases.

* We are heavily medicated: anti-depressants are the leading selling drugs in the United States; record numbers of children are on these and anti-psychotics; for adults, cholesterol and blood pressure medicines are becoming as common as breakfast cereal.

On the upside –

* The US government estimates that healthier lifestyles could save $71 billion per year in health care costs and another $14 billion in lost productivity.

* 1 out of 7 deaths are premature and could be avoided with better diets and active lifestyles.

Perhaps the next president should spend a little effort promoting methods to improve these statistics. But how?

We typically think of heart disease, diabetes, depression, and Alzheimer’s dementia as very different problems. But the more we learn about disease, the more we realize that these seemingly different diseases often have a lot in common at the cellular and molecular level. They also have a lot in common when it comes to how they gained a foothold in your brain and body to get started in the first place.

However, we have an arsenal of tools proven to help reduce common cellular damage to maintain fit brains and bodies. What are those tools? Some high tech drugs and medical equipment that is out of reach for much of the population lacking health care insurance? Actually, no. These tools are very low tech and available to everyone. They are:

1. Eating a quality diet

2. Getting regular physical activity

3. Keeping your mind active and engaged

4. Getting enough sleep and rest

Sounds easy, right? So why don’t we all do it, and why didn’t we have all of these problems 50 and 100 years ago?

First of all, in yesteryear a breakfast muffin contained about 150 calories. Today that muffin is 400 calories. A large drink at the soda fountain totaled 12 ounces. Today, that drink is the smallest size on most menus. Yes, we are suffering from proportion distortion. We love to eat, and it ain’t peas and carrots we are a cravin’.

Second, for many people going to work actually meant going to work, physically. Today, the extent of our office exercise is finger aerobics on our QWERTY keyboards. Physical activity used to be a regular part of everyday life, not a chore that you have to schedule into your day.

Third, as Alvaro pointed out on a recent article, many of us ‘outsource our brains’ and no longer think for ourselves. With mass media messages, GPS systems, calculators, spell checkers and electronic organizers, we must ask the question how well we could function without them. I know I am guilty of this one, myself.

Finally, we are staying up later and getting up earlier to meet those deadlines. On average, we get 1.5 hours less zzzzzs than we did about 100 years ago. Not only that but we spend far more time busy, busy, busy when we are awake than we ever used to.

Now, change happens. We shouldn’t expect to always do things the way we used to, and we’re not suggesting that. Food, in all its irresistible varieties, is much more available. Are we supposed to just not eat it. Well, uh, it wouldn’t hurt to pass on the second helping of triple chocolate cheesecake now and then.

And no, we can’t jog around our office but we can do simple things to introduce more activity into our day. Walk instead of drive those 1-mile errands. Park further from the door, take the stairs … you’ve heard all this before. So why don’t we do it?

One reason is that no one likes to be told what to do and subjected to some guilt trip, most people just don’t respond to that. Also, most people haven’t really thought about what they really want their health to look like or developed a reasonable plan to reach their health-goals. As the old adage says, “If you don’t know where you are going, you are sure to get there”, plus it helps to have a map. Finally, even with a plan many folks will give up after the first sign of failure or fatigue. These changes don’t become easy until we make them an integral part of our lives.

So how do you motivate people to take action to maintain their health? Since everyone is different, many options exist. The obvious answer, that will motivate the most people, is money, money, money … money (did you hear ‘The Apprentice’ theme song).

At a policy level, it would be exceptionally helpful if the next president worked to create incentives for healthy lifestyles and behaviors. Now, I know this is easy to say, probably not as easy to do (and keep everyone happy), but you have to walk before you run. What if the next presidential administration actually incentivized (is that a word yet?) us to take better care of ourselves? What if health insurance companies gave discounts to people that tried to live a healthy lifestyle?

What if the government gave us tax breaks to eat healthier food and exercise? What if each individual had one government subsidized continuing education, or self-enrichment class each year? Would this reduce the overall health care burden for employers and make it more affordable to cover more people? Help reduce sick days and increase productivity and creativity? Hmmm….

We realize there are many caveats to implementing such a plan but something has to be done and maybe some bright politician can figure out how to do it. Who would lose if the country were to improve their health?

Insurance companies wouldn’t have to fork out as much. Medical providers would be able to divert more of their attention to preventing disease, instead of managing chronic illness. The government wouldn’t be in such a hot seat for the health care crisis. Big Pharma might sell fewer drugs, but there are several new health-related industries that they have the expertise to tap into. Basically, we would all win.

So back to our initial question: “Why are we so sick in the first place?” If you step back and see the forest for the trees, our world has changed drastically in the last 50 to 100 years. With technology, and the availability it brings, we may have become a little complacent, a little too trusting that the magic cure-all pill is there for us.

It is true that we are living longer. But I’m sure with increased longevity, everyone would want at least a reasonable quality of life and currently that isn’t the status quo. So the answer to our question seems to be….lifestyle choices. Making the best lifestyle choices, and maintaining them, isn’t always easy but the best things in life rarely are.

So Madam or Mister President, will you help us help ourselves?

– This article was co-written by Simon Evans and Paul Burghardt. Drs. Evans and Burghardt currently collaborate in the University of Michigan’s Department of Psychiatry, and the Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute to study the effects of nutrition and exercise on brain function. They host the Brain Fit for Life blog and are collaborating on an upcoming book on the subject.