The lat­est sci­en­tific research shows that spe­cific lifestyles and actions can, no mat­ter our age, improve the health and level of func­tion­ing of our brains. Such improve­ment can hap­pen thanks to neu­ro­plas­tic­ity that is, when the rate of cre­ation and sur­vival of new neu­rons in cer­tain parts of the brain is increased, or when the rate of cre­ation and sur­vival of synapses (the con­nec­tions between neu­rons) speeds up, or when a neu­ro­chem­i­cal envi­ron­ment is nur­tured in our brains to sup­port infor­ma­tion processing.

The nice thing about dis­cov­er­ing that our lifestyle can affect brain func­tions is that it puts our brain health largely under our own con­trol. How­ever there is no magic for­mula. Sci­en­tists are only begin­ning to under­stand how what we do can inter­act with our genetic makeup. As to now, it is not pos­si­ble to define which actions are the best for which indi­vid­u­als. It is likely that there will never be one gen­eral solu­tion that solves all the chal­lenges inher­ent in main­tain­ing one’s brain health.  Dr. Art Kramer, whose inter­view can be found at the end of this Chap­ter, points out that a mul­ti­tude of approaches will be necessary.

So what fac­tors have an influ­ence on brain health?

Cur­rent rec­om­men­da­tions sug­gest that a brain-healthy life style should include at least bal­anced nutri­tion, stress man­age­ment, phys­i­cal exer­cise, and brain exer­cise. Other fac­tors may also have an influ­ence. Dr. Eliz­a­beth Zelin­ski, whose inter­view can be found at the end of the present Chap­ter, points out that “it is also impor­tant to main­tain emo­tional con­nec­tions. Not only with our­selves, to have self-confidence and self-esteem, but also with our fam­ily our friends.” Sleep and over­all health con­di­tions are other fac­tors that also matter.

Here we focus on the four main pil­lars of brain health:

• Bal­anced nutrition
• Stress man­age­ment
• Phys­i­cal exercise
• Men­tal stimulation

Keep learn­ing by read­ing more arti­cles in the Resources sec­tion, and also please con­sider join­ing our free monthly Brain Fit­ness eNewsletter

This new online resource is based on the con­tent from the book The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness (May 2009, $19.95), by Alvaro Fer­nan­dez and Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg.

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