How can you keep your brain healthy?

Before we mention how to keep our brains healthy, we have to understand what a healthy brain refers to. A healthy brain refers to how well our brains function across different areas, including:

• Cognitive health: how well we learn, think, understand, and remember things.

• Motor function: how well you control and make movements, and balance. 

• Emotional function: how well you respond to emotions and interpret them.

• Tactile function: how feel you respond to sensations of touch, including temperature, pressure, and pain.

Our brain's health is inevitably affected by aging, and also by injuries such as stroke or traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease, mood disorders, and much more. While these factors have a big impact on our brain's health that we can't control, there are many things we can change or do in our lifestyle to improve our brain's health. 

Tips for maintaining seniors' brain healthy

• Keep your mind active: learning a new skill is not only fun but also helps stimulate the brain cells. This has a good impact on seniors, helping them improve their memory. 

• Stay social: engaging with other people and having conversations, stimulate the brain. Being part of a community with the same interests is important for seniors, not just mentally but emotionally as well. 

• Activities and board games: hobbies can help sharpen quick-thinking skills, including decision-making, processing speed, problem-solving and short-term memory. There are many fun activities for seniors, such as chess, reading a book, Soduko puzzle, drawing, and doing crafts. 

• Keep a daily routine: For seniors, having a daily routine helps them to stay engaged with the activities they are familiar with. This can be waking up at a specific time every morning, having a cup of coffee, stretching, having breakfast with other residents, etc.

• Eat healthily: having a balanced diet for seniors is important to their brain and heart health. Fruits and vegetables are excellent choices as they are packed with antioxidants.

• Stay active: Doing anything that gets the heart pumping is important to stay mentally and physically healthy. There are many options that are adequate for seniors, such as taking short walks, stretching, and “Sit n Yoga” classes. 

• Get enough sleep: Good sleeping is key when keeping the brain healthy and working. For seniors is important to get enough sleep and have a consistent sleep-wake routine. 

• Ask for help: knowing when to ask for help and accepting it is important. Aging can impact psychological health in addition to physical health. Conditions like anxiety and depression can impact our cognitive function and cause memory loss.