Brain Health Expert: Patricia Faust
The holidays are over, and decorations stored away.
Where does that leave you in your thoughts? Are you staring out the window wondering ‘what’s next’? Or do you have a plan for the new year?
New Year’s resolutions can be very fleeting. What sounded good in the light of the holiday season, might be overwhelming on a Monday morning. What can you do make a serious effort in making this year’s resolution a success?
“First of all, instead of focusing on resolutions, take a look back on the past year.”
Take An Inventory:
First of all, instead of focusing on resolutions, take a look back on the past year. Overall, what worked in your life and what didn’t. Acknowledge and congratulate yourself on your successes. It is not self-serving to appreciate what you did right. Take the time to feel good about that. While you are doing that, evaluate if you can expand on your successes.
Then reflect on what didn’t work or fell by the wayside. What happened? Did these goals not fit your life Sometimes, we miss the mark on what we want our future to be. If they didn’t fit, are they still worthwhile to revisit? Or is it best to just let those goals go. In doing that, you open up the space to move forward.
Importance Of Brain Health:
Did health and wellness play an important part in your planning for a successful new year? If it did, were you able to consider the importance of brain health as a goal? Brain health is a newer perspective in looking at health and wellness. We typically considered brain health separate from health and wellness. In reality, brain health is whole health. Our brain is the executive director of our health and wellness.
Let’s look at some smart strategies to boost your brain health in 2025.
Create High-Level Goals and Set Mini Goals Along The Way:
- It is smart to set clear goals for success. By breaking these goals down into manageable steps, you are more likely to experience early successes.
- Your frontal lobe is the first part of your brain that’s vulnerable to decline over time, so anything you can do to strengthen it is good.
- You activate the brain’s reward network with each success and that produces dopamine, which is motivating and rewarding.
Build Confidence Through Patterns of Positive Self-Talk:
- When you are feeling anxious, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) narrows your options to fight/flight/freeze, so you are able to act quickly.
- Confidence quiets the anxious systems, which allows you to think creatively and solve problems.
Get Your Heart Rate Up Routinely:
- Physical exercise sparks the birth of new neurons in the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory.
- Small changes can make a big impact.
Boost Your Memory: Challenge Yourself to Think Even Deeper:
- After you engage with information (like a podcast, article, or conversation), ask yourself, ‘What can I learn from this to update my thinking?’
- Summarize key lessons or big-picture concepts in a single sentence.
“Gratitude can create changes in brain chemistry in the same way physical activity can.”
Hone In On Gratitude:
- Gratitude can create changes in brain chemistry in the same way physical activity can.
- Gratitude increases serotonin, a neurotransmitter that boosts feelings of well-being and happiness.
Stock up on Nourishing Brain Foods:
- A well-rounded brain-healthy diet protects your whole body and reduces risk factors associated with cognitive decline.
- Eat as many whole, real foods as possible, such as nuts, fish, and berries.
Make An Effort To Connect And Build Community:
- Social bonds are among the most protective factors for brain health as we age.
- Invest in meaningful relationships and think quality over quantity.
- Social connection buffers against stress, increases longevity, decreases cognitive impairment, decreases depression and anxiety, and improves sleep as well as your immune system. [2]
Lifestyle changes drive better brain health and decrease your risks of cognitive decline. Research has shown that lifestyle changes like improving your diet and exercising regularly helped drive down death rates from cancer, heart disease and other major diseases. The same lifestyle changes also reduce or slow down your risk of cognitive decline.
The Alzheimer’s Association:
The Alzheimer’s Association made these 3 recommendations for a healthy brain and body:
- Cut back on “ultra-processed” foods: people who consume the highest amount of ultra-processed foods have a 28% faster decline in global cognitive scores – including memory, verbal fluency, and executive function. Ultra-processed foods are those that go through significant industrial processes and contain large quantities of fat, sugar, salt, artificial flavors/colors, stabilizers, and/or preservatives.
- Get vaccinated: getting an annual flu vaccination was associated with a 40% decrease in the risk of developing Alzheimer’s diseases over the next four years, according to researchers from The University of Texas’ McGovern Medical School.
- Get vaccinated (part 2) – getting a vaccination against pneumonia between the ages of 65 and 75 reduced Alzheimer’s risk by up to 40% according to a Duke University’s Social Science Research Institute study.
Cognitive Impairment:
Manage your blood pressure: people treated by FDA-approved medications to a top (systolic) blood pressure reading of 120 instead of 140 were 19 percent less likely to develop cognitive impairment, according to a study led by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. These people also had fewer signs of damage on brain scans, and there was a possible trend towards fewer cases of dementia.
Be social – Add “hang out with friends” and “have fun” to your New Year’s resolutions list. Alzheimer’s researchers are now looking into whether increased socialization, along with a “cocktail” of lifestyle interventions including improved diet, exercise, cognitive stimulation and self-monitoring of heart health risk can protect cognitive function.
Perhaps your overarching goal for 2025 can be – Live a Healthy Brain Lifestyle for a Healthy Life! [1]
References:
[1] Alzheimer’s Association/Colorado Chapter. Make better health the top of New Year’s resolution for 2023. Retrieved from https://state.aarp.org/colorado/make-better-health-your-top-new-years-resolution-for-2023
[2] Seaver, M. (December 15, 2023). 7 Smart strategies to boost your brain health in the new year. Retrieved from https://centerforbrainhealth.org/article/7-smart-strategies-to-boost-your-brain-health
Did you enjoy this article? Become a Kuel Life Member today to support our Community. Sign-up for our Sunday newsletter and get your content delivered straight to your inbox.
About the Author:
Patricia Faust is a gerontologist specializing in the issues of brain aging, brain health, brain function and dementia. She has a Masters in Gerontological Studies degree from Miami University in Oxford Ohio. Patricia is certified as a brain health coach and received a certification in Neuroscience and Wellness through Dr. Sarah McKay and the Neuroscience Academy. My Boomer Brain, founded in 2015, is the vehicle that Patricia utilizes to teach, coach and consult about brain aging, brain health and brain function. Her newsletter, My Boomer Brain, has international readers from South Africa, Australia, throughout Europe and Canada. She has also been a frequent guest on Medicare Moment on WMKV and Cincy Lifestyles on WCPO.
