Our brains control our memory, focus, mood, and resilience. It’s important to keep them healthy so that your brain works well and you feel good overall. Eating healthy and getting enough sleep are important. But people often forget how helpful exercise and natural supplements can be, especially ones that help reduce stress and risk of encephalitis (inflammation of the brain).
In this article we aim to educate and inform you about how fitness training, natural supplementation and clean nutrition can all work together to keep your brain healthy so you can stay sharp and healthy long term.
Exercise: The Fountain of Youth for Your Brain
Exercising regularly is not only good for your body but also makes your brain work better.
Research always shows that physical activity influences the brain in many beneficial ways. First and foremost exercise increases blood and oxygen to the brain. In some exercise science circles it is speculated that cardio workouts promote the most brain benefits when compared to other types of exercise. While this may be true to some extent, our aim here is to promote all types of exercise for brain health. Any type of fitness training can increase your heart rate, therefore offering some degree of brain benefits. Even slower, more fluid exercise, such as yoga can benefit the brain and entire body.
Brain Benefits from Exercise
Research shows us the many ways the brain benefits form exercising:
⦁ More blood and oxygen go to the brain, which helps brain cells grow and stay healthy.
⦁ Improves the making of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is important for learning, memory, and thinking.
⦁ Enhances the brain’s ability to change and adapt, which helps improve learning, memory, and problem-solving.
⦁ Decreases swelling, which can lead to problems with thinking and memory, and diseases like Alzheimer’s.
⦁ Improves mood and lowers stress and anxiety, which helps you feel better emotionally and think more clearly.
It’s important to engage in some type of fitness training regularly, no matter what kind of exercise it is. Try to do exercise that gets your heart pumping for 150 minutes each week, or do intense exercise for 75 minutes. Also, do strength training exercises two or more times a week.
Natural Supplements: Supporting Your Brain from Within
The best way to get nutrients for your brain is to eat healthy food. Yet, on the off chance that you can’t get enough from food, natural supplements can assist with supporting your brain. In any case, essential to pick choices that are reliable and have proof to support them. Let’s find out about significant supplements and how they can help your brain:
Omega 3 Fatty Acids
Omega-3 fats are truly significant for our brain. They assist with memory, learning, and mood. Research has found that they could moreover cut down the chance of getting brain illness. Flaxseeds, walnuts, and fatty fish are nutritious food varieties. Whatever form you choose, consuming good fish oils can be very beneficial to your health.
Vitamin B supplements
Vitamin B12 and B6 are huge for thinking, making energy, and state of mind adjusting, and managing stress. Deficiency of these nutrients can make you feel more down and think less clearly. If you experience trouble getting a satisfactory number of nutrients from food, you ought to take supplements.
Curcumin
Curcumin is a a strong anti-inflammatory component present in turmeric. It can improve brain function by facilitating memory recall. Curcumin may also help prevent brain aging by protecting brain cells against neurodegenerative diseases, especially in older individuals. This natural plant supplement also shows promise in treating depression and anxiety as effectively as popular prescription medications, according to one study.
Ashwagandha
Ashwagandha is a sort of herb that can make your brain work better and reduce stress and tension. It can also assist you in concentrating and further developing your memory. This potential stress support extract is also known as Indian Ginseng. Ashwagandha is a powerful supplement derived from and small shrub found in India, Africa and some parts of the Middle East. It has been used for hundreds of years in Ayurveda medicine to treat stress and anxiety, as well as boosting energy and concentration.
Lion’s mane mushroom
This multifaceted mushroom could help with protecting the brain from memory loss, improve focus and thinking, and improve concentration. Lions mane may even help protect against dementia but more research is needed. In addition, it may help you feel happier and less stressed. According to limited rodent studies lion’s mane showed promise in healing spinal cord injuries and nervous system damage. Human trials are needed to confirm these findings.
Ginkgo Biloba
Ginkgo Biloba (sometimes misspelled and marketed as Ginko) is often used in Ayurveda medicine as a memory and concentration booster. Ginkgo Biloba works to improve blood flow in the central nervous system. This process may help the brain function optimally. The popular herb is also believed to help with Alzheimer’s, ADHD and may even help patients recover from memory loss.
Remember to converse with your PCP before you begin taking any new supplements, particularly if you have any medical conditions or are currently taking any medications.
Synergy: Where Exercise and Supplements Meet
Amazing things happen when you exercise and take natural supplements together. Research shows that taking omega-3 fatty acids and exercising can help older adults think better and remember things more clearly. In the same way, Ashwagandha as a Stress Support Extract can help reduce stress and improve mood when you exercise, which is good for your brain.
It’s important to understand that supplements are not a quick fix. Unhealthy habits and bad eating can’t be fixed by them, and they can’t give the same good results as a balanced diet, proper sleep and regular exercise. Think of supplements as additional tools to help your brain stay healthy when you also exercise, sleep well, and eat healthy.
Optimizing Your Brain Health Journey
Don’t forget, taking care of your brain health is something you need to do for a long time. Begin by adding more exercise to your daily life, like taking a quick walk or going to the gym for a short workout. Consult your doctor if you have any queries about your brain health or if you want to use supplements. Try to use natural remedies that have been proven by science, but focus on getting your vitamins and minerals from a balanced diet before anything else.
You can help your brain stay healthy for a long time by taking care of your body with exercise, natural supplements, and a healthy lifestyle. Remember, each time you focus on keeping your mind sound, you’re investing in your future well-being and thinking abilities.
Additional Considerations
Manage stress
Long-term mental and emotional stress can hurt your brain’s wellbeing. Rehearsing mindfulness, yoga, and investing energy outside can be helpful.
Engage in mentally stimulating activities
Keep your mind occupied with fun and testing exercises like riddles, learning new things, and reading.
Get sufficient sleep
Attempt to get 7-8 hours of good sleep consistently. Sleep quality can have profound effects on your health. Getting sufficient sleep is truly significant for recalling things, learning, and making your mind function admirably. Sleep impacts the body and mind in many ways. Sleeping provides you with; rest, recovery, and repair.
Stay hydrated
Not drinking sufficient water can make it difficult for your mind to appropriately work. Try to hydrate practically the entire day to keep your body hydrated and assist your mind with working at its ideal. Studies prove hydration impacts mental performance and can also affect your mood.
Limit alcohol and processed foods
Drinking too much alcohol and eating processed foods can hurt your brain. Choose natural, unprocessed foods and limit how much alcohol you drink to keep your brain healthy.
Connect with others
It’s important to talk to people and have good relationships with them for your emotions and brain to be healthy. Spend time with people you care about and make good friends.
Stay Flexible and Open to Optimization
Every person’s brain is different, so what helps one person may not help another. Try different ways, see how you’re doing, and pay attention to how your body feels. With hard work and a complete approach, you can make a plan just for you to make your brain healthier and improve how well you think for a long time.
Ways to Measure Brain Optimization, Fitness and Health
While most of us aren’t able to meet with doctors for a weekly brain scan or physical evaluation, there are ways we can track our progress in all areas. See our tips below to measure how you’re doing along your brain-boosting journey. There are plenty of health and fitness tracking apps, or you can use an old-fashioned pen-and-paper journal and log your progress.
Focus and concentration
As you consider making changes mentioned in this article keep track of how well you’re able to concentrate on a given task or topic. By incorporating workouts as well as some or all of the supplements we’ve mentioned you should see a marked improvement. If you still find it difficult to concentrate on a single subject or task for long periods of time you may be able to fine-tune your supplement regiment or consider giving your body more sleep each night.
Energy levels
Log how you’re feeling from morning to night. A healthy brain and body tends to produce an abundance of mental and physical energy throughout the day. If you’re seeing an energy dip try to determine why and make adjustments. Often times low energy levels can be directly linked to A) poor diet or B) lack of sleep, although there can certainly be other contributing factors. Sleep deprivation, especially over time, can cause a long list of potential problems.
Relationship with food
While analyzing your own relationship with diet and nutrition you can dig deep on a fact finding mission. It’s easy to get caught up in the numbers of weight loss, weight gain, muscle growth and fat loss. However, the numbers are only part of the story. Do you feel mentally sharp and well nourished, yet never overly full, through each day? Are you making progress toward your goals without feeling tortured by your diet? Are there certain meals or specific foods which simply do not agree with your body, despite being labeled ‘healthy foods’? Instead of focusing on the next fad diet try to find a nutrition plan which fits your lifestyle, caloric needs and energy requirements, yet does not feel forced or cause digestion issues. Most importantly find a healthy plan which you can fully commit to and enjoy.
Motivation to exercise
Keeping track of workouts and gym sessions doesn’t have to mean simply writing ‘sets and reps’ or ’30 minutes cardio’. We suggest actually logging how you’re feeling about your fitness program. If your workout program feels flat or doesn’t mentally excite you it may be time to switch things up. There are simply too many exercise options to keep doing something you dislike. If you’re dragging yourself to the gym for the same spin class you’ve been doing for ages consider popping into a HIIT workout. Changing your workout routine could be a bit uncomfortable at first, but this change can stimulate your brain and break you out of an unproductive cycle. Try something new this week and breathe new life into your fitness programming.
The Journey is the Destination
Along your journey to optimize your brain and body through exercise, nutrition, supplementation and healthy eating, be kind to yourself along the way. Having patience and a willingness to learn will allow you the grace to form new habits for long-term wellness. Stay open to learn, willing to try new things and be proud to embark on this journey of self-improvement.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to be medical advice. Please talk to your doctor before changing what you eat, how you exercise, or what vitamins you take.
