Mental Acuity, Keep the Thinker working and Avoid Alzheimer’s

Lifestyle can make a huge difference in maintaining brain functions such as memory, learning, judgment, and mental acuity.  Here are a few things according to Mayo Clinic, Andrews University, and Web MD that are beneficial in prevention of Alzheimers's Disease.

1. Control your stress, stress makes it difficult to remember things and to create memory files for new information.

2. Get your sleep! A habitual loss of 1-2 hours of sleep per night can impare brain function.

3. lower if high or maintain your blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose(blood sugars) in a healthy range

4. Keep your mind active through reading, word games such as crosswords or sudoku, staying up on current events, and engaging in conversations with the sharing of ideas.

5. Exercise, Exercise, Exercise!!

6. Maintain and grow healthy interpersonal relationships. This keeps the mind occupied in a healthy way.

7. Maintaining a healthy weight and getting a variety of vegetables, fruits, beans, whole grains, omega-3 rich nuts and seeds.

A few other factors which can cause memory problems are ongoing depression, use of certain prescription drugs, chronic pain, and a deficiency of vitamin B12 in the elderly.

The pleasure of food and obesity

It’s no secret that some of those high calorie sugary foods are enjoyable to the taste buds. But more than just the taste buds are stimulated; the chemical dopamine is also released in the brain giving the sensation of happiness. Scientists are finding that people who do not get the dopamine response quickly maybe more inclined to over eat. More...