The Power of a Brain Bank

Offset Brain Deterioration And Dementia At Any Age By Building A Robust Brain Bank

By Jill Hewlett

IT IS OFTEN REFERRED TO AS YOUR ‘COGNITIVE RESERVE’ AND IT IS WHERE YOUR GREATEST WEALTH RESIDES.

This is interesting and valuable information because it enhances one’s understanding of the REAL bottom line in their lives and workplaces - the power and value of their brain! Like the Federal Reserve which is intended to ensure a healthy and stable economy, your Brain Bank is what can support a healthy and stable YOU.

Incredible Discovery

In the late 1980s, researchers were shocked to discover individuals who had no apparent symptoms of dementia while they were alive. However, at autopsy they were found to have brain changes like those with advanced stage Alzheimer’s disease!

How could this be possible?

With further investigation, it became attributed to these individuals having a large enough cognitive reserve to prevent the dementia symptoms from appearing. The cognitive reserve is like a ‘cushion’ that offsets brain damage or deterioration. It allowed these individuals to continue to function normally during their living years.

Your Brain Cushion

The concept of having a ‘brain cushion’ is like having a ‘financial cushion’ that you can rely on in times of economic challenges. Along the same lines, a ‘brain cushion’ allows you to weather the impacts of stress,

With a healthy cognitive reserve, you can:

• Ward off degeneration

• Maintain brain health as you age

• Improvise and find alternate ways of getting a job done

• Make additional resources available to cope with challenges

• Function better and longer, even if exposed to unexpected life events such as stress, surgery, or toxins

How It Works

As you work to create and to fortify an abundance of healthy and strong neurological pathways through quality lifestyle choices and habits, you invest into building your cognitive reserve. In contrast, unhealthy lifestyle practises lead to sparser and weaker neurological connections, which inevitably predisposes an individual to brain health issues and degeneration.

Building Your Brain Bank

Thankfully, neuronal growth and neuroplasticity are lifelong processes, so you can build up your brain’s supply of “extra roads”, like dollars in a savings account.

You can do this by:

1. Trying new things

2. Engaging in hobbies

3. Continuing to learn

4. Taking courses and workshops

5. Cultivating your social network

6. Getting outdoors, inhaling fresh air

7. Eating healthy fresh foods

8. Supplementing with essential nutrients

9. Exercising and moving daily

Ultimately…

• The more you continue to activate your brain and mind, the more neural pathways (links) you will create between your neurons.

• The more neural pathways you have connecting your neurons, the easier it is for your brain to smoothly redirect signals and traffic around problem areas (such as injured areas, or amyloid plaques), and still get all the nerve messages to their destinations effectively and on time.

• This is why, and how, a person at autopsy can show tangible signs of Alzheimer’s, but during their living years, it was not at all noticeable by their mental sharpness or behaviours.

A cognitive reserve explains not only just how to ward off dementia but also that you can continue getting sharper at any age. Nothing about aging prevents you from doing so!

In fact, there is no such thing as being too old or too young to start building up your cognitive reserve. There is really no downside to it. In addition, most importantly, there is absolutely no reason to assume that your sharpest days are behind you, even if you are well into your golden years.

The overall health and state of your brain bank is up to you. You carry the same brain throughout your life span; you cannot get a new one - so it is best to invest proper time and care into the one you have.

As fitness professionals, you are in an ideal and critical position to support yourself and your clients in improving current and long-term brain function and building a robust cognitive reserve. By leveraging self-awareness and movement, your superpower neuroplasticity gets activated, brain cells strengthen, and new growth inevitably occurs.

Jill Hewlett is an internationally recognized Brain Fitness Expert & Wellness Authority. Licensed in Educational Kinesiology and Brain Gym® for over 20 years, Jill combines user-friendly neuroscience and inspired common sense strategies to draw out the natural leadership, resources, and resilience in individuals and organizations to achieve greater productivity, wellness, and success.