Keep your brain happy

Rona Trachtenberg

“Neuroplasticity” is a funny sounding word. But understanding this word can mean the difference between enjoying a positive, healthy, happy quality of life during your prime years and suffering the debilitating agony of permanent memory loss.

According to Dr. Marsha Chinichian, a Los Angeles-based clinical psychotherapist, neuroplasticity is simply defined as, “the brain’s ability to learn and adapt. The main point of neuroplasticity is that you can actually form and reorganize connections in your brain.

“For a long time we thought that humans were born with a ton of neurons, synapses, and connections, and as we got older, they simply died off. But now we’ve learned that isn’t true. We can actually make changes to further develop our brains. We’ve learned we can actually rewire our brains.”

Katie McCallum, in her 2021 article in the Houston Methodist, explains, “While we might think the brain is a muscle, it is really a three-pound organ made up of soft tissue called gray matter and white matter, which contains neurons and glial cells that help maintain the neurons. Neurons are special cells that send and receive information throughout your body in the form of electrical and chemical signals.

“These signals control and facilitate movement, senses, thought, reasoning, emotions, vital functions (respiration, heart rate), and memory.”

Studies suggest that our cognitive skills decline over time. By age 65, it may be difficult for our brains to learn new concepts, think strategically, multi-task, focus when presented with competing stimuli, process new information, react with fast reflexes, or remember facts and personal experiences.

While the brain isn’t a muscle, it has been proven that stimulating the brain can improve how well it functions and possibly reduce the risk of dementia.

In 1988, Dr. Lawrence Katz, coined the term “Neur-obics” and published his book, Keep Your Brain Alive: 83 Neurobic Exercises to Help Prevent Memory Loss and Increase Mental Fitness, Dr. Katz proposes that we exercise our brain cells. On his website (keepyourbrainalive.com) he offers a free introductory quiz entitled, “How brain healthy is your lifestyle?” and then presents free, easy-to-follow mental exercises.

I once had the privilege of interviewing a 100-year old man who resided in an assisted living facility. I had to ask for the secret behind his longevity and his stillsharp mind. He immediately responded by pointing to a basic high school math book. He proudly informed me, “Every morning I go through this book and practice the math drills. This is how I have kept my brain functioning at its peak level as I celebrate my 100th birthday.” So you see, we train our brain cells to stay healthy and happy.

BRAIN TRAINING

In the 2020 online article, “6 Ways to Rewire Your Brain” (healthline.com/ health/rewiring-your-brain), author Crystal Raypole notes that, “Neuroplasticity also seems to have promise as a driver of potential treatment for certain mental

Rewiring your brain might sound pretty complicated, but it’s absolutely something you can do at home

health conditions. Experts believe the negative thought patterns that occur with depression, for example, could result from interrupted or impaired neuroplasticity processes. Exercises that promote positive neuroplasticity, then, may help ‘rewrite’ these patterns to improve well-being. Rewiring your brain might sound pretty complicated, but it’s absolutely something you can do at home.”

For example, Raypole recommends playing video games. “The benefits associated with gaming include improvements in: motor coordination, visual recognition and spatial navigation, memory and reaction time, reasoning, decision making, and problem-solving skills, resilience, and cooperation and team participation. In short, when you play video games, you teach your brain new skills.

“These effects can improve your gameplay, certainly, but they also carry over to the rest of your life: learning to recover from failure in a game can help you get better at bouncing back from setbacks. Exploring different solutions to a task in a game can help enhance creative thinking.

“Different types of games may offer varying benefits:

3-D adventure games seemed to contribute to improvements in memory, problem-solving, and scene recognition. Puzzle games help boost problemsolving skills, brain connectivity, and spatial prediction.

Rhythm gaming, like dance or exercise video games, can help improve visuospatial memory and attention.” The

Langford Methodist Retirement Communities recommend the following five things seniors should do every day to stay sharp:

1. Get physical exercise. Exercising your muscles exercises your mind. Physical activity also increases the connections between nerves in your brain, which can help to make your brain sharper, and help it to stay that way.

2. Be social. Socialization with others can decrease the risk of dementia, improve emotional health, and can lengthen your life expectancy.

3. Learn. Challenge your brain with new information. Education can help to improve your memory. Neurologists have told us that learning a new skill enables our brain to produce more neurons and create healthy connections between synapses. You don’t have to be in a classroom to keep learning. Take up a musical instrument, join a chorus, learn a new language, start knitting, read a new book, learn a new word a day, take up art, travel and see new places, sign up for yoga or Zumba, organize the things in your closet, do woodworking, play cards, or teach someone your favorite hobby.

4. Enjoy a healthy diet. A diet low in saturated and trans fats can not only improve your physical health, but your brain health as well. Foods rich in antioxidants can slow the aging process in your brain. Try some blueberries or raspberries the next time you are reaching for a snack. Your brain will thank you.

5. Save your energy. Don’t waste your brain’s energy on the small things. By creating a routine of where you leave your keys, glasses, and cell phone, you save your brain’s energy for learning new concepts.

My personal improvement tool is: an organized brain is a happy brain. Conversely, a chaotic, cluttered environment impedes the brain and its body from functioning efficiently. As a personal organizer, I can attest to how much more productive my clients are after they have organized their belongings.

By creating a new system, organizing and re-arranging the space for your belongings, you can help train your brain. For example, if you were to go into your kitchen cabinet and switch around some of the items on your shelves, you would be stimulating, strengthening, and forcing your brain cells to learn the new location and thereby create new neural pathways.

Wouldn’t you agree that, in this day and age of Alzheimer’s Disease, anything we can do to help our brain cells is to our advantage?

If you are already doing the Sunday NYT Crossword, Sudoku, or Adult Coloring, you are on the road to a healthy brain.