Developing dementia and Alzheimer’s does not have to be an accepted part of getting older. Your brain has an incredible ability to grow new brain cells and stay young as you age. Even if you’ve noticed you’re becoming forgetful, you can still increase brain cells and neurons. It isn’t hard to do, and you can start rebuilding brain cells and preserve the ones you have today.
How Learning Keeps the Brain Young and Healthy
If you use the same synapses day after day, other brain synapses can wither away from non-use. As we learn new subjects, our brain actually changes. Learning causes our brains to build new synapses and neural connections.
It was once thought that when we reached our twenties, the brain stopped growing. Our brain consists of many billions of nerve cells that are called neurons. These neurons talk to each other using chemical messengers. Signals to the brain cause neurons to send their own signals, and so on.
A cell sends its signals when an electrical signal travels through that cell. When the cell’s signal reaches the end of the path or axon, it triggers the release of chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. These chemicals leap across tiny gaps between neurons. These gaps are called synapses.
The more neurons we have, the smarter we become and the faster our brains can function. And learning builds new neurons. Keeping the brain active is how learning anything new can help your brain function better.
Activities like learning a new language or new subject, enjoying a hobby, doing mind puzzles, reading or anything that keeps your mind active helps.
Diabetes and Brain Health
Some scientists and doctors are now calling Alzheimer’s disease type 3 diabetes. It is thought that the same dietary factors that cause type 2 diabetes also contribute to Alzheimer’s.
A high-fat diet is believed to impair how the brain processes insulin. Insulin resistance is the first step to getting type 2 diabetes.
In the brain, insulin resistance occurs when the neurons in the brain are unable to respond to insulin, which could lead to type 3 diabetes or Alzheimer’s disease.
In type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance occurs when there is too much fat circulating in the blood. This fat inhibits insulin from getting glucose into the cells. The pancreas has to produce more and more insulin, leading to insulin resistance.
A 2016 study found that people with type 2 diabetes are up to 60 percent more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease
or vascular dementia, another form of dementia. According to the study, women with type 2 diabetes had a higher risk of developing vascular dementia than men. [1]
Eat a Healthy Diet for a Young and Healthy Brain
Eating a diet full of plant foods like vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds, and fruits and berries is good for the brain because they contain phytonutrients or phytochemicals. Plant foods contain many thousands of different phytonutrients that you cannot get from animal foods like meat, fish, or dairy.
There is a long list of health benefits associated with phytonutrients, including their ability to reduce the risk of diseases like cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. One group of phytonutrients is flavonoids, which are powerful antioxidants.
Plant foods have at least 4,000 different types of flavonoids. These antioxidants rid our bodies of free radicals. Free radicals lead to oxidative stress in our bodies and are believed to contribute to age-related diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease. A cut apple that has been sitting out turns brown from oxidation, the same oxidation that can cause damage to your body.
Free radicals damage our entire body. In the brain, the damage can be seen as memory loss. Eating a diet mainly of plant foods that contain antioxidants will continually keep these free radicals from damaging your brain and your body.
Eating less saturated fat from animal foods is also healthy for the brain. Saturated fat has been shown to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by 39% and increase the risk of dementia by 105%. [2]You can get plenty of healthy fat from plant-based foods.
A diet that has a healthy omega-6 to omega-3 ratio is also necessary to keep your brain young and healthy. Omega 6 foods are primarily animal foods and processed seed and vegetable oils. These foods cause inflammation which can lead to dementia.
Some of the best foods to increase your intake of omega-3 fatty acids are walnuts, ground flax seeds, ground chia seeds and some fatty fish. Studies have found fish oil does not have the same beneficial effects as food does.
When you eat a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids and low in omega-6, you reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease, dementia, and cognitive decline. A large review of studies found growing evidence of a link between the dietary omega-6 to omega-3 ratio and the risk of Alzheimer's disease. A healthy ratio would be 2:1. [3]
Eating a whole food plant-based diet is the best way to eat to keep your brain young and healthy. There is a saying that you should eat the rainbow, which means making your meals as colorful as possible. The different colors of plant foods all represent the various healthy phytonutrients.
Another benefit of eating a whole food plant-based diet is that it can help you reverse type 2 diabetes and lose weight. Both are beneficial for the health of your brain. Dr. Michael Greger of NutritionFacts.org explains clearly in the following video how a healthy diet can help prevent Alzheimer's disease.
Exercise Keeps the Brain Young and Healthy
- Improves blood flow to the brain
- Improves oxygen flow to the brain
- Improves cardiovascular health
- Reduces inflammation throughout your entire body
- Lowers levels of damaging stress hormones like cortisol
Exercise promotes neurogenesis, which is the process that creates new neurons in the brain. Exercising helps your brain continue to grow new neurons and new neural connections, improving memory and cognition.
Light physical exercise can equal 1.4 to 2.5 years of less brain aging and a higher total brain volume. A study found that walking 7, 500 steps led to higher brain volume when compared to those who walked fewer than 5,000 steps. [4]
Another study found that exercise also encouraged brain plasticity by stimulating the growth of new connections between cells in important areas of the brain. Any type of aerobic exercise, including walking, raised the heart rate, which increases blood flow and oxygen to the brain, which helps the brain stay healthy.
Resistance training, like moderate weight lifting, was found to be protective against mild cognitive impairment, which is a precursor to Alzheimer's disease and dementia. The patients in the study who did strength training twice a week showed a significant improvement in their cognitive function. [5]
The follow-up study found that resistance training thickens the gray matter in the part of the brain that is usually affected early in the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. In other words, weight lifting helps build both muscles and brain cells. Resistance training doesn't require going to the gym as you can use dumbbells or resistance bands [6]
The Six Pillars of Brain Health
You can control much of what affects the health of your brain throughout your life by adhering to the six pillars of brain health.
- Eat a healthy and colorful diet consisting of mostly foods from plants.
- Engage in physical exercise. Studies have shown that people who exercise regularly have a lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
- Exercise your brain by doing mind puzzles, reading, enjoying a hobby and learning new things.
- Get good quality sleep and learn how to manage stress.
- Interact with others socially.
- Control medical risks. Quit smoking, reduce or eliminate alcohol, lose weight, reverse type 2 diabetes, lower cholesterol and watch your blood pressure.
Better Brain Health Summary
For better brain health, to lower dementia risk, improve brain functioning and cognitive ability, and ward off mental decline, all you have to do is eat a healthy diet, get good quality sleep, engage in physical activity, use brain games and stay mentally active.
It might sound like a lot to do, but having good mental health and making sure you keep your brain healthy is worth the effort. Memory loss is nothing to take lightly, especially in older adults.
About The Author
Sam Montana is certified in optimal nutrition from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a certified Food Over Medicine instructor from the Wellness Health Forum Center.
© 2021 Sam Montana/Healthy Food and Life
Resources
[1] https://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/39/2/300
[2] Curr Alzheimer Res. 2018;15(9):869-876. Dietary Fat Intake and Risk of Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia: A Meta-Analysis of Cohort Studies.
[3] J Nutr Gerontol Geriatr. 2013;32(1):1-23. The omega-6/omega-3 ratio and dementia or cognitive decline.
[4] JAMA Netw Open. 2019 Apr; 2(4): e192745. Association of Accelerometer-Measured Light-Intensity Physical Activity With Brain Volume.
[5] JAMDA Volume 15, ISSUE 12, P873-880, December 01, 2014. The Study of Mental and Resistance Training (SMART) Study—Resistance Training and/or Cognitive Training in Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Double-Sham Controlled Trial
[6] The University of Sydney: Physical and mental exercises protect memory by rewiring the brain
