Women are About Twice as Likely to Develop Alzheimer’s disease. Strengthening the seven pillars in your daily life can help with prevention!
Researchers believe the increased risk for women can be linked to menopause. As a woman, a drop in estrogen may trigger symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats but can also affect your brain!
Estrogen protects brain cells from aging, a large decrease during menopause may make you more vulnerable to Alzheimer’s later in life.
Start taking preventative steps NOW to lower your risk of developing Alzheimer’s as you age!
Using the seven pillars in middle age can be beneficial, (especially adopting a healthy diet!) Eating foods rich in antioxidants such as fruit, leafy green vegetables, and nuts may help protect your brain, while flaxseeds, soy, nuts, red wine, and fruits such as strawberries, peaches, and apricots can help naturally boost estrogen levels. Hormone replacement therapy can carry risks, but there’s evidence to suggest that taking supplemental estrogen before menopause may help lower your chances of developing dementia.
According to an article by Lawrence Robinson, Melinda Smith, M.A. and Jeanne Segal Ph.D., there are seven pillars for a brain-healthy lifestyle that are within your control:
- Regular Exercise
- Social Engagement
- Healthy Diet
- Mental Stimulation
- Quality Sleep
- Stress Management
- Vascular Health
The more you strengthen each of the seven pillars in your daily life, the longer—and stronger—your brain will stay working. Click here to read details and tips on the last 4 pillars. (If you missed the info on pillars 1-3 click here!)
#4: Mental Stimulation. It’s important to continue learning new things and challenging your brain throughout life. Whether you’re looking to prevent the onset of dementia or delay its progression, when it comes to your brain the key is to “use it or lose it.” In the groundbreaking NIH ACTIVE study, older adults who received as few as 10 sessions of mental training not only improved their cognitive functioning in daily activities in the months after the training but continued to show long-lasting improvements 10 years later.
Set aside time each day to stimulate your brain:
Learn something new. Study a foreign language, practice a musical instrument, or learn to paint or sew. One of the best ways to take up a new hobby is to sign up for a class and then schedule regular times for practicing. The greater the novelty, complexity, and challenge, the greater the benefit.
Raise the bar for an existing activity. If you’re not keen on learning something new, you can still challenge your brain by increasing your skills and knowledge of something you already do. For example, if you can play the piano and don’t want to learn a new instrument, commit to learning a new piece of music or improving how well you play your favorite piece.
Practice memorization techniques. For example, make up a sentence in which the first letter of each word represents the initial of what you want to remember, such as using the sentence “Every good boy does fine” to memorize the notes of the treble clef, E, G, B, D, and F. Creating rhymes and patterns can strengthen your memory connections.
Enjoy strategy games, puzzles, and riddles. Brain teasers and strategy games provide a great mental workout and build your capacity to form and retain cognitive associations. Do a crossword puzzle, play board games, cards, or word and number games such as Scrabble or Sudoku.
Follow the road less traveled. Take a new route or eat with your non-dominant hand. Vary your habits regularly to create new brain pathways.
#5: Quality Sleep. There are a number of links between poor sleep patterns and the development of Alzheimer’s and dementia. Some studies have emphasized the importance of quality sleep for flushing out toxins in the brain. Others have linked poor sleep to higher levels of beta-amyloid in the brain, a sticky protein that can further disrupt the deep sleep necessary for memory formation. If nightly sleep deprivation is slowing your thinking and or affecting your mood, you may be at greater risk of developing or deteriorating symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.
To help improve your sleep:
Establish a regular sleep schedule. Going to bed and getting up at the same time reinforces your natural circadian rhythms. Your brain’s clock responds to regularity.
Set the mood. Reserve your bed for sleep and sex and ban television and computers from the bedroom (both are stimulating and may lead to difficulties falling asleep).
Create a relaxing bedtime ritual. Take a hot bath, do some light stretches, listen to relaxing music, or dim the lights. As it becomes a habit, your nightly ritual will send a powerful signal to your brain that it’s time for deep restorative sleep.
Quiet your inner chatter. When stress, anxiety, or worrying keeps you awake, get out of bed. Try reading or relaxing in another room for twenty minutes then hop back in.
Get screened for sleep apnea. If you’ve received complaints about your snoring, you may want to get tested for sleep apnea, a potentially dangerous condition where breathing is disrupted during sleep. Treatment can make a huge difference in both your health and sleep quality and quantity.
#6: Stress management. Chronic or persistent stress can take a heavy toll on the brain, leading to shrinkage in a key memory area, hampering nerve cell growth, and increasing the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Yet simple stress management tools can minimize its harmful effects and protect your brain.
Breathe! Quiet your stress response with deep, abdominal breathing. Restorative breathing is powerful, simple, and free!
Schedule daily relaxation activities. Keeping stress under control requires regular effort. Learning relaxation techniques such as meditation, progressive muscle relaxation, or yoga can help you unwind and reverse the damaging effects of stress.
Nourish inner peace. Regular meditation, prayer, reflection, and religious practice may immunize you against the damaging effects of stress.
Make fun a priority. All work and no play is not good for your stress levels or your brain. Make time for leisure activities that bring you joy, whether it be stargazing, playing the piano, or working on your bike.
Keep your sense of humor. This includes the ability to laugh at yourself. The act of laughing helps your body fight stress.
#7 Vascular Health
There’s more and more evidence to indicate that what’s good for your heart is also good for your brain. Maintaining your cardiovascular health can be crucial in protecting your brain and lowering your risk for different types of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. And of course, addressing heart-health issues can also help you to lower your risk for a future heart attack or stroke.
Control Your Blood Pressure. Hypertension or high blood pressure is strongly associated with an increased risk of dementia. High blood pressure can damage tiny blood vessels in the parts of the brain responsible for cognition and memory. The latest American Heart Association guidelines class blood pressure readings of 130/80 mm Hg and above as the start of high blood pressure.
Check your blood pressure at home. A study in the Netherlands found that a large variation in blood pressure readings over a period of years was associated with an increased risk of dementia. Inexpensive monitors that wrap around your upper arm can help you keep track of your blood pressure throughout the day and pick up on any variations. Some devices even send the results to your phone so you can easily track your readings or share them with your doctor.
Be consistent in taking your prescribed medication. Research from Johns Hopkins found that those prescribed antihypertensive medication to control high blood pressure lowered their dementia risk by about a third.
Don’t ignore low blood pressure. While it affects far fewer of us, low blood pressure (hypotension) can also reduce blood flow to the brain. While the American Heart Association offers no specific measurement for when blood pressure is considered too low, symptoms such as dizziness, blurred vision, and unsteadiness when standing may indicate a problem.
Make healthy diet and lifestyle changes. Exercising, trimming your waistline, lowering your stress, and reducing your salt, caffeine, and alcohol intake can all help to lower your blood pressure. Try to cut back on takeout, canned, and processed food which tend to be high in sodium and replace them with fresh vegetables and fruit.
The DASH diet for lowering blood pressure. The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, or DASH diet, is a specially designed eating plan to help you lower your blood pressure. When combined with a reduction in salt, the DASH diet may help lower your blood pressure without the need for medication.
Other vascular Health Tips:
Pay attention to your cholesterol level. Studies show a connection between high cholesterol (especially in midlife) and Alzheimer’s and dementia. Working to improve your #’s will benefit both your heart and your brain.
Stop smoking. Smoking is one of the most preventable risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. One study found that smokers over the age of 65 have a nearly 80% higher risk of Alzheimer’s than those who have never smoked. When you stop smoking, the brain benefits from improved circulation almost immediately. The more preventative steps you can start taking NOW the lower your risk of developing Alzheimer’s as you age!
The more you strengthen each of the seven pillars in your daily life, the longer—and stronger—your brain will stay working. If you missed Part I of this article on pillars 1-3 click here!)
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