And why you should care…
Despite brain related illnesses skyrocketing, we still don’t hear much about how to achieve brain health. After all, your brain is involved in everything you do and everything you are. All of us know someone who is suffering from anxiety, depression, Alzheimer’s, dementia, and other brain related conditions.
Why would a wellness coach care about your brain health? Because I work with individuals on lifestyle choices and behaviors and how to achieve behavior change. Also, the underlying condition of your brain is a huge indicator of success for your overall health and wellness.
So why aren’t we living our lives as if we are warriors for our brains?
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As women, I’m guessing that we spend a lot of our attention on heart and breast health. And, for a good reason! As a generation, we saw so many of our friends and families suffer through heart disease and breast cancer.
I am one of them. I myself lost my mother to breast cancer. I have several dear friends who are breast cancer survivors. I have participated in several breast cancer activities, like the three-day walk.
When it comes to the heart, every member of my immediate family is/was on heart medication. I brag about my blood pressure and resting heart rate.
Those two conditions are worth our attention. Heart disease is the leading killer of women. One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Yet, if you don’t become knowledgeable about your brain, illnesses in those two areas, and many others, are actually more likely.
Take care of your brain and it will take care of you.
Your brain weighs around three pounds. It works 24/7. It generates enough energy to power a lightbulb. It gets better with use. Last, it has various parts that work together to make you who you are, how you learn, strategize, create, behave, and love.
Specific parts of the brain are designed to do certain things.
Your brain is involved in how you think, feel and act, and how you get along with others. When it works right, you work right. When it doesn’t, you are more likely to run into trouble.
So how can you care for your brain?
I’m going to spend the next several weeks outlining 12 simple ways. Many of the strategies are related to lifestyle choices we make every day. My concierge and corporate clients develop small habits that cascade into a symphony of wellness strategies that ultimately help them find their beacon of wellness. I suggest adopting a small number of these tips instead of setting yourself up for frustration and disappointment.
Yet, I beg of you. Take on one now.
The Cleveland Clinic says, “Lifestyle has a profound impact on your brain health. What you eat and drink, how much you exercise, how well you sleep, the way you socialize, and how you manage stress are all critically important to your brain health.”
What we know:
- Alzheimer’s Disease is expected to triple in the next thirty years.
- 50 percent of people 85 and older will be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease or another form of dementia.
- Two million people in the U.S. are suffering with Alzheimer’s Disease and it is projected to quadruple by 2050.
- Depression is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s Disease, heart disease, cancer, and obesity.
- Hypertension, diabetes, obesity, depression, head trauma, higher cholesterol, and smoking all increase the risk of dementia.
Your first three tips are below. Stay tuned next week for the next several tips to get you in touch with and focused on fueling that brain for optimal health, wellness, and longevity.
- Get to know your brain: We have become warriors for breast cancer and heart disease. Let’s now become warriors for our brains. It is the most complicated organ in our body, by a long stretch. It can mean the difference between you reaching your wellness goals or not. Take note when something isn’t firing as you’d like. Question your doctor. Research it.
- Embrace health as a way of life: Give up the fad diets, cleanses, quick fixes. Embrace health as the ultimate goal. When we seek health, our minds and bodies come together in a symphony resulting in greater awareness and results in whole health.
- Become a lifelong learner: Learn something new every day. Learn someone else’s job. Break your routines or patterns so your brain doesn’t get tired. Find a new habit. Do crosswords, yes, yet the experts now say to do even more that is different.
