How do you stay productive in learning? How to get better concentration? How to prevent the occurrence of dementia? These questions all point to a key point, which is whether you have a healthy, energetic brain.
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Many people know that by exercising, we can maintain good health, have beautiful muscle lines and strong cardiopulmonary function; but few people know that the brain also has its own "cultivation method".
Xiao Xuan today to introduce five methods, take advantage of the time to master them at home, to make your brain healthier~
1 Get a good night's sleep
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Scientists have long discovered that good sleep is extremely important for brain health. Sleep can improve a variety of memory abilities, especially procedural memory and declarative memory.
Procedural memory
Refers to the memory of how to do things. For example, how to ride a bicycle, how to swim, etc. One thing these memories have in common is that once you learn, you don't need conscious involvement in recalling, they seem to happen automatically. Many athletes stay awake for long periods of time to consolidate this memory, such as Ailing Gu recently.
Declarative memory
It is the memory of facts and events. Its extraction often requires the participation of consciousness, such as the various textbook knowledge we learn in the classroom and the common sense of daily life belong to this type of memory.
Researchers have also begun to deduce the "logistical" role that sleep plays in the brain. There's an interesting protein, the Tau protein, that is released by brain neurons when we're awake. When we get a good night's sleep, the brain automatically clears about half of this protein. But if we have long-term insomnia, the Tau protein that should be reduced will increase.
So what happens when too much Tau protein wanders through the brain? Studies have found that too high the Tau protein may cause neuronal synapses to be reduced and nerve function to be impaired. In addition, the increase in Tau protein is associated with some terrible diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease. So, try to get a good night's sleep every night.
2 Healthy eating
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As the saying goes, people are like their food. Eating will not only change your body, but also your brain and mind. If you want to maintain a lot of brain power, there is one food you want to avoid as much as possible, and that is added sugar.
Sugar itself is not a bad thing, and we need glucose to function. Glucose is generally ingested from grains, carbohydrates, fruits, etc. Added sugar refers to sugars artificially added to food, including sugar in beverages, with sweet characteristics, common white sugar, cotton sugar, rock sugar and brown sugar. Studies have found a correlation between long-term high sugar intake and decreased cognitive function. A high-sugar diet can reduce the memory function of mice by influencing a key area of memory— the hippocampus.
The Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents recommend that the daily sugar intake per person should not exceed 50g, and it is best to limit it to less than 25g. However, in a bottle of 500ml cola, the sugar content has reached 53g. The health food that everyone usually thinks of, fruit juice, actually has a high sugar content. Therefore, please try to avoid adding sugar, for example, by relying too much on fat house happy water.
3 Learn something new
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There are many people who think that by the age of twenty or thirty, the brain is stereotyped and will not continue to develop. But in fact, our brains can always create new neuronal connections, provided you can keep learning.
Low levels of education can lead to an increased incidence of dementia. The decline in the incidence of dementia in some developed countries in the same age group is partly due to the improvement of the educational level of the population. A higher level of education increases the "cognitive reserve," which is equivalent to computer memory. When the memory is expanded, if a lesion occurs, the remaining memory can also maintain the normal operation of the body.
A study that looked at older adults aged 60-90 years found that active learning of new skills (sewing or photography) can improve episodic memory (a type of memory that Is particularly susceptible to damage with Alzheimer's disease). In addition, the more complex the new skills learned, the more memory improves. Therefore, we must live to be old and learn to be old. The two methods described below will help you learn better.
4 Exercise
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Exercise is so important because it not only enhances physical fitness, but also brain health. Studies have found that exercise's boost to brain health is played by multiple mechanisms.
From a molecular level, exercise can promote the release of BDNF protein, which is the brain's "fertilizer" to enhance memory, improve low mood, optimize sleep quality, etc., thereby helping to prevent dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
From the observation of brain structure, studies have shown that continuous exercise can enlarge the structure of the hippocampus (which is essential for memory) and some of the gray cortex.
Finally, from the observation of clinical manifestations, exercise can enhance people's memory ability and make their mood and sleep better through the above mechanisms. In a good mood, I can naturally focus more on learning. Regarding aerobic exercise and endurance training, scientists believe that aerobic exercise (such as jogging and swimming) is better for brain health. Of course, the best way to exercise is to follow your physical condition, step by step, and stick to it.
5 Meditation
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What exactly is meditation? Is meditation really good for people? Will meditation fall asleep? How to meditate? Maybe everyone has such a question.
One study used functional magnetic resonance (a type of magnetic resonance that allows the brain to be observed to function) to look at the effects of meditation on brain function. The subjects underwent a total of 8 weeks of meditation practice 5 times a week. The findings suggest that meditation can enhance the brain connection between two important brain networks within the brain—the default mode network (activated during mind wandering) and the dorsal attention network (activated during concentration), suggesting that meditation can switch quickly between mind-wandering and focused attention—that is, meditation practices can make you react faster and stay focused.
Attention is the searchlight of our brains, and steady attention is arguably the cornerstone of all brain cognitive functions and the most valuable resource in this age of information chaos (how long have you not calmed down and read a book without distraction?). ）。 The above is just one of the benefits of meditation, and others include reducing anxiety, improving sleep, stabilizing mood, and self-awareness. Meditation is something that everyone can do, it's not complicated and it's not sleepy (rather, it requires a high degree of concentration).
This article is excerpted from the public account: Zhongshan Shennei Brain Intelligence Platform
Author: He Min