FACTS FOR FAMILIES: You're Never Too Old To Practice Brain Fitness

When someone asks you to think about health, wellness and fitness, you usually think about physical health, exercise or nutrition.

As people age, they often concentrate on improving and maintaining their physical health, when they should also be working on their cognitive or brain health.

Since this is Brain Health Awareness Week (March 11-17), I would like to share a few things you can do to maintain a healthy brain.

Getting enough good, quality sleep is important along with eating a heart healthy diet and exercising regularly.

I have heard the phrase “what’s good for the heart is good for the brain” more than once while working with this topic.

Lowering your stress levels and keeping solid social connections and support also contribute to achieving good brain health. Researchers agree that challenging your brain daily is also beneficial and necessary to maintain brain health and delay cognitive decline as we get older.

You are never too young or old too start practicing brain “fitness.” We need to challenge our brains with many different activities. It is essential to reach beyond what is comfortable and try new exercises and activities that are interesting, varied and make us think a little more.

If an activity becomes too easy, we are not really exercising anymore, so we have to adjust the level of difficulty so that we feel challenged again. Not only is it important to get out of our comfort zone, but variety is also key.

Our brain has many different areas to keep “fit.” Just as we wouldn’t be considered physically fit if we only exercised our legs, we couldn’t achieve total brain health if we only focus on one area such as short-term memory. When we practice brain fitness, we also have to exercise the areas of critical thinking, spatial reasoning, and long-term memory.

Do you have to take a class to practice brain fitness? No. Will you be more likely to practice brain exercises while having a good time with others if you do? Yes!

I facilitate brain exercise classes each month called Wits Fitness Brain Training. The classes are held at the Sullivan Senior Center on the fourth Monday at 1 p.m. and the Life Center in Toledo on the fourth Friday at 10:30 a.m.. On the first Monday I also teach at the LifeSpan Center in Coles County at 10 a.m. and at the Shelby County Senior Center at 1 p.m. Note – this month I will be in Coles County on March 18 at 10 a.m. and in Shelby County on the March 28 at 1 p.m. due to an illness earlier this month. There is no fee to attend and everyone is welcome! If you have any questions you can contact me by e-mail at cburcham@illinois.edu or give me a call at 217-543-3755. We always seem to have a great time at these classes. I tell people that you are never too old to get started, but the earlier you start challenging your brain, the better! So what are you waiting for? Start working out your brain right away!

Fun Facts About The Brain You Didn’t Know

How the brain works

The brain is part of your body’s central nervous system. It’s the most complicated part of your body. It has the ability to send and receive an enormous amount of information. Because it is so complex, there are some things doctors and scientists don’t completely understand yet about it. This also means that there are some amazing things you may not know about your brain.

21 fun facts about the brain

1) Signs of successful brain surgeries go as far back as the Stone Age.

2) An adult brain weighs about 3 pounds.

3) About 75 percent of the brain is made up of water. This means that dehydration, even in small amounts, can have a negative effect on the brain functions.

4) The largest brain of any animal is that of the sperm whale. It weighs about 20 pounds.

5) The human brain will grow three times its size in the first year of life. It continues to grow until you’re about 18 years old.

6) Headaches are caused by a chemical reaction in your brain combined with the muscles and nerves of your neck and head.

7) The brain of a human contains approximately one hundred billion neurons

8) It is a myth that humans only use 10 percent of our brain. We actually use all of it. We’re even using more than 10 percent when we sleep.

9) Cholesterol is key to learning and memory. However, high cholesterol has different effects depending on your age and other factors.

10) Information runs between neurons in your brain for everything we see, think, or do. These neurons move information at different speeds. The fastest speed for information to pass between neurons is about 250 mph.

11) Dreams are believed to be a combination of imagination, phycological factors, and neurological factors. They prove that your brain is working even when you are sleeping.

12) Phantom limb pain syndrome is when the central nervous system, which includes your brain, continues to feel the pain of a limb that has been amputated.

13) The brain can’t feel pain. It interprets pain signals sent to it, but it does not feel pain.

14) A brain freeze is really a sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia. It happens when something you eat or drink something that’s cold. It chills the blood vessels and arteries in the very back of the throat, including the ones that take blood to your brain. These constrict when they’re cold and open back up with they’re warm again, causing the pain in your forehead.

15) The human brain begins to lose some memory abilities as well as some cognitive skills by your late 20s.

16) The human brain gets smaller as we get older. This usually happens sometime after middle age.

17) During the mummification process, Egyptians would usually remove the brains through the nose.

18) Alcohol effects your brain in ways that include blurred vision, slurred speaking, an unsteady walk, and more. These usually disappear once you become sober again. However, if you drink often for long periods of time, there is evidence that alcohol can affect your brain permanently and not reverse once you become sober again. Long term effects include memory issues and some reduced cognitive function.

19) Eyewitness accounts of criminal suspects is usually only about 50 percent accurate because it is difficult for your brain to remember the details of someone you’re not familiar with. Traumatic events can also affect the brains ability to remember details.

20) Computer or video games may help improve cognitive abilities. However, more studies must be conducted to learn how much they help or what types of games help.

21) Your brain uses 20 percent of the oxygen and blood in your body.

The takeaway

There’s a lot about the brain that doctors and scientists still don’t completely understand. However, they’re learning more each day. There are still a lot of interesting things to be learned about the part of you that does the most work. Just like the rest of your body, the brain needs a healthy diet, exercise, and the right amount of sleep to perform its best.

Watch Jaden Smith Grapple With Brain-Bending Facts About The Universe

Jaden Smith is one of the world’s foremost young philosophers, as proven time and time again by his eccentric tweets. So who better than Jaden to blow your mind with a string of insane facts about the universe that’ll make you question everything you thought you knew?

The 18-year-old actor and musician was recently named a “style star” to watch by Vanity Fair. During his photo shoot with the mag, he sat down to read some shocking truths about the human brain, outer space, and human existence in general.

“On Saturn and Jupiter, it rains diamonds,” Jaden explains in the vid, before shaking his head and asking, “How?” He’s equally perplexed by such facts as “You were once the youngest person in existence” and “50 percent of human DNA is shared with a banana.” Indeed, life is a riddle, and not even young Jaden has all the answers.