7 ways to make your brain better, faster, and smarter - 思维导图的博客网 - 博客大巴

7 ways to make your brain better, faster, and smarter.

1. Move It
   Quick -- what‘s the No. 1 thing you can do for your brain‘s health?Differential calculus, you say? Chess? Chaos theory? Nope, the bestbrain sharpener may be ... sneakers? Yup. Once they‘re on your feet,you can pump up your heart rate. "The best advice I can give to keepyour brain healthyand young is aerobic exercise," says Donald Stuss, PhD, aneuropsychologist and director of the Rotman Research Institute atBaycrest Centre for Geriatric Care in Toronto.

MarkMcDaniel, PhD, professor of psychology at Washington University in St.Louis, agrees, but adds, "I would suggest a combined program of Aerobics and weight training. Studies show the best outcomes for those engaged in both types of exercise."

    As we age, our brain cells, called neurons, lose the tree-branch-likeconnections between them. These connections, or synapses, are essentialto thought. Quite literally, over time, our brains lose their heft.Perhaps the most striking brain research today is the strong evidencewe now have that "exercise may forestall some kinds of mental decline,"notes McDaniel. It may even restore memory. Myriad animal studies haveshown that, among other brain benefits, aerobic exercise increasescapillary development in the brain, meaning more blood supply, morenutrients and -- a big requirement for brain health -- more oxygen.

     The preeminent exercise and brain-health researcherin humans is Arthur Kramer at the University of Illinois atUrbana-Champaign. In a dozen studies over the past few years, withtitles such as "Aerobic Fitness Reduces Brain Tissue Loss in AgingHumans," Kramer and his colleagues have proved two critical findings:Fit people have sharper brains, and people who are out of shape, butthen get into shape, sharpen up their brains. This second finding isvital. There‘s no question that working out makes you smarter, and itdoes so, Kramer notes, at all stages of life. Just as important, exercise staves off heart disease, obesity, Diabetes and other maladies that increase the risk of brain problems as we age.

2. Feed It

   Another path to a better brain is through your stomach. We‘ve all heardabout antioxidants as cancer fighters. Eating foods that contain thesemolecules, which neutralize harmful free radicals, may be especiallygood for your brain too. Free radicals have nothing to do with Berkeley politics andeverything to do with breaking down the neurons in our brains. Manycolorful fruits and vegetables are packed with antioxidants, as aresome beans, whole grains, nuts and spices.

     More important, though, is overall nutrition.In concert with a good workout routine, you should eat right to avoidthe diseases that modern flesh is heir to. High blood pressure, Diabetes, obesity and high cholesterol all make life tough on your brain, says Carol Greenwood, PhD, a geriatric research scientist at the University of Toronto.

    If your diet is heavy, then you‘re probably also heavy. The same weightthat burdens your legs on the stairs also burdens your brain for thewitty reply or quick problem solving. The best things you can eat foryour body, Greenwood notes, are also the best things you can eat foryour brain. Your brain is in your body, after all. Greenwood‘srecommendation is to follow the dietary guidelines from the AmericanDiabetes Association (available at Diabetes.org).

3. Speed It Up

     Sorry to say, our brains naturally start slowing down at the cruellyyoung age of 30 (yes, 30). It used to be thought that this couldn‘t behelped, but a barrage of new studies show that people of any age cantrain their brains to be faster and, in effect, younger. "Your brain isa learning machine," says Michael Merzenich, PhD, a neuroscientist atthe University of California, San Francisco. Given the right tools, wecan train our brains to act like they did when we were younger. Allthat‘s required is dedicated practice: exercises for the mind.

     Merzenich has developed a computer-based training regimen to speed up how the brain processes information (positscience.com).Since much of the data we receive comes through speech, the BrainFitness Program works with language and hearing to improve both speedand accuracy. Over the course of your training, the program startsasking you to distinguish sounds (between "dog" and "bog," forinstance) at an increasingly faster rate. It‘s a bit like a tennisinstructor, says Merzenich, shooting balls at you faster and fasterover the course of the summer to keep you challenged. Though you mayhave started out slow, by Labor Day you‘re pretty nimble.

      Similarly, Nintendo was inspired by the research of a Japanese doctor to develop a handheld game called Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day, which has sold more than two million copies in Japan. No software outthere has yet been approved by the FDA as a treatment for cognitiveimpairment, but an increasing number of reputable scientific studiessuggest that programs like Merzenich‘s could help slow down typicalbrain aging, or even treat dementia. The biggest finding in brainresearch in the last ten years is that the brain at any age is highlyadaptable, or "plastic," as neurologists put it. If you ask your brainto learn, it will learn. And it may speed up in the process.

     To keep your brain young and supple, you can purchase software likeMerzenich‘s, or you can do one of a million new activities thatchallenge and excite you: playing Ping-Pong or contract bridge, doingjigsaw puzzles, learning a new language or the tango, taking accordionlessons, building a kit airplane, mastering bonsai technique,discovering the subtleties of beer-brewing and, sure, relearningdifferential calculus.

    "Anything that closely engages your focus and is strongly rewarding,"says Merzenich, will kick your brain into learning mode and necessarilynotch it up. For his part, Merzenich, 64, has "4,000 hobbies,"including a wood shop and a vineyard.

4. Stay Calm

     So you may be saying to yourself, I have to sign up right now forSwahili and calculus and accordion lessons before my brain withersaway! Stop! Breathe. Relax. Good.

     While challenging your brain is very important, remaining calm isequally so. In a paper on the brain and stress, Jeansok Kim of theUniversity of Washington asserts, in no uncertain terms, that traumaticstress is bad for your brain cells. Stress can "disturb cognitiveprocesses such as learning and memory, and consequently limit thequality of human life," writes Kim.

     One example is a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which is aprimary locus of memory formation, but which can be seriouslydebilitated by chronic stress. Of course, physical exercise is always agreat destressor, as are calmer activities like yoga and meditation. And when you line up your mental calisthenics (your Swahili and swing lessons), make sure you can stay loose and have fun.

5. Give It a Rest

     Perhaps the most extreme example of the mental power of staying calm isthe creative benefit of sleep. Next time you‘re working on a complexproblem, whether it be a calculus proof or choosing the right car foryour family, it really pays to "sleep on it."

     Researchers at Harvard Medical School have looked at the conditionsunder which people come up with creative solutions. In a studyinvolving math problems, they found that a good night‘s rest doubledparticipants‘ chances of finding a creative solution to the problemsthe next day. The sleeping brain, they theorize, is vastly capable ofsynthesizing complex information.

6. Laugh a Little

     humor stimulatesthe parts of our brain that use the "feel good" chemical messengerdopamine. That puts laughter in the category of activities you want todo over and over again, such as eating chocolate or having sex.Laughter is pleasurable, perhaps even "addictive," to the brain.

    But can humor make us smarter? The jury is still out and more studiesare needed, but the initial results are encouraging. Look for a featureon exciting new research about humor and intelligence in the September issue of Reader‘s Digest.

7. Get Better With Age

     In our youth-obsessed culture, no one‘s suggesting a revision to theConstitution allowing 20-year-olds to run for President. The agerequirement remains at 35. You‘ve heard about the wisdom and judgmentof older people? Scientists are starting to understand how wisdom workson a neurological level.

     When you are older, explains Merzenich, "you have recorded in yourbrain millions and millions of little social scenarios and facts" thatyou can call upon at any time. Furthermore, he notes, "you are a muchbetter synthesizer and integrator of that information."

     Older people are better at solving problems, because they have moremental information to draw upon than younger people do. That‘s whythose in their 50s and 60s are sage. They‘re the ones we turn to forthe best advice, the ones we want to run our companies and our country.

       As Barry Gordon, a neurologist at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine andauthor of Intelligent Memory: Improve the Memory That Makes YouSmarter, puts it, "It‘s nice to know some things get better with age."