Edited by TheGreatDeciever, Jaysmomma, Krystle, Tipsy and 16 others
Steps
Part One: Testing Your Current Brain Age
Check your reaction time. Ask another person to hold a 12" (30 cm) ruler in front of you.
- Place your open hand under the ruler and have your tester drop the ruler without letting you know. Catch it when you can.
- See where you rate (distance passed when caught):
- Less than 4" (10 cm) = age 20
- 6" (15 cm) = age 25
- 8" (20 cm) = age 30
- 10" (25 cm) = age 35
- 12" (30 cm) or a complete miss = age 40+
Test your balance. Stand up. Raise one leg to the front with your knee bent at a right angle and hold your arms out to the sides.
- Close your eyes and see how long you can hold this position. Just
make sure, especially if you're older, that you have someone there to
catch you if you fall or that you have a soft place to land.
- Check your results (time passed before having to return leg to floor):
- Over 30 seconds = age 20
- 20 to 30 seconds = age 30
- 15 to 20 seconds = age 40
- 10 to 15 seconds = age 50
- Less than 10 seconds = age 60.
Evaluate your memory. You'll need a partner for this test.
- Write out a list of 6 different sentences. Have someone else place 2
mixed up letters (and/or symbols) on Line 1, 4 on Line 2, 6 on Line 3, 8
on Line 4, 10 on Line 5, and 12 on Line 6.
- Read a line and then cover that line up. Write down what you have
remember next to the covered up line. Repeat this step until you've gone
through each line.
- Calculate how much of each sentence you remembered correctly and
write it down as a percentage. Add all 6 percentages and then divide
that number by a total of 6 to get an average.
- Rate yourself (by percentage correct):
- 100% = age 20
- 90% = age 30
- 80% = age 40
- 70% = age 50
- 60% = age 60
- 50% = age 70
- 40% = age 80
- 30% or below = age 90[2]
Part Two: Sharpening Your Brain With Healthy Habits
Pick out foods that feed your brain.
Find a balance between food types, keeping processed foods to a minimum
and choosing healthy fats, proteins and carbohydrates to fuel your
brain.
Choose healthy fats. Here are some things that you can do to increase your intake of good fats:
- Cook with healthy oils like olive oil and canola oil
- Add more omega 3 fats by eating foods such as salmon, walnuts and flax seeds.
- Take a PS supplement. Phosphatidylserine (PS) is a phospholipid
found in abundance in your brain cells. Taking supplements of PS and
other phospholipids may boost your mood, memory and concentration.[3][4]
Try other supplements. Lecithin granules, ginkgo biloba, niacin, B12, the amino acid pyroglutamate and B5 are also helpful brain boosters.[5]
Eat foods containing B vitamins and Vitamin E. Leafy greens and lean meats are good choices.[6]
Eat more plant foods. When you eat a meal, half of your plate should contain either fruits or vegetables.
- Choose a variety of colorful fruits. For example, combine
strawberries, plums, bananas and kiwi. You can also make a fruit salad
to serve with a meal or as a meal in itself.[7]
- Vary your colors when you eat vegetables. Mix it up by eating sweet potatoes, spinach, black beans and green peas.
- Fruits and vegetables are good sources of antioxidants. Foods that contain a lot of antioxidants and phenols help to both prevent cell damage and break down special fats that are important to your brain.[8]
Drink more water Your brain consists of 85 percent water. Therefore, for the health of your brain as well as the rest of your body, drink 8 8-ounce (240 ml) of water every day.
Avoid foods that age your brain. These include:
- Baked goods containing white flour and processed sugar including doughnuts, cakes, cookies, pies and pastries
- Alcohol[9]
- Hard cheeses and processed dairy products
- Sugary foods like soft drinks, fruit drinks and sugary breakfast cereals
- Creamy sauces
- Hydrogenated oils and trans fats
- Mayonnaise
- Packaged convenience foods and fast food[10]
Exercise your body. After age 25, our taken-for-granted physical health
begins to decline, helped along by inactive lifestyles. Physical
exercise is important for your brain because it provides much needed
oxygen; improved blood flow to the brain helps the growth of new brain
cell "branches" (dendrites).[11]
- People who exercise have been shown to have denser brains than those
who do not. Loss of brain density and volume becomes more prevalent as
we age and is a major factor in mental decline.[12]
- Weight bearing exercise has been shown to improve levels of serotonin and dopamine in adults, which are two brain chemicals related directly to brain aging.[13]
Practice good sleeping habits. Sleep is a powerful way to combat aging.
- Research has shown that a regular 8-hour sleep pattern slows age
decline and protects people against chronic age-related memory loss.[14]
- Go to bed at the same time every night and rise at the same time
every morning. Make sure to get 7 to 8 hours of sleep. Your brain will
be grateful — and younger — for the much needed consistent and regular
recharging.
Part Three: Sharpen Your Brain With Mental Exercises
Solve puzzles. Puzzles such as crosswords, Sudoku, trivia games, brainteasers, mazes and word puzzles[15] are all superb mental workouts.
Memorize sequences of numbers, letters, words or symbols. Do this with a friend so that you can both improve your memory.
Play memory games.
For example, place different objects on a tray, try to memorize them and
then cover them up and repeat what they are. Continuously increase the
number of objects you're trying to remember.
Play games on your computer.
The best games require you to solve mathematical problems quickly.
Puzzles that require you to race against the clock are also helpful.[16]
Take advantage of down time. Try to remember chunks of text, phone numbers, lines of printed letters or anything else that you can spot around you.
- Try to remember things about people sitting near you. Close your
eyes and try to remember things about them and check if you got it right
(take care not to stare).
- You can also do this with pictures in a magazine that are filled
with action or elements. Stare at a picture for 10 seconds. Then, write
down as many things as possible that you can remember about it and
compare your recall after.[17]
- Become a good storyteller.
This is a great way to keep your memories alive and helps you to
perceive past events in a positive light, by using the storyteller's
technique of finding a moral, a lesson, or a confirmation within the
past experience.
Read lots of good books. Reading has long been a guaranteed way to keep your brain alert and attuned to new ideas and perspectives.
Try something new.
"Neuroplasticity" is the term used to explain the brain's ability to
reorganize its neural pathways based on a new experiences.[18]
- Try a new way of doing something that you've always done. This is a really good way to create new patterns in your brain.
- Learn a new skill. Learning new skills will continuously push your
brain and will give you opportunities to meet new people, sample new
experiences and introduce variety into your life. Trying something new
can actually help you to "declutter" your brain and remove irrelevant
information and replace it with useful information. [19]
Learn a new language.
Teaching yourself a new language is one of the most rewarding mental
workouts. When you're proficient, you can plan a trip to a country that
speaks that language to give yourself a rewarding new experience.
Try tutoring.
When you teach others, you draw on past experiences and apply them in a
different way. You will also draw on many problem-solving skills when
teaching or tutoring.
Part Four: Decrease Your Brain's Age With Good Mental Health Practices
Cope with stress.
Stress is good for you in small doses because it keeps you on your toes
and it helps to remind you that you're alive and need to be careful in
certain situations. Excess, pronounced, and never-ending stress typical
of our modern way of living, however, kills brains cells and ages your
brain faster. To decrease your brain age, reduce your exposure to and
intolerance of stress by finding ways that minimize it, ways that work
for you. Some ideas include:
- Meditating.
Meditation is one of the more effective methods for reducing stress in
your life and it can be done at home, at work and even while traveling.
- Taking up a physical activity that releases stress, such as yoga, martial arts, kickboxing or tennis.
- Learning to be more assertive
and to express yourself. Assertive people are better able to state
their needs and wants politely but firmly. Expressing yourself clearly
and refusing to allow yourself to be used or swayed by others is a good
way of keeping stress at bay.
- Exercising more. Exercise wards off the effects of stress by burning off the stress hormones and chasing away the cortisol
that destroys brain cells. Mood improves with exercise too, as
noradrenaline is secreted and endorphins enter the bloodstream. These
substances give you a lift and help to ward off depression.[20][21]
Improve your attitude. Your attitude affects brain activity and influences your mood and emotional state. A positive outlook that allows you to maintain a belief in your value and self-worth
will allow you to live a fulfilled life in which your brain remains
open to new possibilities. On the other hand, constant negative thinking
can easily shut you off from continued learning and growth, which will
cause your brain to age faster.
- Learn to control negative thinking.
The first step is to recognize negative thoughts. The second step is to
change the thoughts to something more realistic and positive. Changing
negative thinking is the same as changing any other bad habit. The more
you practice positive thinking, the more your brain will respond.
- Work on your emotional intelligence. When you have emotional intelligence, you can recognize your emotions, reason with them and use them to enhance thought.[22] You will be more creative, make better decisions
and implement positive solutions to problems. The better you get at
mastering your own emotions, the better you'll become at enabling
constructive emotions in others as well, which will create more fruitful
connections in your life.[23]
- Reframe the Past
in your mind. While you cannot change the past, you can change your
attitude toward it and avoid slipping into a victim mentality.
Re-examine events that brought you shame, guilt, humiliation, sadness
and fear so that you can let them go and move forward.[24]
You'll decrease your brain age with a better attitude because you'll
remove useless, energy-sapping thoughts and replace them with healthier,
forward-looking and self-forgiving thoughts that will energize you.
Do What You Love.
People who love what they're doing in life tend to experience a greater
sense of purpose and happiness. You may not be in your dream job,
activity or relationship, but you can find things to be grateful
for in the life you're leading. Mix up work tasks every day and pursue
plenty of other activities to add playfulness, interest and fun into
your life.
Give mental exercises 100 percent of your effort.
When undertaking mental workouts, be sure to focus and concentrate
properly. You won't get benefits from simply going through the motions –
you must really throw yourself into doing the mental workout activities
with full attention.[25]
Part Five: Other Tips for Decreasing Your Brain's Age
Nurture your spiritual self.
Whatever your beliefs or lack of them, nurturing your spiritual self or
connecting to the awe and wonder of life is an important aspect of
keeping your brain young.[26]
- Our brains are wired for spiritual experiences, such as times that
we take a holistic approach to our place in the world and seek complete
well-being and a sense of purpose.[27]
- Practice prayer, meditation, reflection, taking time out or whatever
allows you to focus on your spiritual self. This will give your brain
the space to make connections and to seek "the flow" of life in which
heart, mind, and body all work as one.
- Nurturing your spiritual self increases your compassion for both yourself and for others, allowing you to connect better with others and thereby enhance your brain functioning.[28]
Choose purple to boost your brain. Purple, including shades of violet and lavender, may improve your ability to think and achieve.[29] Purple is associated with memory, imagination, creativity, wisdom, and strategic problem-solving, so adding more of this color into your life can help focus your brain.[30]
- Buy some purple supplies. Buy purple picture frames, office supplies or even a purple cell phone.
- Surround yourself with purple. Paint your walls purple. Wear purple
clothes or accessories and put purple furniture in your thinking zones
in your home.
- Construct a purple visualization board to help you prioritize the most important things in your life.
- Hang a map of the world inside a purple frame. Stick purple
stick-pins into the places around the world that you'd like to visit or
revisit.
Be a social butterfly and build social support networks.
A lonely brain tends to age faster and while you don't need to be the
life and soul of the party, you do need the lift that regular connection
with other people can provide you.
- Don't just hang people of your own age group, especially if you're
older. People tend to think similarly to those they spend time with and
"feeling old" is catching
- Older people tend to prefer to be around people they're most familiar with while younger people tend to enjoy meeting new people and getting to know a wider variety of people.[31]
If you're going to keep your brain younger, think young by mixing up
your social contacts and spending time with people in all age groups.
Go back in time. Thinking about your youth, and of memories you had when you were young, can keep your brain young.
- In 1979, a Harvard psychology professor Ellen Langer created an
experiment in which elderly people were sent to live in a house set up
as if it were 1959, 20 years earlier. They had to watch 1950s TV, wear
clothing from the era and act as if they were living in the '50s. Those
who participated in the study displayed improved recall, intelligence
and even eyesight. They even appeared younger when before and after photos of them were compared.[32]
- A study by John Bargh showed that people who thought about words related to aging slowed down after they did the test.[33] Aim to think mostly of words relating to youth, vitality, energy, and pep whenever you consider your own age.
- Seek to see yourself as younger than your biological age. How you
think about your age is as important as what you eat and how much you
exercise. Much aging is in the mind. If you live and think like a younger person and your brain will definitely cooperate.
Avoid multi-tasking. Multi-tasking reduces your brain's effectiveness and can cause you stress.[34] Instead, complete single tasks with greater focus.
Reduce the time you spend watching TV. Instead, choose pastimes that are more interactive and require brain input. Only use TV viewing as an occasional treat.
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