Brain Health: Keep Your Brain Fit

A healthy brain is something most of us take for granted.

Yet our brain plays a critical role in virtually everything we do. From sleeping to moving, thinking to feeling ... these functions are so automatic that the idea of losing our faculties is inconceivable to most ... but very scary to some.

So what can we do to keep our brains healthy as we age?

Just as our bodies do, so too do our brains naturally deteriorate with advancing years. Unsurprisingly, we can minimise the rate of this decline ... or accelerate it.

Here are a few tips to keep your brain healthy:

- Keep your mind active. Mental stimulation increases brain vitality, protects existing brain cells and the connections between them ... and may even generate new cells according to cutting edge research. So be curious and get involved.

- Become a social butterfly. Recreation and social interaction is stimulating both physically and mentally. Inter-cellular connectivity is enhanced because stress is reduced.

- Become more physically active. This stimulates blood flow and reduces risk of heart disease, diabetes ... and stroke.

- Eat a healthy diet. Reduced cholesterol equates to reduced stroke risk. A whole host of foods are considered "brain-healthy" including dark green leafy vegetables, fruit and cold water fish rich in the omega-3 fatty acid DHA (docosahexaenoicacid). If the brain cell membranes can be kept healthy, then brain signals transmit better.

- Stop doing drugs. Drugs are known to cause long term brain damage like learning and memory problems. What we still don't yet have enough experience with is whether this damage translates into dementia in later years.

You cannot control your genetics any more than you can control getting older. But healthy habits will give you an edge and make your life more fulfilling along the way.

So Einstein ... maybe curiosity didn't kill the cat!