Researchers report that those who meditate for thirty minutes per day for eight weeks have changes in their gray matter density in the part of the brain associated with memory. Meditation assists with their sense of self and learning abilities as well as memory.
Mindfulness is one technique of meditating. Other meditation styles are Shamatha, Vipassana and Zazen. Mindfulness meditation is based on ancient Buddhist techniques which focus on breathing, emotions or any type of body sensation rather than letting the mind wander. It can reduce blood pressure, increase attention spans and reduce stress.
Those who meditate, researchers have found, have larger brains. Since our brains shrink naturally from aging, meditation could well slow this progress. Meditation helps all areas of the brain so those who have suffered a traumatic brain injury would greatly benefit from it as well. Meditation, it is also believed, can slow down the onset of various types of dementias.
According to research, there are many benefits to doing regular meditation besides the ones mentioned above. It can also help people stay focused, can boost feelings of happiness, contentment and well-being. Mindfulness meditation is also thought to help post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). And it is linked to metabolism, brain activation, blood pressure and stress and pain reduction. Meditation tunes out self-centered thinking and it is thought that it may re-wire the brain and provide cognitive benefits. Again this makes it especially good for those who have suffered a traumatic or acquired brain injury.
Meditation cultivates positive emotions, emotional stability, better focus and control, reduced levels of stress, mindful behavior and it bolsters the immune system. It also helps to reduce the symptoms of compulsive disorder and helps with chronic anxiety and depression.
Meditation requires deep concentration. For those who practice Mindfulness meditation, it opens their awareness to present bodily sensations, i.e.: their breathing, the beat of their heart, their thoughts and their emotions. Mindfulness meditation calms and nourishes the brain while it increases the blood flow to the brain.
The technique of Mindfulness meditation is being aware of present thoughts and actions but anchoring yourself to perhaps your breathing. This is to be aware of each breath as you breathe in and out, aware of the length of each breath and aware of your body as a whole. This will encompass feelings of a calming of your body with each breath in and out you take. If your mind wanders, bring it gently back to your breathing technique or whatever other bodily function you are focusing on.
In this fast-paced world, we all would like to reduce the stress in our lives and have serenity and calmness surrounding us. Meditation therefore, points to the many benefits, as mentioned above, as well as the importance of helping people as they age and those who have suffered brain injuries.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
The Best Ways to Keep Your Brain Healthy
How can you keep your brain healthy if you have suffered a brain injury or are trying to protect your brain against the effects of aging? There are many ways you can do this.
Practicing brain health is extremely beneficial for brain injury victims and also for those who wish to delay or prevent the symptoms of aging. Making brain healthy choices plays a critical role in thinking, feeling, remembering, working, playing and sleeping. It is important to be physically active, eat a brain healthy diet, and to keep socially and mentally active. By strengthening brain cells and increasing the connections between the cells, new nerve cells may be created.
Researchers feel that those with low levels of education have a higher risk of Alzheimers later in life possibly due to a lower level of lifelong mental stimulation. That's not to say that well educated people do not get Alzheimers. They do. But symptoms may appear later in their lives than those with less education.
It is important to stay curious and commit yourself to lifelong learning by attending lectures and plays, enrolling in continuing education courses, playing games and doing memory exercises.
The brain has the ability to change and adapt following a brain injury and even into old age with the right stimulation. This is especially true for the learning and memory areas of the brain. One way of helping with memory is to chunk numbers like phone numbers, credit card numbers and license plate numbers. But other things can be remembered this way also, i.e.: a grocery list. If you have four vegetables to get, five items of meat and three breakfast requirements, remembering the number of items in each category helps to recall what they are.
Healthy relationships stimulate our brains also. Researchers are discovering that those with the most active social lives have the slowest rate of memory decline. Besides spending time with friends, volunteer, join a book club or any other kind of social gathering.
Laughter also encompasses several areas of the brain even when we are laughing at ourselves. And if you spend time with children, laughter will almost certainly be your companion because children laugh more than adults do. It is important to avoid stress where possible as it destroys brain cells. You can de-stress by doing meditation. It is believed that meditation can change the actual brain.
Brain enhancing foods are fruit, vegetables, fish and the omega-3s. A Mediterranean diet is a brain healthy diet. Also it's a good idea to decrease the amount of salt in your diet and to keep alcohol consumption at a minimum as well. Challenge your brain with brain exercises in some form on a daily basis. Add color to your life as color also stimulates the brain, as does music. It is important also to make regular visits to your doctor as some prescriptions and over-the-counter medications can fog your memory. Also conditions such as a thyroid problem can make you foggy-headed.
Other things that contribute to a healthy brain are playing video games, really listening when people are speaking, reading the news, debating, redecorating, redesigning and rearranging, and taking the B vitamins but especially Vitamin B12.
Another important thing to consider when thinking of the health of our brain is the question of whether we have a purpose in our life. Having a purpose keeps the mind youthful and active.
Practicing brain health is extremely beneficial for brain injury victims and also for those who wish to delay or prevent the symptoms of aging. Making brain healthy choices plays a critical role in thinking, feeling, remembering, working, playing and sleeping. It is important to be physically active, eat a brain healthy diet, and to keep socially and mentally active. By strengthening brain cells and increasing the connections between the cells, new nerve cells may be created.
Researchers feel that those with low levels of education have a higher risk of Alzheimers later in life possibly due to a lower level of lifelong mental stimulation. That's not to say that well educated people do not get Alzheimers. They do. But symptoms may appear later in their lives than those with less education.
It is important to stay curious and commit yourself to lifelong learning by attending lectures and plays, enrolling in continuing education courses, playing games and doing memory exercises.
The brain has the ability to change and adapt following a brain injury and even into old age with the right stimulation. This is especially true for the learning and memory areas of the brain. One way of helping with memory is to chunk numbers like phone numbers, credit card numbers and license plate numbers. But other things can be remembered this way also, i.e.: a grocery list. If you have four vegetables to get, five items of meat and three breakfast requirements, remembering the number of items in each category helps to recall what they are.
Healthy relationships stimulate our brains also. Researchers are discovering that those with the most active social lives have the slowest rate of memory decline. Besides spending time with friends, volunteer, join a book club or any other kind of social gathering.
Laughter also encompasses several areas of the brain even when we are laughing at ourselves. And if you spend time with children, laughter will almost certainly be your companion because children laugh more than adults do. It is important to avoid stress where possible as it destroys brain cells. You can de-stress by doing meditation. It is believed that meditation can change the actual brain.
Brain enhancing foods are fruit, vegetables, fish and the omega-3s. A Mediterranean diet is a brain healthy diet. Also it's a good idea to decrease the amount of salt in your diet and to keep alcohol consumption at a minimum as well. Challenge your brain with brain exercises in some form on a daily basis. Add color to your life as color also stimulates the brain, as does music. It is important also to make regular visits to your doctor as some prescriptions and over-the-counter medications can fog your memory. Also conditions such as a thyroid problem can make you foggy-headed.
Other things that contribute to a healthy brain are playing video games, really listening when people are speaking, reading the news, debating, redecorating, redesigning and rearranging, and taking the B vitamins but especially Vitamin B12.
Another important thing to consider when thinking of the health of our brain is the question of whether we have a purpose in our life. Having a purpose keeps the mind youthful and active.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Memory and Keeping Your Brain Healthy
Our brains consist of five cognitive functions. They are memory, attention, language, visual-spatial skills and executive function. It is important to exercise all five areas in order to keep our brains healthy as we age and particularly if brain injury has been an issue.
Memory is one of the most important functions of our brain, and paying attention to our surroundings helps with the way our brains work. This is particularly true for someone who has experienced a brain injury. Some of the ways to assist with memory and other cognitive functions are:
- Practice remembering phone numbers instead of always referring to them in their written form.
- Make it a habit to remember conversations, and who you told what to. Repeating conversations to the same people is a sign of mental decline.
- Pay attention to the people you meet so that you will be able to remember their faces when you meet them again. Is there something unique about them? Do they have beautiful teeth, freckles or a crooked smile?
- The same applies to remembering names. Think of a way that works for you in assisting your memory. I have a good memory for names IF I really listen when I'm being introduced and repeat the name to myself immediately following each introduction. For other people associating seems to work best, i.e.: they may remind you of someone else or maybe you like rhyming.
- If your way of remembering things is more visual than auditory, be sure to write everything down, i.e.: describe a person you just met making note of their name. Writing something down helps with the memory process.
- Pay close attention to detail. A good example of this is when you park your car in a parking lot. Take particular note of where you've parked, i.e.: line up your car with something on the building you will be going into, perhaps part of the name. That way you will have no trouble finding your car again.
- We always remember things that are important to us. If we like math, we'll be good at math; if we enjoy reading, we'll in all likelihood remember what we've read because we probably don't read what doesn't interest us.
- Repetition helps our memory also. We probably remember the pizza delivery telephone number easier than the dentist because we likely phone them more often - if you do make an effort to remember numbers. When we were children and had to remember a poem, how did we do it? If you were like me, you repeated it over and over again.
- Increase your brain's capacity to remember by doing things like: learning a new word, and its meaning, every day. Learn a new telephone number each day. Attempt to learn something new that you didn't know before, i.e.: a new language, writing or memorizing poetry or new dance steps.
- Flex your mental muscles and play Scrabble, play strategic card games such as Bridge, Poker or Hearts, do crosswords or do Suduko.
- Multitasking activates different areas of the brain at the same time. So sharpen your brain and ward off Alzheimer's by reading while you're on the treadmill, sort photos while talking on the telephone or do any number of other dual functions.
Exercise is also important to the health of your brain. It makes your blood flow and allows you to concentrate and focus despite any background noises or disruptions. Why not make life more enjoyable while you are increasing the potential of your brain?
Memory is one of the most important functions of our brain, and paying attention to our surroundings helps with the way our brains work. This is particularly true for someone who has experienced a brain injury. Some of the ways to assist with memory and other cognitive functions are:
- Practice remembering phone numbers instead of always referring to them in their written form.
- Make it a habit to remember conversations, and who you told what to. Repeating conversations to the same people is a sign of mental decline.
- Pay attention to the people you meet so that you will be able to remember their faces when you meet them again. Is there something unique about them? Do they have beautiful teeth, freckles or a crooked smile?
- The same applies to remembering names. Think of a way that works for you in assisting your memory. I have a good memory for names IF I really listen when I'm being introduced and repeat the name to myself immediately following each introduction. For other people associating seems to work best, i.e.: they may remind you of someone else or maybe you like rhyming.
- If your way of remembering things is more visual than auditory, be sure to write everything down, i.e.: describe a person you just met making note of their name. Writing something down helps with the memory process.
- Pay close attention to detail. A good example of this is when you park your car in a parking lot. Take particular note of where you've parked, i.e.: line up your car with something on the building you will be going into, perhaps part of the name. That way you will have no trouble finding your car again.
- We always remember things that are important to us. If we like math, we'll be good at math; if we enjoy reading, we'll in all likelihood remember what we've read because we probably don't read what doesn't interest us.
- Repetition helps our memory also. We probably remember the pizza delivery telephone number easier than the dentist because we likely phone them more often - if you do make an effort to remember numbers. When we were children and had to remember a poem, how did we do it? If you were like me, you repeated it over and over again.
- Increase your brain's capacity to remember by doing things like: learning a new word, and its meaning, every day. Learn a new telephone number each day. Attempt to learn something new that you didn't know before, i.e.: a new language, writing or memorizing poetry or new dance steps.
- Flex your mental muscles and play Scrabble, play strategic card games such as Bridge, Poker or Hearts, do crosswords or do Suduko.
- Multitasking activates different areas of the brain at the same time. So sharpen your brain and ward off Alzheimer's by reading while you're on the treadmill, sort photos while talking on the telephone or do any number of other dual functions.
Exercise is also important to the health of your brain. It makes your blood flow and allows you to concentrate and focus despite any background noises or disruptions. Why not make life more enjoyable while you are increasing the potential of your brain?
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Don't Let A Stroke Get You
Strokes are an acquired brain injury affecting the brain as well as the body. (New beliefs are now that strokes also fall under the category of a traumatic brain injury.) There are things you can do to help prevent this from happening to yourself or to any of your loved one. How can you prevent it from happening?
Strokes don't just strike those in their sixties, seventies and eighties. Even those in their thirties and forties should be aware of the dangers of strokes because they are at risk also. What can you do to help prevent getting a stroke? The following steps are a good beginning:
- Are you overweight?
Eat a low fat diet. Know what is healthy and what is not. Some of the healthy foods are nuts, fish, vegetables, fruits, yogurt and whole grains. Avoid junk foods and late-night snacking. Avoid foods high in sodium and drink a lot of water. Avoid restaurant food which is always high in sodium and fat content.
- Do you have high cholesterol?
- Do you have high blood pressure?
Often these go hand-in-hand but not always. Even those who are not overweight can have high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Get cholesterol and blood pressure checked regularly.
- Do you get enough exercise?
Exercise every day and on those days where you don't feel you have enough time, do things like walking from the end of the parking lot, take the stairs instead of the elevator and do some exercises while you're watching the evening news.
- Do you have a lot of stress in your life?
A lot of our stress is the pressure we put on ourselves. Many of the things we think we have to do right now can wait, i.e.: doing the dishes, returning that phonecall, vacuuming or picking up after our family just because we've always done it. Enlist your family member's help in getting things done. Take time to relax.
- Do you smoke?
Smoking is not good for you. It restricts your blood vessels.
- Do you have diabetes?
It is important to keep this disease under control not only for general health reasons but as a prevention for strokes as well.
The statistics are not good. The incidence of stroke is expected to double in the next ten years. Also it is expected that Canadian children will be the first generation who are not likely to live longer lives than their parents. That is a sad outlook for the next generation. But with simple lifestyle changes perhaps we can prove these statistics to be wrong.
Besides making healthy changes to our lives, it is important to know the symptoms. They are as follows:
- A sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arm, leg or on one side of the body.
- Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding when others are speaking.
- Sudden trouble seeing out of one or both eyes, or possibly experiencing double vision.
- Sudden difficulty in walking, feelings of dizziness or lack of coordination.
- A sudden extreme and severe headache.
- A feeling of nausea.
There is a three hour window of opportunity to successfully treat a stroke. It is imperative to call 9-1-1 immediately and get medical help as soon as possible. Getting the proper help could make the difference in avoiding a lifelong disability.
Strokes don't just strike those in their sixties, seventies and eighties. Even those in their thirties and forties should be aware of the dangers of strokes because they are at risk also. What can you do to help prevent getting a stroke? The following steps are a good beginning:
- Are you overweight?
Eat a low fat diet. Know what is healthy and what is not. Some of the healthy foods are nuts, fish, vegetables, fruits, yogurt and whole grains. Avoid junk foods and late-night snacking. Avoid foods high in sodium and drink a lot of water. Avoid restaurant food which is always high in sodium and fat content.
- Do you have high cholesterol?
- Do you have high blood pressure?
Often these go hand-in-hand but not always. Even those who are not overweight can have high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Get cholesterol and blood pressure checked regularly.
- Do you get enough exercise?
Exercise every day and on those days where you don't feel you have enough time, do things like walking from the end of the parking lot, take the stairs instead of the elevator and do some exercises while you're watching the evening news.
- Do you have a lot of stress in your life?
A lot of our stress is the pressure we put on ourselves. Many of the things we think we have to do right now can wait, i.e.: doing the dishes, returning that phonecall, vacuuming or picking up after our family just because we've always done it. Enlist your family member's help in getting things done. Take time to relax.
- Do you smoke?
Smoking is not good for you. It restricts your blood vessels.
- Do you have diabetes?
It is important to keep this disease under control not only for general health reasons but as a prevention for strokes as well.
The statistics are not good. The incidence of stroke is expected to double in the next ten years. Also it is expected that Canadian children will be the first generation who are not likely to live longer lives than their parents. That is a sad outlook for the next generation. But with simple lifestyle changes perhaps we can prove these statistics to be wrong.
Besides making healthy changes to our lives, it is important to know the symptoms. They are as follows:
- A sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arm, leg or on one side of the body.
- Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding when others are speaking.
- Sudden trouble seeing out of one or both eyes, or possibly experiencing double vision.
- Sudden difficulty in walking, feelings of dizziness or lack of coordination.
- A sudden extreme and severe headache.
- A feeling of nausea.
There is a three hour window of opportunity to successfully treat a stroke. It is imperative to call 9-1-1 immediately and get medical help as soon as possible. Getting the proper help could make the difference in avoiding a lifelong disability.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
