Are you having a hard time remembering where you left your keys or remembering people’s names? Well, you’re not alone! In this article, Stephanie from Fast Track To Health Wellness Center is going to share with you her top tips for helping improve your brain function and memory.
Diet
How good is your diet? The brain requires a lot of nutrients to perform optimally. You have to make sure that you are getting good fats into your diet, quality protein and you’re avoiding the bad things such as processed foods and sugar. Some really awesome brain-boosting foods are things like blueberries, healthy fats like avocados, coconut oil, essential fatty acids like those that come from wild caught fish. Eggs are excellent for brain health, as well as the spice Turmeric, or Curcurmin.
Negative Thoughts and Patterns in Your Life
When you start thinking of something negative or you’re just complaining, it takes a toll on your brain. When you catch yourself having a lot of negative thoughts, or complaining a lot, stop yourself and try to refocus and think about something more positive. This also includes the people you choose to be around. If you surround yourself with a lot of negative people, you take in that energy which is also bad for your brain. Try to surround yourself with more positive people. Even the things that you listen to, the people you follow, try to keep it positive because that has a huge influence on your brain and your life.
Exercise
Exercise is so important for the brain. Not only does it get blood circulating throughout your body, but especially to your brain. It improves your mood and your cognitive function. It is amazing. So make sure you are getting exercise on a regular basis, especially in the morning. That’s a great time to work out. Even better, if you can, get outside and work out in nature.
Sleep
Sleep is so important for brain health for many reasons. One of the main reasons is that while you are sleeping, that is when your memories are formed. So you have to make sure that your sleep is optimized. Second, sleep helps clean out the plaques to help prevent things like Alzheimer’s in the future. Last are dreams. Dreaming is really important for creativity, for you to come up with ideas. You have to optimize your sleep in order to be able to dream effectively. Make sure you are getting quality sleep.
Stress Reduction
We all know that stress is detrimental to the body in many ways. It affects our hormones, our stress hormones go up. When the stress hormones go up, there is less blood flow to the brain. It’s going into the extremities and you can have a fight or a flight reaction. Stress is very damaging and harmful overall, try to find ways to reduce your stress. Some things that you can try are deep breathing exercises, meditation, yoga, acupuncture, whatever it takes for you to help reduce your stress on a regular basis. It will definitely help your brain function and your memory.
Keep Learning
The brain never stops learning, the whole thing about old dogs can’t learn new tricks is so not true. Your brain will learn lifelong. You have to keep giving it things to learn to improve the function of your brain and for longevity. Start learning new things, keep reading, keep learning, keep yourself interested in new topics. It’s never too late, you’re never too old! Start either taking on a new hobby or just reading something different, but always keep learning. It really is important.
Supplements
If your diet isn’t that great, or you are under a lot of stress, which will reduce some of your nutrients, it might be a good idea to take certain supplements. Everybody is going to need different things, so it’s good to work with someone. We can definitely help you out with this and give you a customized protocol.
One of the most important supplements are omega-3 essential fatty acids, DHA, EPA. These are crucial to the forming brain in babies and throughout our lives. We have to make sure that we are getting essential fatty acids into our diet and if we’re not, we need to supplement with things like fish oil. We use a variety of products in our clinic that are made from either tuna or other clean sources of omega-3 fatty acids.
Another supplement that we use that you may have never heard of, is called RNA, which stands for ribonucleic acids. This is really important for protein utilization in the body and helps with building the cells. For people who are starting to lose their memory or have a hard time remembering things, we give them RNA and it really helps with cognitive function overall. We use RNA from a company called Standard Process and it’s an excellent supplement for that.
Herbal Supplements
We use two products for brain health and memory from a company called MediHerb. The first one is Ginkgo. The supplement we use is called Ginkgo Forte and it is amazing for improving circulation to the brain and great for short term memory, alertness and Alzheimer’s prevention.
The second is something called Bacopa Complex, which contains bacopa. It is an amazing herb for medium and long-term memory. This we find especially useful for students who are studying and trying to remember information for tests and such, it is good for retention.
Now you have Stephanie’s tips for improving your memory. Give one of our offices a call or visit our website for information on how we can help. Check out our YouTube Channel for more videos and please consider subscribing for new videos.