Protect Your Memory – 5 Steps

How important is your health to you? What is the most important thing to you in life?
Is it time? Relationships?  Money?  Family? Friends? Health?

Have you ever wished or hoped that your memory or thinking was clearer or was stronger, or that you remembered things better?

Your brain is one of the biggest and most important organs in your body.

Brain Heath is a very key part of your overall health and I am sure you have heard the old saying “health is wealth”! Protecting your brain and memory is one of the most important favours you can do yourself, and teaching and educating your loved ones and family will also go a long way in helping them too to protect their memory over time.

Major diseases that could affect the brain include Alzheimer’s, Dementia and Parkinson’s.
Alzheimer’s is a type of dementia, and these diseases usually occur when nerves in the brain start degenerating. Afterwards the degeneration starts to give rise to some of these cognitive disorders.

Statistics show that there are about 35 million people with Alzheimer’s worldwide.
These statistics are getting worse in that they are affecting younger ages than in times past, and this is particularly sad to hear, to say the least.

Prevention is always better than cure and there are really simple, workable steps you can take to greatly reduce your chances of ending up with a brain disease.

Below are practical, preventative steps you can take to reduce your chances of contracting any of the brain diseases.

1. Reduce bad fats and oils and free radicals from your diet. These are saturated fats and trans fats. Replace these with good fats. For example, replace cow milk with good fat milk such as almond milk. Hazel nuts and Walnuts also contain good fats for the brain. Consuming more of those will also help your brain and memory, and milk can easily be made out of them.

Saturated fats are also found in dairy and animal foods. Plant foods are very healthy. Replace foods in your diet that have bad fats with plant foods, fruits, vegetables, grains and pulses (food classes in the beans family). You cannot afford to block the arteries to your brain! You also get bad fats through cooking with oil. It is important to reduce this, or better still cut out added oil completely.

Working to get rid of free radicals, is key. Free radicals are substances in the body that can contribute to age-related diseases and cancer. Eating cancer-fighting foods regularly can help reduce free radicals in the body.  Anti-oxidants from foods help to destroy free radicals. Vegetables, fruits such as strawberries and blueberries, and legumes are great for providing anti-oxidants to the body. Eat a lot of these. Ensure that you are cooking in such a way to get the most nutrition out of your foods and not eating dead food. Don’t cook out all the nutrition out of your meals – there is no point eating dead food!

“Let thy food be thy medicine and let thy medicine be thy food” – Hippocrates

2. Do physical exercises and get the heart pumping faster – exercises increase the blood flow to the brain and get your heart pumping faster. This makes your thinking clearer and will contribute to a sharper memory. Just walking 20 to 30 minutes a day is good start.

3. Do mental exercises – it makes your brain stronger. Things that work your brain, like games that involve thinking – sudoku, maths games, chess games, and just general brain games.

4. Resting is a very important one. It is important to get enough sleep and rest so that your brain muscles can rest and work better when next required to.

5. There is a link between excessive alcohol consumption and brain disorders. So you need to cut down on alcohol consumption. Sometimes we need to make some little changes in sacrifice, to enjoy good health in the future.

I see people everyday who believe that they were meant to have one health problem or the other because their father or mother had it. Do not accept any disease or health problem as your lot, that you cannot do anything about it is not true (even if you have the gene). You can greatly reduce your risk of contracting any health problems through consciously taking a few, deliberate, practical steps.

In conclusion, having an awesome memory is something everyone deserves to have. You don’t have to do drastic changes to your lifestyle – gradual changes help you to turn these changes into habits and change your lifestyle in a practical manner that’s sustainable.

Remember, nothing tastes as good as good health!

Health is wealth!