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Life Insurance

7 Top Tips to Help Keep Your Mind Active

20 Jun 2016

Life Insurance by Life Stage

The choices you make today can impact your long-term health, wealth and happiness. Understand the important role Life Insurance can play in key life events.

Ageing, like death and taxes, is inevitable. But while your body might slow down and the occasional memory lapse is common, getting older doesn’t have to mean a reduction in brain power!

Here are seven tips to help keep your mind active and engaged throughout your later years.

It’s all about what you eat
Diet is key to living a healthy life, and research shows that a Mediterranean-style diet rich in “good” fats, vegetables, fruit and legumes, cereals, and fish can help to avoid cognitive impairment. In a study published in the Annals of Neurology, researchers found a link between “high adherence” to the Mediterranean diet and a reduction in risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

Active life, active mind
Keeping fit is important to overall health and may just help protect your brain as well. Research from the University of Kentucky in the US suggests that increased blood flow from regular exercise could help keep the brain “young” and provide some protection against diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

Think smarter not harder
The body is good at exerting an appropriate amount of effort depending on what action is required. So why not the mind? An article on Harvard Medical School’s Healthbeat recommends various techniques for thinking smarter not harder, including focusing on retaining information that is most important to you (so feel free to forget your high school boyfriend’s middle name!), repeating things you wish to remember, and coming up with mnemonics for long lists of things you need to remember.

Use it or lose it
It seems fairly obvious, but if you want to keep an engaged mind then you need to exercise your brain. According to Healthbeat, one of the best ways to keep your mind sharp is to participate in games and other challenging activities. Sudoku, anyone?

Focus, focus, focus
The Rush University Medical Centre in the US found that having a sense of purpose in life and having goals to aim for can help to minimise the risk of cognitive impairment, including Alzheimer’s.

Catch some Zs
Getting adequate sleep can also help you stay sharp. Harvard Medical School studies have revealed that lack of sleep can have an impact on memory and mental performance, and the ability to learn.

Relax a little
As pointed out on Healthbeat, everybody has little memory slips from time to time, regardless of age. So try and go with the flow and don’t stress too much about isolated incidents of forgetfulness. Stressing about it will only make things worse!

It’s important to protect your brain and keep it healthy and active as you grow older. Making sure that you have sufficient Life insurance and Trauma cover to protect yourself and your loved ones in case of unexpected death or illness is equally important, so why not contact NobleOak today for a no obligation free quote?

 

Sources:

Scarmeas N, Stern Y, Tang M-X, Mayeux R and Luchsinger J. A, P 2006, ‘Mediterranean diet and risk for Alzheimer’s disease’, Annals of Neurology, vol.59, issue 6, pp 912-921, viewed 25 May 2016

2016, University of Kentucky, Regular Exercise at Any Age Could Keep the Mind Young media release, UK, viewed 25 May 2016

Healthbeat, March 2010, 7 Ways to Keep your Memory Sharp at Any Age, Harvard Health Publications, viewed 24 May 2016

Rush University Medical Centre, Boost your Brain Health, Rush University Medical Centre, viewed 24 May 2016

Division of Sleep Medicine Harvard Medical School, 18 December 2007, Sleep, Learning and Memory, Harvard Medical School, viewed 24 May 2016

 

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