Genius Brain Habits

A rich new area of science is analysing which healthy habits best keep your mind and memory blithely unaffected even when a brain scan would reveal the inflammation, free radical damage and weakened synapse connections that often cause ‘senior’ moments in one’s 40s and beyond. Dr Kenneth S. Kosik, codirector of the Neuroscience Research Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has studied which habits most powerfully boost our cognitive function. Here he shares the most up-to-date research from innovative labs, plus the best tips from his book Outsmarting Alzheimer’s.

Play Games with Your Frontal Lobe

Whether you’re deliberating a chess move or bluffing at cards, you’re also giving the frontal lobe, the area of your brain that handles executive function, a workout. “The frontal lobe is particularly vulnerable to degeneration and the effects of ageing,” says Kosik. According to a 2014 University of Wisconsin study, older adults who routinely worked on puzzles and played board games had higher brain volume in the area responsible for cognitive functions, including memory, than those who didn’t play games.

Stay Young with Saa, Taa, Naa and Maa

Dharma Singh Khalsa, president and medical director of the Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation, has spent many years studying the meditative tradition called Kirtan Kriya and has found that daily 12minute sessions of the practice can improve blood flow to the brain and possibly even increase levels of telomerase, an enzyme that slows cell ageing. The practice is simple: while breathing deeply, chant the Sanskrit words saa, taa, naa, maa (which mean ‘my divine self ’) while moving your thumb to touch your index, middle, ring and pinkie fingers with each new sound. Like any