TRAIN YOUR BRAIN

Easy lifestyle changes to keep your mind super-sharp

Being forgetful isn’t an inevitable part of ageing if you take time to exercise your grey matter. Follow these tips to keep your mind super-sharp

Do you find that names disappear into a mental black hole? Are you forever losing your car keys or walking into a room and forgetting why you needed to go in there? Don’t panic. Although memory blips can be unnerving, especially as we get a bit older, they’re unlikely to be a sign of anything more sinister than normal brain ageing. And the good news is that, although your memory might not be quite as sharp as it was in your twenties, your ability to integrate what you’ve learnt and use it effectively may actually be better. Keeping your brain active and challenged can help to maintain its plasticity, and every time you learn something new, you create new connections. Here’s what you need to do to build a better brain…

MENTAL WORKOUT

What’s good for your heart is good for your brain, and physical exercise is still the bestdocumented way of keeping it in shape. Exercise improves the flow of oxygen-rich blood (your brain uses 20 per cent of your entire oxygen supply), helps to reduce inflammation and stimulates the release of chemicals beneficial to brain cells. A review of 18 different studies found that people aged 55 to 80 who did regular exercise performed four times better on cognitive tests than the couch potatoes. Exercise may even affect the size of your brain – one study found