Seven Ways To Age Proof Your Brain

ALZHEIMER’S AND OTHER NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS ARE ON THE RISE, BUT THEY’RE NOT THE INEVITABLE TERMINUS THEY ONCE WERE. RESEARCH SHOWS THERE ARE PRACTICAL WAYS TO BOOST YOUR BRAINPOWER TODAY AND SAFEGUARD YOUR LONG-TERM MENTAL FACULTIES. STAY SMART, PEOPLE

The brain represents just 2% of your bodyweight but burns through 20% of its energy. If the stomach is your second brain, your first is just as hungry. Using a fifth of your total calorie intake per day, it is made up of 60% fat, and to function properly you need to maintain that magic ratio. So it follows that what you put in your mouth makes a difference to what happens in your head.

This isn’t quite a free pass to load up on Styrofoam boxes of saturated fats, however. New research published in the journal Physiology & Behavior found that when rats were fed diets high in saturated fats and sugar, harmful agents were able to enter their brain, leading to inflammation and diminished activity in the hippocampus – which translates to a decline in learning and memory. If that sounds like the post-domino’s carb coma, there is a reason. In a landmark paper, researchers Scott Kanoski and Terry Davidson suggested that this same effect in humans leads to an increased appetite for such foods, leading to a cycle of obesity and cognitive decline.

Your brain’s preferred fuel is the essential fatty acids (EFAS) found in seafood such as tuna and shellfish, and nuts and oils. Martha Clare Morris, a nutritional epidemiologist at Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center, took this further, developing the MIND diet, focused on reducing your risk of hypertension through upping your intake of hearthealthy minerals – potassium, calcium and magnesium. Morris found that those who followed that menu took a 53% bite out of their Alzheimer’s risk while reversing their brain age (mental wear and tear) by up to 7.5 years. A whopper of a case for fewer takeaways, basically.