How to prevent dementia. Lets think about it. Our brain is always “on” and always “connected” for some of us anyway.
Our brain takes care of our thoughts and movements, our breathing and heartbeat, our senses — it works hard 24/7, even while you’re asleep, perhaps its defragging.
This means your brain requires a constant supply of fuel. That “fuel” comes from blood flow and the foods you eat — and what’s in that fuel makes all the difference. Put simply, what you eat directly affects the structure and function of your brain and, ultimately, your mood. Just like a computer CPU our brain also needs some TLC. Ever hear the expression:
“You are what you eat!”
Other than blood flow the brain needs so much more for food. Like a high performance car, your brain functions best when it gets only premium fuel. Eating high-quality foods that contain lots of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants nourishes the brain and protects it from oxidative stress — the “waste” (free radicals) produced when the body uses oxygen, which can damage cells.
Unfortunately, just like an high-performance car, your brain can be damaged if you ingest anything other than premium fuel. Like the time my wife put regular gas in my parents Cadillac XT6. If substances from “low-grade” fuel (such as what you get from processed or refined foods) get to the brain, it has little ability to get rid of them. For the Cadillac XT6 its fate was warranty replacement.
No warranties on our brains!
Diets high in refined sugars, for example, are harmful to the brain. In addition to worsening your body’s regulation of insulin, they also promote inflammation and oxidative stress. Multiple studies have found a correlation between a diet high in refined sugars and impaired brain function — and even a worsening of symptoms of mood disorders, such as depression.
It makes sense. If your brain is deprived of good-quality nutrition, or if free radicals or damaging inflammatory cells are circulating within the brain’s enclosed space, further contributing to brain tissue injury, consequences are to be expected. What’s interesting is that for many years, the medical field did not fully acknowledge the connection between mood and food.
Today, fortunately, the field of nutritional psychiatry is finding there are many consequences and correlations between not only what you eat, how you feel, and how you ultimately behave, but also the kinds of bacteria that live in your intestines.
How the foods we eat affect our brain chemicals & mental health – How to prevent dementia
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that helps regulate sleep and appetite, mediate moods, and inhibit pain. Since about 95% of your serotonin is produced in your gastrointestinal tract, and your gastrointestinal tract is lined with a hundred million nerve cells, or neurons, it makes sense that the inner workings of your digestive system don’t just help you digest food, but also guide your emotions. What’s more, the function of these neurons — and the production of neurotransmitters like serotonin — is highly influenced by the billions of “good” bacteria that make up your intestinal microbiome. These bacteria play an essential role in your health. They protect the lining of your intestines and ensure they provide a strong barrier against toxins and “bad” bacteria; they limit inflammation; they improve how well you absorb nutrients from your food; and they activate neural pathways that travel directly between the gut and the brain.
Studies have compared “traditional” diets, like the Mediterranean diet and the traditional Japanese diet, to a typical “Western” diet and have shown that the risk of depression is 25% to 35% lower in those who eat a traditional diet vs the typical. Scientists account for this difference because these traditional diets tend to be high in vegetables, fruits, unprocessed grains, seeds, nuts, and fish and seafood, and to contain only modest amounts of lean meats and dairy. They are also void of processed (1)and refined foods and sugars, which are staples of the “Western” dietary pattern. In addition, many of these unprocessed foods are fermented, and therefore act as natural probiotics.
This may sound un-reasonable to you, but the belief that good bacteria not only influence what your gut digests and absorbs, but that they also affect the degree of inflammation throughout your body, as well as your mood and energy level, is gaining traction among researchers.
How to prevent dementia. What does it mean for you?
Start paying attention to how eating different foods makes you feel — not just in the moment, but the next day. Try eating a “clean” diet for two to three weeks — that means cutting out all processed foods and sugar. Log how you feel. Then slowly introduce foods back into your diet, one by one, and again log how you feel. You will find the pattern in your logs.
When some people “go clean,” they cannot believe how much better they feel both physically and emotionally, and how much worse they then feel when they reintroduce the foods that are known to enhance inflammation.
How to prevent dementia. Brain fuel #2 blood flow.
As stated earlier the brain needs 2 foods. The healthy edible food we eat, along with blood flow to the brain.
So how do we increase blood flow to the brain safely?
Ginkgo biloba – or maidenhair, is a tree native to China that has been grown for thousands of years for a variety of uses. Because it’s the only surviving member of an ancient order of plants, it’s sometimes referred to as a living fossil. While its leaves and seeds are often used in traditional Chinese medicine, modern research primarily focuses on ginkgo extract, which is made from the leaves. Ginkgo supplements are associated with several health claims and uses, most of which focus on brain function and blood circulation.
Ginseng – Ginseng has anti-inflammatory effects and may reduce inflammation. Other possible benefits range from improving thinking to treating erectile dysfunction and lowering blood sugar.
AD: Depending what head you think with??? Try this for the other head.