You're as healthy as your brain!

Your actions have an impact on brain health both immediately and in the long run.

Not getting enough sleep affects not only your energy levels but also weakens your ability to learn and mood on the following day.

A prolonged sleep deprivation (frequently sleeping less than the recommended eight hours), an unhealthy diet, lack of exercise and chronic stress, for example, increase the risk of many diseases that also affect brain health and increase the risk of a more serious illness. For example, high blood pressure, which is increasingly common and usually caused by poor lifestyle choices, is the main risk factor for a severe cerebrovascular accident, which can lead to paralysis or death.

How to be the best version of yourself but also protect your brain from cerebrovascular accidents and memory disorders?

Feed your brain! Finnish nutrition recommendations(external link) guide you to eat healthy, also brain-healthy! Follow the plate model in every meal. Vegetables, berries and soft fats are good – hard fats, too much red meat and sugar are bad. Fibers to glory!

Make it a point to move every day(external link): walking is the best memory exercise and a medicine for a low mood. As you age, your brain starts to shrink very early on at an accelerating rate, but you can curb this shrinkage by regular exercise. Physical activity also supports learning, creativity and concentration and helps you get through stressful times.

In brain health, the importance of quality sleep should not be overlooked. Sufficient and quality sleep is a free miracle drug that improves memory, increases creativity, supports weight control, protects against illnesses, reduces the risk of cardiac or cerebral infarction, makes you feel happier and reduces symptoms of depression and tendency to anxiety. Sleep deprivation often goes unrecognised, so you should try to sleep around eight hours a night. The best way to do this is to wake up and go to sleep at the same time every day.

In addition, avoiding substances, studying and self-development – to the appropriate extent – and healthy social relationships support brain health.

The most important choices are the ones you make every day, not the occasional ones.

You can find more practical information on brain health at the website of Aivotervehdys! (‘Brain Greeting!’) at www.aivotervehdys.com(external link) or via the podcast(external link) of the same name (both in Finnish).

You can also visit the website of the Finnish Brain Association for more information.

Hanna Tupamäki

The author works as a physiotherapist in the Western Uusimaa Wellbeing Services County, has completed specialist training in brain health promotion and is studying for a master’s degree in health promotion

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Sources:

Aivotervehdys! https://www.aivotervehdys.com(external link) 

Finnish Brain Association. https://www.aivoliitto.fi/aivoverenkiertohairio/ehkaise/verenpaine/#8e36c405(external link) 

The Alzheimer Society of Finland. https://www.muistiliitto.fi/fi/aivot-ja-muisti/aivoterveys(external link) 

Finnish Food Authority. https://www.ruokavirasto.fi/vireytta-seniorivuosiin/aivoterveys-ja-ravitsemus/(external link)