Did you know that you have a BRAIN BANK?
Yep, you do! It’s most often referred to as your ‘Cognitive Reserve’.
I really enjoy sharing this interesting and important information with the individuals and organizations with whom I speak. The reason is because it enhances their understanding of the REAL bottom line in their lives and workplaces—the power and value of their brains!
Similar to the Federal Reserve which is intended to ensure a healthy and stable economy, your Brain Reserve is what can support a healthy and stable YOU!!
As well, since our health is our Greatest Wealth, the knowledge that I’m about to share with you, is key to accessing it.
Incredible Discovery
In the late 1980s, researchers were shocked to discover individuals who had NO apparent symptoms of dementia while they were alive. However, at autopsy they were found to have brain changes like those with advanced stage Alzheimer’s disease!
You’re probably wondering how this could be possible, right?
Well, with further investigation, it became attributed to these individuals having a large enough cognitive reserve to prevent the dementia symptoms appearing. The Cognitive Reserve is like a ‘cushion’ that offsets brain damage or deterioration. It allowed these individuals to continue to function normally during their living years.
Your Brain Cushion
The concept of having a ‘brain cushion’ is similar to having a ‘financial cushion’ that you can rely on in times of economical challenges. Along the same lines, a ‘brain cushion’ allows you to weather the impacts of stress, aging, and unexpected life changes.
With a healthy Cognitive Reserve (cushion), you can:
- Ward off degeneration
- Maintain brain health as you age
- Improvise and find alternate ways of getting a job done
- Make additional resources available to cope with challenges
- Function better and longer, even if exposed to unexpected life events such as stress, surgery, or toxins
How does this work?
As you work to create and to fortify an abundance of healthy and strong neurological pathways through quality lifestyle choices and habits, you invest into building your Cognitive Reserve. In contrast, unhealthy lifestyle practises lead to scantier and weaker neurological connections, which inevitably predisposes an individual to brain health issues and degeneration.
What can you do to build your Brain Bank?
Thankfully, neuronal growth and neuroplasticity are ongoing, lifelong processes, so you can build up your brain’s supply of “extra roads”, almost like dollars in a savings account, at every age and stage of life.
In many ways, your Cognitive Reserve refers to the balance of that figurative savings account, and like a literal savings account:
- A higher balance means greater insulation and protection for the future
- It’s smartest and easiest to accumulate those resources gradually over long periods
You can do this by:
- Trying new things
- Engaging in hobbies
- Continuing to learn
- Taking courses & workshops
- Cultivating your social network
- Exercising and moving daily
- Getting outdoors, inhaling fresh air
- Eating healthy fresh foods
- Supplementing with essential nutrients
Ultimately…
- The more you continue to exercise your brain and mind, the more neural pathways (links) you will create between your neurons.
- The more neural pathways you have connecting your neurons, the easier it is for your brain to smoothly redirect signals and traffic around problem areas (such as amyloid plaques), and still get all of the nerve messages to their destinations effectively and on time.
- This is why and how a person at autopsy can show tangible signs of Alzheimer’s, but during their living years, it was not at all noticeable by their mental sharpness or behaviours.
The Best Part
A Cognitive Reserve explains not only just how to ward off dementia but also that you can continue getting sharper at any age. AND nothing about aging prevents you from doing so!
In fact,there’s no such thing as being too old or too young to start building up your Cognitive Reserve. There’s really no downside to it. In addition, perhaps most importantly, there’s absolutely no reason to assume that your sharpest days are behind you, even if you’re well into your golden years.
Despite messages to the contrary, your brain doesn’t magically start working a different way once you hit a certain age or retire. In just the same way that an older person is simply a younger person who’s further along life’s path, an older brain can be just a younger brain with more experiences and a longer transaction history!
The overall health and state of your Brain Bank is up to you. You carry the same brain throughout your life; you can’t get a new one – so it’s best to invest proper time and care into the one you have.
Join us for our upcoming Brain Fitness course: BRAIN BODY Health & Fuel coming soon!
To Your Fit Brain & Fit Life,
Jill