My brain just isn’t as sharp as it used to be.
To keep your brain healthy, some of the most important things to do are keeping physically active, eating foods that are good for your brain and mentally stimulating that grey matter. Here are a few tips on foods you can try if you need a bit of help in the thinking department.
Berries – those little powerhouse morsels of deliciousness. These can help improve cognition, control inflammation and enhance neurotransmission (how nerves talk to each other).
Turmeric can help control inflammation, help protect against Alzheimer’s (yes, many studies have been done on this) and help clear the plaques associated with Alzheimer’s. Sometimes issues with thought processes occur due to underlying cardiovascular disease – and turmeric can often help with this too. As it is a large molecule, it does not cross the blood-brain barrier easily, so this is why supplemental forms are used as they have been modified to increase bioavailability. It has also been shown that it can improve neuroplasticity – which is just a fancy term for the brain rewiring itself to work better.
Most people have heard of fish oil. Why is a good quality one important? Because cheaper ones may be rancid and give the opposite effect to what you want or have an inappropriate balance of EPA to DHA. Omega-3 is a fatty acid found in fish oils – but you can also try eating enough fatty fish such as mackerel, salmon and tuna. If fish oil doesn’t seem to be helping, you may really need to look at how balanced your fish oil supplement is.
In addition to food recommendations I also use herbs (both in liquid and capsule forms) to get your brain working again. I am not going to list them here as you need to take care when using herbs, particularly if you have underlying conditions or you are on medications.