Here is some exciting news. There is overwhelming medical proof centering around studies showing brain plasticity. These show that your brain can indeed recover, repair and regain the functionality that was previously lost as you age.
Dr. Daniel Amen is a physician and board certified psychiatrist who has written 5 New York Times best sellers. One noted title is Change your Brain, Change Your Life. He is one of the foremost experts on brain imaging science called SPECT imaging. Brain SPECT is different from MRI and CI scans. SPECT measures blood flow and activity pattern. It looks at how the brain actually works. Physicians using SPECT look for 3 things:
- areas of the brain that work well
- areas of the brain that are low in activity
- areas of the brain that are high in activity
Balancing these three areas then becomes the key. Dr Amen’s clinics have preformed 74,000 scans on people from 90 different countries. This is significant when it comes to making assessment about depression, anxiety, toxicity and psychiatric disorders.
With all this research available Dr. Amen has gone a step further. He is convinced that we can actually improve our brain function as we age. Here is what he recommends.
Brain Envy: focusing on taking care of your brain is of #1 importance. It is the master control system for everything you think, do and feel.
Avoid bad : avoiding anything that hurts your brain would include drugs, brain injuries, obesity, sleep apnea, anything that damages blood vessels damages the brain, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, negative thinking, untreated depression , the standard American diet and alcohol.
Do good: optimizing your diet, getting physical and mental exercise, taking helpful supplements, learning to think in more positive ways.
With some simple lifestyle changes, aging brains can become young again!! How refreshing!!
