Wellness@Work: 6 ways to improve your cognitive fitness 

By Robert Israel, M.D.
USA Health Integrative Health and Wellness

Cognitive fitness has been defined recently by researchers as your brain’s ability to improvise and find alternative solutions to problems when things change. This capacity evolves over a lifetime, and it depends on ongoing learning and curiosity.   

Higher cognitive fitness has been shown to improve one’s response to some neuro-degenerative illnesses, like dementia or Parkinson’s, and even make those conditions non-problematic. Obviously, this is something worthy of cultivating.     

In addition to continually learning and nurturing a curious mind, research has made it clear that preserving a healthy brain is important. To preserve and nourish your brain, here are six things you can do.    

• Continue to challenge yourself to learn new things. 
• Eat a plant-based diet.  Shift from processed foods, high sugar foods, and animal protein, and instead eat more unprocessed, plant-based foods. Very good evidence backs up that this helps prevent dementia and brain tissue loss. 
• Exercise regularly. It doesn’t have to be intense exercise. In fact, just 30 minutes of walking five times a week is associated with a lower incidence of dementia. Additionally, learning a new sport, such as tennis or golf, or pursuing another new exercise is beneficial. 
• Get restful sleep. If you are not sleeping well, talk to your provider about non-pharmaceutical and pharmaceutical solutions that can help. 
• Control your stress. It’s not all bad, and it can even be good for you. But it needs to be managed and controlled. Exercise, yoga, and mindfulness meditation are among things that can help. 
• Nurture social connections. Go to church, get involved in the community, or meet friends for lunch. Instead of letting this occur at random, make it something you intentionally do and try to do more often. 

Several of these ideas hold multiple benefits. For example, exercise has stress-reduction side effects, helps improve sleep, reduces stress and more. It also just happens that these same regenerative things are also good for your heart, diabetes and hypertension relief, cancer prevention and so forth.     

Go ahead and build some brain fitness today. Your body and your mind will thank you for it.  

How can you lead a longer, better life? Follow weekly Wellness@Work tips from USA Health Integrative Health and Wellness. We cover ways you can eat better, move better, be more mindful, and find more balance to support your optimal health and well-being. Learn more at usahealthsystem.com/wellness.