Adulthood
“The frontal lobes continue to develop into the 30s or 40s,” Restak says. “We determine what development is going to take place in our brain by what we do — the new things we take up.”
Going through the same routine every day can literally put your thoughts in a rut, running through established connections over and over without forming new pathways. To stay sharp, get outside your comfort zone: A study at Case Western Reserve University found that “novelty seeking” — trying out new activities and experiences — was associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
Whether it’s quilting, kiting or karate, trying new things “enhances the general, overall performance — and, secondly, you begin to develop analogies between things,” Restak says. He gives the example of a time he put together a jigsaw puzzle and was surprised to suddenly understand an unrelated professional issue in a new light. He realized that perhaps, as with the puzzle, he wouldn’t be able to see where every piece fit until later on.
“What this is really all about is setting up networks within the brain,” he says. “The more variety you have, and the more you learn, the more you will be able to connect one part of the brain with the other and solve unique problems by taking a different approach to them.”
An equally important factor to consider in maintaining your mental edge is taking care of your physical health. For many people, the stresses and time commitments of work and family life translate into significant weight gain in the adult years, but the extra pounds have a hidden cost for your brain.
“Obesity is more of a contributor to the development of dementia than age, gender or IQ,” Restak says. Likewise, an issue of the journal Archives of Neurology devoted to the link between metabolic disorders and dementia reported that diabetes, high blood pressure, and high levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol were all associated with more rapid cognitive decline.
Avoiding these cardiovascular problems by sticking with a healthy diet is essential for keeping mentally fit, but Restak stresses that there’s no need to follow anything sold as a “brain diet.” “What’s good for the heart is good for the brain,” he explains.
He suggests that the Mediterranean diet — “legumes and fruits and vegetables, unsaturated fatty acids over saturated, fish over meat or poultry, low dairy consumption low, and a little red wine” — is a good bet for overall health.
Along with sensible eating, physical activity offers both heart and brain a health boost. In Restak’s words, “get off your backside and do some exercise.”
Just be sure to balance that activity with plenty of sleep. A recent review of studies involving rats (which have brains that are biologically similar to those of humans) concluded that sleep deprivation suppresses brain growth and learning in adults.
Middle Age
By your 50s and 60s, your brain is beginning to show its age. Expect “some general slowing of responses,” Restak advises. “Your fluid intelligence is decreasing, which is sort of the hardware of your brain,” he explains. While certain brain functions can be improved through practice, this “quick responsiveness” is really a hallmark of youth.
He makes the comparison to physical appearance: “If you are 60 or 70 years of age there is really nothing anybody can do to make you look 20.”
“You have to accept that,” he adds, “and if you don’t accept it, then you really are going to be very dysfunctional.”
Instead of getting hung up on speed, focus on improving in the areas that are still malleable, such as “working memory,” which Restak describes as “the ability to keep a certain memory on your ‘screen’ while you are manipulating it.” Researchers at Syracuse University demonstrated that practicing tasks involving working memory increased subjects’ retention fourfold.
Examples of exercises involving working memory include thinking of the names of the 50 states and then putting them in alphabetical order, or thinking about the presidents of the United States and then naming only the Republicans. (Restak offers many such exercises in “Think Smart.”)
Improving your memory isn’t just about being inside your head. In fact, our reluctance to interact with the world and all its smells and sounds is part of what contributes to memory loss, Restak explains. “One of the reasons we don’t remember as well as we’d like to is because we’re not really using the sensory parts of our memory, and we can develop it by working on various things through smell exercises and taste exercises,” he says.
For example, when dining in a restaurant or at a friend’s home, attempt to identify the ingredients in the food you are eating. Or try sniffing specific scents — say, lavender or peppermint — while reading or listening to music. Combining these different sensory experiences creates new connections in the brain.
Older Adulthood
Modern humans have added a whole new era to life, with many people continuing to thrive into their 80s and 90s. “We have increased the lifespan about two and a half years each decade over the last century,” Restak reports. With longer life comes a further decline in rapid recall, but Restak is quick to point out that other aspects of cognition are at their strongest as we move into older adulthood.
Crystallized intelligence, for example, which refers to a person’s amassed knowledge such as vocabulary and cultural references, continues to improve with age. “Your crystallized intelligence, what’s called ‘wisdom of aging,’ your synthesis of experience, your knowledge, maturity, and judgment, that should all improve,” he says.
The best strategy for cognitive contentment in later life is to take advantage of these abilities, he says: “Look for your strengths in your brain as you mature and use them.”
This is also a good time to introduce dietary supplements, he says, as many people are not cooking as much or as varied a range of foods as they once did.
For many older adults, their greatest neurological concern is the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia. Restak says that while there is no guaranteed means of avoiding such illnesses, continuing to exercise both body and brain dramatically shifts the odds in your favor. “If you walk a mile a day you cut down your chance of Alzheimer’s about 30 percent,” he says. This statistic holds true regardless of when the practice is initiated, he adds, so it’s not too late to get started.
Remaining socially active also helps to protect against cognitive decline, according to a report by the Aging Research Center in Stockholm.
Taking such steps to protect mental functioning and prevent memory loss will pay off dramatically, enabling you to enjoy your golden years enriched by a lifetime of experiences and achievement. “Memory is the most important part of our whole brain functioning,” Restak concludes, “because our memories are really what we are.”
This article is updated from its initial publication in Brain World Magazine’s Winter 2010 issue.
