Heal Your Body, Save Your Mind

Forget the Sudoku and Crosswords: Preventing Dementia Is a Body Issue

If you who think the best exercise for your mind is doing puzzles, playing games, and other “thinking” stuff, I’ve got news for you! While those activities are enjoyable ways to spend time, especially social time with others, current research shows that keeping your mind and brain healthy to prevent dementia starts below the neck, not above.

One of the benefits of my health journey in later life and the story I write about in my book is that both of my daughters are highly involved in my health journey and always on the lookout for tips and new research to share with me. The extra benefit is that they both have become more aware of their own health as it applies to their lives and well-being. This is an especially tasty fruit of my health journey that I am pleased to have passed on to them.

My younger daughter, Lollie, who is studying for her A-level biology exams at school, pointed out that one of the most promising threads of current research shows that a lack of human growth hormone (HGH) is highly linked with later-life dementia problems, including Alzheimer’s disease. As we age our bodies produce less HGH since they are not growing and rebuilding themselves as much as they were before. Lower HGH levels affect the quality and amount of sleep we get. When we are getting good sleep, especially during the first half of the night when our brains are not in REM (rapid eye movement) or dreaming mode, this is when our immune systems do most of the clean-up of the brain’s blood vessels. When the cleaning isn’t working as well, the blood vessels can develop plaque or get sticky, the root cause of most dementia problems, as well as increased stroke risk. (My thanks to Lollie because our discussion prompted this article!)

Let’s not forget that our brains are first of all flesh and blood and operate on the same biochemical basis as the rest of our bodies. The plaque in our blood vessels that causes Alzheimer’s, while not exactly the same, is formed from the same root causes as the plaque that causes heart disease and heart attacks. Brain fitness and body fitness run on the same health dynamics.

Keeping Growth Hormone Optimal

Our immune systems and the tireless work they do to fix and clean our bodes 24/7, are the core of our ability to stay healthy into later life, which in turn forms the optimal conditions to live longer. This applies to our brains and the rest of our bodies. So, what are the biggest immune system boosters? You guessed it, no new news here if you’ve been reading my posts: exercise, good diet, and good sleep.

Exercise

Moving more, in any way that suits you but making sure you mix up cardio intensities like Zone 2 and HIIT and including some strength elements, prompts your immune system to repair and strengthen those parts of you that have been ever so slightly damaged by the extra use. This physical activity also causes extra secretion of HGH, which is the key biochemical of the rebuilding process. The extra HGH will, in turn, help keep you stronger and increase the quality of your sleep.

I also get a bonus mind-clearing when I exercise that I talk about in another article. To me it is proof positive that using my body and not using my mind is what feels most restorative on a mental level.

Good Diet

A diet that helps you improve your immune system includes 2 elements: the quality of the food you eat and the time you give it to digest. As I found out in my first detox, many foods like sugar, alcohol, caffeine, and various grains and vegetables are toxic to the body and distract the immune system from its main focus. When that happens, it forms the preconditions for many metabolic diseases like obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Keeping your immune system focused on its core mission, to keep you robustly healthy and to rebuild and restore your body, involves keeping your diet as clean as possible from these potential irritants.

The other side of this coin, perhaps even more important, is allowing adequate time for your immune system to do its work every day. It won’t work as well while you are digesting food. The longer you can give it between your evening meal and your morning meal, the better. Twelve hours is optimal, and longer is even better. I practice this intermittent fasting routine every day.

Good Sleep

I know from my own experience that a good workout is almost always followed by a deep and restful sleep that night. My body is needing to prioritize rebuilding as my immune system kicks into a higher gear to deal with the hormetic effects of whatever exercise I’ve done. This is one of the intuitive “clicks” I got when my daughter told me about HGH and sleep quality.

Breathing and Meditation

Effective and calm full breathing, the kind I experience in yoga and/or meditation, has also been shown to the be a brain booster. This is partly the reduction of stress and its follow-on effects on lowering blood pressure and resting heart rate, and partly an increase in oxygen uptake, which is essential for brain health and maintenance. Ironically, trying to keep my conscious mind “empty” during these breathing exercises has a big effect on restoring overall healthy function.

“Dementia Preventia”

Many studies have revealed that dementia is the most feared of all later-life diseases. I can understand and empathize with this fear. Not knowing who you are or forgetting loved ones and what matters to you is a tragic outcome for anyone who has struggled with this disease or witnessed it. So, go ahead and do your puzzles and play your games for enjoyment and quality time with family and friends. But don’t think those activities will lower your risks as effectively as what’s going on below your neck. Healing your body is the best way to heal your brain.