Have you ever observed that your grandfather or grandmother were unable to remember or recollect certain things that happened in their lives? Don`t worry!! This happens to all of us while we age.
Point is that the rate at which our cognitive health would decline varies from one person to another. There are various factors that are responsible for our cognitive health to decrease as we age
It must be taken into account that as we grow older then few psychological changes occur in our brains like reduced flow of blood, shrinkage of blood cells, reduced production of certain neurotransmitters etc.
When these changes take place in us then the cognitive health would also go down or decline. Hence, when we grow older our memory, attention, processing speed, and problem solving capacity etc would decline. By making some lifestyle changes etc we would be able to slow down this cognitive decline that comes with age.
Various habits that will slow down the cognitive decline in us are
Regular exercising:
There would be huge improvements in cognitive functions, increased brain volume and reduced risk of cognitive decline when we do exercises every day. It would be superb to be involved in exercises like walking, swimming, yoga etc.
Mental stimulation:
It would be possible to preserve our cognitive functions by engaging ourselves in activities such as solving puzzles. Reading books etc. Developing a new hobby would also be superb for our cognitive health. New neural connections would be created by challenging the brain.
Eating healthy diet:
For our brain health to be good, it is very essential that we must eat lots of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains etc. Our brain would get protection against free radical damage by eating antioxidant rich foods like blueberries, spinach etc.
Getting adequate sleep:
For our cognitive health to be good, we must have good sleep. Therefore, it is necessary that we must sleep for a minimum of 6 hours.
Social engagement:
Our cognitive health would be good when we maintain social connections etc. It is important that we must interact with friends, relatives etc. By this, we could get emotional support and the feeling of loneliness would not be there.
Managing stress:
The bitter fact is that chronic stress would negatively impact our cognitive health. Therefore, we must try to manage or control or lower stress without fail. For this, doing deep breathing exercises, yoga, meditation would be superb.