Regardless of our age, our brain has the capacity to create new neurons, particularly in the hippocampus, the area responsible for our memories and emotions. While a favorable and adapted environment allows this capacity to persist over time, being constantly exposed to excessive stress or evolving in unfavorable conditions can contribute to diminishing or even destroying this capacity.
Professor Pierre-Marie Lledo, director of the neuroscience department at the Institut Pasteur, revealed in the magazine Sciences et avenir 6 tips for preserving cognitive health, which we will summarize as follows:
1. Bring change and novelty into your daily life to nourish your brain and maintain its natural thirst for learning. It is new experiences that stimulate the brain to renew its neurons!
2. Ensure that you feed your brain with information that allows us to understand how the world works, and not just passively be informed of what is happening. An overload of information can also generate anxiety, which is obviously to be avoided.
3. Try to manage your stress as naturally as possible, without relying long-term on the use of anxiolytics and sleeping pills. These essentially serve to put the brain "in neutral," which does not allow it to create new neurons during this period.
4. Remain as active as possible, in any way. Because exercising is not only good for the brain, but for the entire body and for morale, too!
5. Be sure to maintain your relationships with others and make sure to socialize enough. This is important because certain parts of our brain only activate when we are in contact with others!
6. Diversify your diet and protect your intestinal flora, which is in close "communication" with the brain. By choosing good foods, we give our brain the necessary energy to create new neurons!
Ultimately, adopting healthy lifestyle habits, overall, is the best strategy to maintain a healthy brain!
For a Healthy Brain: 6 Ways to Preserve Your Cognitive Health
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