I really want to share with you my relief from reading recently, that because anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness today, issues like brain fog are finally being taken seriously.
Taking care of our brain health is more urgent than ever, which is why we’re talking about creative thinking and what we can all do to protect our mental health.
Alzheimer’s is the fastest-growing epidemic in the world, and millions of Australians are living with the condition.
Dr. Dean and Ayesha Sherzai are two of the foremost experts on how to optimize the disease. they say that while we haven’t quite figured out what causes Alzheimer’s, genetic and lifestyle factors likely play a role. And that’s great news because it means there are steps we can take to protect ourselves earlier in life. The husband-and-wife duo are the directors of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Program at Loma Linda University Medical Center in California and authors of The Alzheimer’s Solution—and they’re officially calling this the “century of the brain.”
Their No. 1 piece of advice they have for protecting yourself from Alzheimer’s is to “find your purpose”. They say that this is the most important thing you can do to protect your brain from Alzheimer’s.
That’s because purpose—setting personal goals and taking small but steady steps to achieve them over time—strengthens neuron connections and challenges the brain to be proactive. Engaging in creativity, setting goals as simple as visiting an art gallery once a week to ponder the paintings or enrolling in a series of writing classes, has been proven to change the brain chemistry.
Purpose also increases our levels of “good stress” as the Sherzais call it, and decreases bad stress—the kind of chronic and overwhelming worry that pumps the body full of cortisol and adrenaline. Purpose-driven stress, on the other hand, actually improves health and reduces inflammation.
Time to take that writing class, join a choir or visit a gallery, don’t you think?
Live longer, better!
Jill
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