7 Signs Your Brain Doesn’t Match Your Age, and Ways to Keep Your Mind Sharp

This is a writeup on the recent article “7 Signs Your Brain Doesn’t Match Your Age, and Ways to Keep Your Mind Sharp”, published by Prevention magazine.

Your habits and attitudes affect how sharp your mind is.  Here’s how to tell how you’re doing.

It’s a common sensation:  feeling either younger or older than your actual age.  Depending on your health, lifestyle, and personality, you could be much younger, or older, in brain years than you realize.  How can you tell if your brain is fresh and vital—or getting more senior by the second?

When it comes to our brains, science shows that this age disconnect is an actual thing: Our brains can essentially age at a different rate than our chronological years.

How can you tell if your brain is fresh and vital—or getting more senior by the second? Check out these signs, both good and bad, that can help you determine your true brain age, then read on for ways to reverse course and make healthy changes now, to keep your brain sharp vibrant.

3 signs your brain is staying young

Research has shown there are certain signals that indicate that your brain is doing well.

You feel younger than you are
The age you feel, as opposed to your biological age, is known as your “subjective age.” And if your subjective age is younger than the number of years you’ve actually racked up here on Earth, that’s a good thing! A study from Seoul National University and Yonsei University in South Korea found that people who feel younger than their age show fewer signs of physical brain aging as the years go by.  According to the researchers, further study is needed to determine the exact way feeling young affects the neural mechanisms.  One of their theories:  the more youthful you think you are, the more physically and mentally active you are.  This has been proven to be excellent for your brain health.  So do things that make you feel young.  For instance: If your usual playlist is filled with songs from your teens, mix in some current tunes—it could help you feel cooler and more vital.

You speak more than one language
Canadian and Spanish researchers reported that bilingual people have more centralized and specialized neural connections.  Speaking two languages makes your brain “select” information more efficiently, and this saves brain energy, which helps keep it young.  Also, bilingual people don’t use as much of their brains’ frontal regions as those who speak only one language—saving wear and tear, essentially.  This makes you less likely to develop cognitive aging and dementia.

You live in the moment
Mindfulness practices that help you stay in the present can also help preserve the brain’s gray matter, which is essential for good memory, according to a study from UCLA and Australian National University. Meditation is ideal; according to the research, it’s possible that when you meditate you physically conserve the gray matter in your brain by reducing stress.  Stress can hurt your noggin by damaging your immune response.  Meditation may also stimulate the dendritic branching, where neurons form new dendritic branches and create new synapses, thus helping cells communicate with each other.  This increases gray matter, according to the research. Try meditating for at least ten minutes as soon as you get out of bed, to give your brain a peaceful, productive daily start.

4 signs your brain may be aging on a fast track

Science has looked into signals that our brains may be aging faster than is optimal. Here are signs to look for:

You’re a cynical person
Finnish researchers published a fascinating study in which they found that very cynical older people not only have a higher rate of cognitive decline, but also tend to die at a younger age. Why? It’s probably due to Negative stress. We know that cortisol, the stress hormone, has a very unhealthy effect on the brain, and stops you from thinking clearly. Start to notice when your cynical attitude comes up about something or someone.  In those moments, try to actively change your mindset:  Do some deep breathing, and choose to think of something positive to say.

Your attention wanders a lot
All of us know how hard it is to concentrate when we’re excited or nervous. If you find it really tough, on a consistent basis, to focus during stress, you might want to talk to your doctor. A research team from USC found that easy distractibility is a sign of cognitive aging. This trait can show up in the brain as early as age 30, and could be one sign of eventual Alzheimer’s. It’s tied to arousal—if you’re suddenly confronted with a shocking, stressful situation, for example, the frontoparietal network of your brain may not respond sufficiently to signals from your locus coeruleus, which helps you focus. If you tend to have trouble focusing when under stress, cognitive testing could help you find out if you have any predisposition to cognitive decline. Brain training, like puzzles or games, may be helpful in building concentration skills.

Your friends mention that you’re forgetting things
Blanking out on dinner with your friends once can be chalked up to having a lot on your plate. Doing this multiple times without meaning to, though, can signal a problem. If your friends mention your behavior seems different, take their feedback seriously.  Pay attention to is what your friends and family are telling you. Have they noticed you are having memory problems? If so, it might be time to get a professional opinion.

You’re tired in the daytime
It’s a key sign noted in several studies—for example, the Mayo Clinic Study Of Aging. Sleepiness in the daytime not only means your brain is not getting the proper restorative “clean-out” rest it needs at night, but it can cause direct physical brain changes tied to aging. “Sleep is a really important protector of the brain,” says Neil Graff-Radford, M.D., professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.  You need seven and a half to eight hours of good sleep per night for brain health.”

Easy and effective ways to turn back your brain’s clock

Try the MIND diet
Here are 5 simple and straightforward ways you can energize your brain:

The MIND Diet (the Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay) is a food plan rich in leafy greens, berries, nuts, fish, olive oil, and even a little wine.   Not only is MIND delicious, it can turn back your cognitive age by 7 and a half years, according to 2015 research.   Nine hundred men and women ages 58 to 98 followed the MIND Diet and had their cognitive function checked once a year for more than four years. The study participants cut their Alzheimer’s and dementia risk by 53%.

Take the stairs
For every flight of stairs you climb every day, your brain age drops 0.58 years, according to research from Concordia University/Centre de Recherche de l’Institut de Gériatrie de Montréal/Columbia University/the University of Florida.  Even better is when you learn to like that upward hike. This makes the pleasure centers in your brain release dopamine. That happy hormone will help you stick with your workout—so put on your headphones, cue a playlist you love, and carve out time to stair-climb at work or home for 150 minutes per week.

Talk out your feelings to supportive friends
A fascinating new study led by Joel Salinas, M.D., of New York’s Grossman School of Medicine found that having social connections with good listeners you trust means you release your problems and stress easily, and that slows brain aging.

Walk fast, often
If you’re middle-aged or older, you can improve memory loss and raise your cognitive scores by walking briskly three to five times a week, according to research from Texas and Japan. In the study, middle-aged and older people with early signs of memory loss raised their cognitive scores after they began walking frequently.

Stay hopeful
“A positive attitude is important to protect cognitive aging”,  Dr. Radford-Graff sums up. “I met a wonderful woman who was a Holocaust survivor, and she died at over 100 years old—she was older, but she would speak to you with such interest, and had such an extraordinarily positive view on the world.” Take this inspirational example to heart—looking on the bright side is a great way to stay happy and curious, no matter what age you happen to be!

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