So you may be following a healthy diet and exercising everyday to take care of your body.  But what are you doing for your mind? Research shows we  need to keep our brains stimulated in order to keep our minds sharp as we age.

Did you know that you can actually strengthen your brain? In fact, A 2009 Mayo Clinic study found that of 1,300 people ages 70 to 89, those that had regularly engaged in mentally challenging activities, such as reading, playing games, and doing crafts, in their 50s and early 60s were 40 percent less likely to develop memory loss than those who hadn’t.

Follow these simple steps to strengthen your brain and stay sharp as you age.

1. Sharpen your manual skills: Learn a new instrument, start crocheting, or build a model airplane. These types of activities help promote hand and finger dexterity and foster the development of new neural connections.

2. Avoid Routines: When we get into a routine, our brains adjust and aren’t as stimulated. To offset that, alter your usual route to school or work and take the different route every day for a week.

3. Learn one new word every day: It’s like aerobics for your brain. This engages the brain’s language centers, frontal lobe, and memory circuits.

4. Challenge your short-term memory: Speed-dial phones and BlackBerries may be convenient, but they have relieved us of the need to memorize just about anything these days.  Do it anyway. Memorize your grocery list, your friends’ phone numbers, the US presidents in order, every state’s capital city.

5. Play Games: Play a variety of mental games, from crossword puzzles to computer games.This can knock a decade off your cognitive age. In a University of Alabama study of nearly 3,000 older men and women, those who participated in 10 60-to 75-minute sessions of brain-boosting exercise sharpened their mental abilities so much that their brains performed like those of people more than 10 years younger.

6. Be social: Several studies have shown that living a life alone can vastly increase your risk of dementia. One recent Swedish study of 2,000 men and women found that people living alone at age 50 had twice the risk of developing dementia 21 years later than those who were living with a partner in middle age.

7. Turn off the Television: Research shows that those who watch minimal TV are as much as 50 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.

8. Don’t retire: It may be tempting, but don’t retire too early. A recent British study of 382 men found a significant association between later retirement and later onset of Alzheimer’s disease.I

If you are looking for natural support to help improve your memory and sharpen your focus, we suggest HealthyChoiceNaturals Mind Matrix. Our highly potent formula incorporates all eight important nutrients shown to be helpful in supporting healthy brain function.

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