Free Boost Your Brain by Majid Fotuhi Page A

conditions or lifestyle factors in the past, you might already have decreased your brain reserve. Don’t panic. Growing your brain over the next twelve weeks—and into the future—will help you more fully fund your reserve.
    We can’t tell, without a detailed study, just how much effect those brain drainers have had. So, if you’ve had past behaviors that are currently under control or are not evident but might have taken a toll on your brain, give yourself a “warning card.” Consider this a reminder that your brain may be in need of all the brain-building efforts you can muster.
    High priority factors that warrant a warning card include a history of the following conditions:
•    Diabetes
•    High blood pressure
•    Sleep apnea
•    Heart disease
•    Stroke
•    Smoking
•    Insomnia
•    Excess weight or obesity
•    Sedentary lifestyle
•    Extremely poor diet
•    Head trauma
    Digging Deeper into the Brain–Body Connection
    When patients talk to me about their memory or brain health concerns, it’s often clear that they think of their own brains as mysterious black boxes, perched upon their shoulders and orchestrating their thoughts and actions in isolation from the rest of their bodies.
    The brain is certainly complex, and awe-inspiring, but while it stands alone in one sense as the body’s command center, it is also an integral part of a network of organs, all of which affect—and are affected by—each other. Often my patients have no idea just how interrelated the health of their various organs is and have never really considered how far-reaching certain health problems can be.
    This interconnectedness is especially important given that the human brain is in a constant state of flux, changing from hour to hour and day to day. 2 Health conditions that fog the brain, limit blood flow, or change hormone levels, even for mere hours, can leave their mark on brain structure, size, and performance.
    In chapter 8 you’ll get started on implementing a twelve-week plan to grow your brain. But before you move ahead, it’s important to consider—and begin to treat—medical conditions that may impede your efforts.
    Key Health Conditions That Affect the Brain
    To build a bigger, stronger brain you need a strong, healthy body. Here are some common health problems that impair brain function, or even reduce brain size:
    Hearing Loss Hearing, of course, provides you with auditory input, giving the brain a rich source of information to respond to and remember. Eliminate or reduce the input and you have a problem that goes far beyond just the inconvenience of constantly asking others to repeat themselves. Hearing loss, a common problem associated with aging, can actually hasten cognitive decline. As hearing fails, the elderly can find themselves increasingly isolated and less likely to use their cognitive skills. As a result, they experience “disuse atrophy”—shrinkage in the parts of the brain they’ve stopped using. But it’s important to note that hearing problems aren’t only for the elderly. There’s recent evidence that mild hearing loss in the young is on the rise. 3 Experts don’t know for sure why this is, but some suggest it may be linked to listening to loud music or to the use of earbuds, a type of headphone that sits snugly in the entrance to the ear canal.
    Vision Loss Just as the ears provide input you need for stimulating your brain and cognitive function, so too do the eyes. With aging, the risk of developing glaucoma and cataracts rises, although vision problems can occur at any time in life. Excessive computer use, or prolonged staring at any electronic device, can also cause eyestrain or blurred vision. 4 Not only can such symptoms be unpleasant, but they can also reduce your cognitive function by making it hard to absorb information. Fortunately, vision problems can often be corrected with glasses, contact lenses, or surgery. Symptoms