How to have a healthy brain! The Walton Centre For Neurology and Neurosurgery How to have a healthy brain! Gus A Baker Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology / Consultant Clinical Neuropsychologist

Making a Healthy Brain What is a healthy brain What do we need to know about the brain What strategies can we employ We will be able to become more intelligent from listening to this presentation. What do we need to know!

What is a healthy Brain Your brain is only about 3 pounds, or about 2 percent of your body’s weight. Yet, it uses 20 to 30% of the calories you consume, 20% of the oxygen you breathe and 25% of the blood flow in your body. the brain is 85% water! It is estimated that the brain has 100 billion nerve cells and more connections in it than there are stars in the universe, which is about the number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. There are also trillions of supportive cells in the brain called glia. Each neuron is connected to other neurons by up to 40,000 individual connections (called synapses) between cells.

What the Brain does and needs to do Frontal Lobe • Initiation • Problem solving • Judgment • Inhibition of behavior • Planning/anticipation • Self-monitoring • Motor planning • Personality/emotions • Awareness of abilities/limitations • Organization • Attention/concentration • Mental flexibility • Speaking (expressive language) Parietal Lobe • Sense of touch • Differentiation: size, shape, color • Spatial perception • Visual perception Frontal Lobe Parietal Lobe Occipital Lobe • Vision Temporal Lobe Cerebellum • Balance • Coordination • Skilled motor activity Cerebellum Brain Stem Brain Stem • Breathing • Heart rate • Arousal/consciousness • Sleep/wake functions • Attention/concentration Temporal Lobe • Memory • Hearing • Understanding language (receptive language) • Organization and sequencing

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Physical exercise and the Brain Exercise affects the brain on multiple fronts. It increases heart rate, which pumps more oxygen to the brain. Exercise stimulates the brain plasticity by stimulating growth of new connections between cells in a wide array of important cortical areas of the brain.  From a behavioral perspective, the same antidepressant-like effects associated with "runner's high" found in humans is associated with a drop in stress hormones. A study from Stockholm showed that the antidepressant effect of running was also associated with more cell growth in the hippocampus, an area of the brain responsible for learning and memory.

Healthy Lifestyle = Healthy Brain Researchers found that people who participate in multiple healthy behaviors significantly reduce their risk for dementia. The PLOS ONE US study, looked at 2,235 men for 30 years and measured their participation in five healthy lifestyle behaviors: non-smoking, optimal BMI, high fruit and vegetable intake, regular physical activity, and low to moderate alcohol intake. The study participants who followed four or all five of the behaviors were about 60 percent less likely to develop cognitive impairment and dementia.

Ten things to do to improve brain performance Test your recall. Make a list — of grocery items, things to do, or anything else that comes to mind — and memorize it. An hour or so later, see how many items you can recall. Make items on the list as challenging as possible for the greatest mental stimulation. Let the music play. Learn to play a musical instrument or join a choir. Studies show that learning something new and complex over a longer period of time is ideal for the aging mind. Do math in your head. Figure out problems without the aid of pencil, paper, or computer; you can make this more difficult — and athletic — by walking at the same time. Take a cooking class. Learn how to cook a new cuisine. Cooking uses a number of senses: smell, touch, sight, and taste, which all involve different parts of the brain. Learn a foreign language. The listening and hearing involved stimulates the brain. What’s more, a rich vocabulary has been linked to a reduced risk for cognitive decline. Create word pictures. Visualize the spelling of a word in your head, then try and think of any other words that begin (or end) with the same two letters. Draw a map from memory. After returning home from visiting a new place, try to draw a map of the area; repeat this exercise each time you visit a new location. Challenge your taste buds. When eating, try to identify individual ingredients in your meal, including subtle herbs and spices. Refine your hand-eye abilities. Take up a new hobby that involves fine-motor skills, such as knitting, drawing, painting, assembling a puzzle, etc. Learn a new sport. Start doing an athletic exercise that utilizes both mind and body, such as yoga, golf, or tennis.

Meditation Stress and anxiety is like a constant pressure on your brain. Some ‘healthy’ stress might be important for motivation but it can cause adrenal fatigue, affect memory, make you age faster and create mental and mood issues. To avoid it, best hack is to practice breathing techniques when stress strikes.

Thank you for your time and attention Good afternoon I would firstly like to thank the association for allowing me this opportunity to present to you our data on developemental outcomes in children after in utero exposure to and antiepileptic drug Levetiracetam. Gus A Baker Professor Gus A Baker 1/13/2019 14 14