How to keep the brain of a 30-year-old at 60?

Review expert: Yin Tielun, deputy chief physician of the Department of Neurology, Airport Branch, Peking University Third Hospital

I believe many of you have heard of the show "Super Brain". One of the segments is to quickly scroll five or six digits on the screen and ask the contestants to calculate the sum of more than a dozen numbers. It may be difficult for ordinary people to even see these numbers clearly, but this contestant can easily calculate the answer of millions.

Source: Headline News

The reason is that the brain structure of these athletes is different from that of ordinary people.

The ability to calculate quickly and accurately is related to the development of relevant neurons in the brain structure. When the eyes see numbers, the retina transmits the image mapped to the fundus to the brain, which stores this information and then transmits it to the corresponding cortex for calculation.

When the relevant transmission neurons and computing neurons in the brain are more developed, it means that less time is spent on transmission and computing, which gives birth to what we call the "strongest brain". Regarding active brain neurons, some are innate, while others can be trained.

Today we are going to talk about those elderly people whose brains are born with developed neurons.

Super-Agers Have Super Neurons

According to a rough estimate by the British Daily Mail, 40% of people over 60 have some degree of amnesia and memory loss, which becomes more and more serious with age. However, there are also some elderly people in their seventies whose memory is almost the same as that of people in their thirties and forties. These elderly people are called "super elderly" by scientists.

They have amazing memories when they are young, and their neurons do not decay very quickly as they age like ordinary people. These elderly people who still show super memory in old age have memory abilities comparable to those of ordinary young people in their 20s and 30s. According to the research of researchers, the neurons in the entorhinal cortex of super elderly people are larger than those of elderly people of the same age with normal memory.

Source: pexels

Moreover, the brain structures related to learning and memorizing new knowledge, such as the hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex, are thicker than other brain tissues; the anterior insula and preorbital cortex are also very thick.

Comparison between SuperAgers and Young Volunteers Source | Wikipedia

Generally speaking, when the brain remembers something for a long time, synapses will form in the brain. The more synapses there are, the richer the stored memories are. When some memories do not need to be stored for a long time, they are temporarily stored in the hippocampus. When the memories are not needed, the memories in the hippocampus will gradually disappear. These elderly people have more permanent memory neurons in their brains than ordinary people, and more short-term memory neurons in their hippocampus than ordinary people.

Source: pexels

When the brain contestant mentioned at the beginning was doing arithmetic problems, when the results were calculated, the numbers previously memorized were no longer needed, and the memories stored in the hippocampus disappeared. This is the body's protective mechanism to eliminate unnecessary memories to ensure that the brain is not overloaded.

But to understand how and why people might resist developing Alzheimer's, it's important to closely investigate the postmortem brains of super-agers. How can we use their biosignatures to help older adults ward off Alzheimer's?

Alzheimer's disease is related to the degeneration of brain nerves. As we age, brain degeneration seems to be an inevitable trend. How can we keep neurons active?

How to keep the elderly's brain healthy

Medically speaking, it is impossible to recover from the loss of damaged neurons in the brain. In old age, the number of brain cells decreases and the brain atrophies. Although the nerve cells in the brain cannot regenerate, their functions can be trained and strengthened. Therefore, we can take some measures to protect brain cells to maintain the youth of the brain. The specific methods are as follows:

1. Get enough sleep: Giving your brain enough rest can keep it active during the day and reduce fatigue.

2. Pay attention to nutritional balance in diet: eat more fresh vegetables, fruits, cereals and other foods to provide adequate nutrition for the brain.

Source: pexels

3. Learn how to adjust your mood: Long-term anxiety and depression can damage brain cells, so you must face difficulties and setbacks with optimism.

4. Ensure adequate and moderate physical exercise: Provide your brain with some aerobic exercise to normalize metabolism in brain cells, which can make you more energetic and keep brain cells active.

5. Participate in more social activities: cultivate your own interests, and continue to be exposed to and learn new knowledge. This can keep the relevant brain cortex active, slow down brain aging, and maintain the activity of brain nerve cells.

Source: Tuchong

6. Control high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and other physical illnesses that may cause damage to the brain to reduce damage to the brain.

The internal structure of the human brain is innate, but it can be made more agile and active through acquired training. In daily life, reducing behaviors that are harmful to the brain, adjusting moods, and maintaining exercise can keep our brains in a "fresh" state and keep brain functions young.