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Understanding the Fundamentals of Dr. Nussbaum’s Brain Health Lifestyle
Dr. Nussbaum has published, taught, and applied his brain health lifestyle during the past decade. The lifestyle includes five major domains or “brain health slices” to an overall brain health pie. These include:
- Mental Stimulation
- Physical Activity
- Nutrition
- Socialization
- Spirituality
Three of these domains (mental stimulation, physical activity, and socialization) have their roots in animal brain research that dates back to the 1950s. Animals raised in an enriched environment defined as including these three domains related to larger brains, new brain cell development, and higher number of synaptic connections at autopsy compared to animals raised in an un-enriched environment. Two domains, spirituality and nutrition were added to Dr. Nussbaum’s brain health lifestyle for humans. The five domains also reflect the idea that we humans are a complex integration of may factors and not single dimension animals.
The reason these five lifestyle domains have a positive impact on the human brain is as follows:
- Mental Stimulation helps to stimulate the cortex of the human brain by exposure to information that is “novel and complex.”
- Physical Activity is healthy for the brain because every time the heart beats 25% of the blood from each heartbeat goes directly to the brain.
- Nutrition can be healthy for the human brain because the human brain is composed of 60% fat and consumption of healthy fats is also healthy for the brain.
- Socialization is healthy for the brain because it keeps the brain stimulated and connected thereby reducing the risk of the brain isolating, becoming rote, and lonely.
- Spirituality is healthy for the brain because turning inward and settling down helps to reduce stress which can be detrimental to brain structure and function.
Finally, brain health is built on the foundation of a theoretical concept known as “Brain Reserve.” Brain Reserve refers to development of cellular connections sufficient to defend against or delay the onset of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Imagine your brain looking like a jungle of trees so dense that you cannot even see the ground from above. Now consider Alzheimer’s disease as a weed whacker and imagine how long it will take the weed whacker to make any type of impact cutting down trees in a jungle. A brain with brain reserve serves to fight against the weed whackers like Alzheimer’s disease.
While we have no cure or prevention for dementias such as Alzheimer’s a proactive brain health lifestyle can help to build brain reserve and give us a good chance of delaying the onset of such neurodegenerative diseases.
