How to keep your brain healthy

I was reading in the "Health and Fitness" section of the newspaper how to keep your brain healthy. I found it very interesting and I thought I would post it. It said that timing is everything when it comes comes to taking care of your brain, that you should start taking care of it in your 30s and 40s , or even earlier. Here are the 2o tips that can help us live a long, healthy life.

1. Join clubs or organizations that need volunteers. If you start volunteering now, you won't feel lost and unneeded after you retire.

2. Develop a hobby or two. Hobbies help you develop a robust brain because you're trying something new and complex.

3. Practice writing with your nondominant hand several minutes every day. This will exercise the opposite side of your brain and fire up those neurons.

4. Take dance lesssons. In a study of nearly 500 people, dancing was the only regular physical activity associated with a significant decrease in the incidence of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease. The people who danced tree or four times a week showed 76 percent less incidence of dementia than those who danced only once a week or not at all.

5. Need a hobby? Start gardening. Researchers in New Zealand found that, of 1000 people, those who gardened regularly were less likely to suffer from dementia. Not only does gardening reduce stress, but gardeners use their brains to plan gardens; they use visual and spatial reasoning to lay out a garden.

6. Buy a pedometer and walk 10,000 steps a day. Cardiovascular health is important to maintain blood flow to the brain.

7. Read and write daily. Reading and writing stimulate a wide variety of brain areas that process and store information.

8. Start knitting. Using both hands works both sides of the brain. And it is a stress reducer.

9. Learn a new language. Whether it is a foreign language or sign language, you are working your brain by making it go back and forth between one language and the other. Some research suggests that the earlier a child learns sign language, the higher his IQ.

10. Play board games such as Scrabble and Monopoly. Not only are you taxing your brain, you're socializing too.

11. Take classes throughout your lifetime. Learning produces structural and chemical changes in the brain, and education appears to help people live longer.

12. Listen to classical music. Music may hard wire the brain, building links between the two hemispheres. Any kind of music may work, but there's some research that shows positive effects for classical music.

13. Learn a musical instrument. It may be harder than it was when you were a kid, but you'll be developing a dormant part of your brain.

14. Travel. Whether it's to a distant vacation spot or on a different route across town, you're forcing your brain to navigate a new and complex environment.

15. Pray. Daily prayer appears to help your immune system. And people who attend a formal worship service regularly live longer and report happier, healthier lives.

16. Learn to meditate. It's important for your brain that you learn to shut out the stresses of everyday life.

17. Get enough sleep.

18. Eat more foods containing omega-3 fatty acids.

19. Eat more fruits and vegetables. Antioxidants in fruits and vegetables mop up some of the damage caused by free radicals, one of the leading killers of brain cells.

20. Eat at least one meal a day with family and friends. You'll slow down and socialize. Research shows that you'll eat healthier food than if you ate alone or on the go.