Brain Health: Is Smiling the Key?

Would you like to use this image? Click here to use it.

Your brain is a delicate and intricate system, more complex than any computer we have developed. The ability to properly use your brain can be the determining factor in whether or not your golden years are truly “golden”. So, what can you do for better brain health?

Harvard Health lists many items that you would expect: don’t smoke, don’t drink too much, avoid head injuries, improve your blood pressure and blood sugar. But a few of the suggestions are not body-centric, such as “care for your emotions” and “build social networks”. The logic behind these two is that anxiety, depression and other mental health disorders can cause a decline in cognitive functioning, while strong social networks not only decrease the development dementia, but also have been shown to be important in coping with mental health challenges.  The site also listed the usual suspects in brain health and health generally such as exercise, healthy eating, and mental stimulation.

Hello Brain cites another simple preventative measure for cognitive decline: smiling.  Smiling not only creates new brain cells and encourages resiliency in the brain, but it also releases hormones that decrease blood pressure, boost immunity, and help protect against “stress, depression and anxiety”.  Recommended smiles per day?  At least five, but if you can manage more, that’s even better!

And, of course, the big question: how can you incorporate brain health boosters in later life?  Reader’s Digest recommends this easy exercise for helping determine what will challenge your brain to think harder and stay healthy (list and text directly from RD):

• “Take out a sheet of paper, and divide the paper in half.
• In the left column, list five activities that you enjoy and have fun with, and do most frequently. This list represents activities that are rote and passive. Your mind is already comfortable with these activities, which lessens the benefit they have on your brain.
• In the right column, list five activities that you find complicated, and don’t engage in frequently. This list represents activities your brain has not yet formed strong neural connections with; they are the complex and novel. These activities will likely benefit the development of new connections in your brain. Here are some more brain-boosting exercises to try.”

So if you do nothing else, try smiling more.  It’s the key to generating a cascade of health-boosting hormones, and it’s easy to do even if you don’t incorporate any other brain health activities.

Will you smile to boost brain health?  Let me know on Facebook.