How to Prevent Cognitive Decline (Zero Gravity Chairs May Help!)
When it comes to our mental health, it’s important to consider the long-term effects of our actions and not just day to day changes. Fortunately, there’s a lot of available resources for taking care of our mental and physical health today as well as learning how to prevent cognitive decline in the future!
So, how to prevent cognitive decline? Let’s take a look at simple lifestyle changes you can make to keep your mind sharp now and in the future.
Protecting Your Mind: How to Prevent Cognitive Decline
When it comes to how to prevent cognitive decline, researchers have discovered different ways that may be potentially effective. While there’s unfortunately no current medical way to reverse or fully prevent memory loss in all cases, these methods for preventing cognitive decline may be helpful in the long term.
A few ways preventing cognitive decline that may help prevent future health issues such as dementia and keep your mind sharp include:
- Exercising regularly
- Using a zero gravity chair with mental stimulation
- Monitoring your diet
- Engaging and being social with others
- Getting enough sleep
Exercise for Preventing Cognitive Decline
Maintaining an active lifestyle has many health benefits that you may be familiar with such as being a natural way to reduce blood pressure, helping improve lung function, and even serving as a method for how to treat insomnia. Did you know that an active lifestyle may also be effective for how to prevent cognitive decline, too?
Some studies have shown the influence of exercise on cognitive function including how regular exercise may even help those with some existing memory problems. In fact, it may be of particularly good benefit for those genetically predisposed to Alzheimer’s who carry the ApoE4 gene variant.
Adopting an exercise routine doesn’t have to be a daunting challenge, however. Try to exercise for at least 30 minutes several times a week to elevate your heart rate and start experiencing the health benefits of exercising. You don’t have to go to a gym. You could take a brisk walk, try a low-impact exercise like yoga aimed at increasing mobility and flexibility, or even do full body workout exercises in a zero gravity recliner!
Pro Tip: While taking care of your mind is important, remember to look after your body with a post workout recovery routine, too.
How to Prevent Cognitive Decline Using Zero Gravity Chairs
Speaking of a zero gravity chair or recliner (the terms are often interchanged), these multifunctional furniture pieces may be helpful for preventing cognitive decline. What is a zero gravity chair and how is it supposed to help your brain, you ask?
Zero gravity chairs are so named because they emulate the neutral body position observed in astronauts at rest in space. As you recline into zero gravity position, the legs are elevated above the heart level and weight is evenly distributed along the body. While some of the more well-known health benefits of zero gravity chairs focus on things like better blood circulation, helping the body heal itself faster, providing back pain relief, and even how they may improve mental health, they do much more!
Many of the health benefits of zero gravity chairs stem from improving blood circulation. Better blood flow is good for more than just how to heal a herniated disc or achieving radiant skin, though. That increased blood circulations means higher cerebral blood flow (called CBF), too. Lower CBF has been associated with increased risk of cognitive decline and a contributor to health issues like dementia. Conversely, a higher CBF may help lower your risk.
You can also pair your zero gravity chair with all kinds of activities for preventing cognitive decline. For example, you could listen to music and sound options while relaxing in a zero gravity chair, play brain games, read a book, or journal. Any of these activities help stimulate your brain and may contribute to keeping it sharp.
Eating A Healthy Diet and Cognitive Decline Prevention
When you hear about eating healthy for a healthy life, it’s not just empty words! What you eat may be a contributing factor to your long term health and having a healthy diet may even be a positive factor for preventing cognitive decline.
So then what are some good foods that prevent cognitive decline? Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, seeds, nuts, and healthy fats are all great. Moderate amounts of fish and poultry may also be helpful in preventing cognitive decline while limiting red meat consumption. This diet is commonly referred to as a Mediterranean-style diet and may be helpful in preventing MCI (mild cognitive impairment).
Help Prevent Cognitive Decline By Being Social
If the recent COVID-19 pandemic taught us anything it’s how important our interpersonal relationships and engagements can be. While in-person engagement and social interactions may not be for everyone, we’ve discovered that virtual conferencing, video calls, or even simple phone calls can make a difference in how we feel. That said, all those types of social interactions may also be helpful ways for how to prevent cognitive decline!
Studies have shown links between social interaction and preventing cognitive decline many times over. Engaging with others and being social are key elements in stimulating our brains and keepings our cognition levels high.
These conversations or engagements don’t have to be deep, intellectual conversations each time. A simple light interaction with anyone can be enough to help stimulate your brain synapses and help keep it sharp as years progress. Frequent engagement helps strengthen neural networks, slowing normal age-related cognitive declines. It may also help strengthen cognitive reserve, which can delay the onset of dementia.
Sleep More: Lack of Sleep and Cognitive Decline
According to the CDC, an average of 1 in 3 adults don’t get enough sleep. Not only can this impair your mind in the short term, it can also be a contributing factor for cognitive decline as you age. Consistently good quality sleep is important for your overall health and may be helpful for how to prevent cognitive decline. The reason why is that learning and memories are consolidated during sleep, allowing us to retain what we’ve experienced.
So then how can you get better sleep, right? With hectic schedules, juggling family and friends, keeping active, and trying to make time for a little self care it’s no wonder many of us have issues sleeping! Try starting a relaxing night time routine to ease your mind and body to unwind before bed. This can be anything from taking a warm bath to reclining in a zero gravity chair for better sleep quality. As creatures of habit, having a night time routine in place will help your brain start to recognize when it’s time to prepare for sleep.
If night time sleep doesn’t seem to be enough, there are also health benefits of napping as an adult! Say goodbye to the stigma of napping as laziness or anything negative. Adult nap time can be exceptionally beneficial to your mind and body. One of the bonus features of zero gravity luxury recliners you may be able to use at home for an afternoon power nap is a smart wakeup timer. This can keep you from accidentally oversleeping, which can be counterproductive to the benefits of short naps.
Finding ways for how to prevent cognitive decline may be easier than you thought! Small lifestyle changes can go a long way. Adopt a healthy diet, get exercise several days a week to stay active, or choose a zero gravity chair to incorporate in your everyday routines for preventing cognitive decline. These subtle changes in behavior or actions could make a huge difference and help keep your mind sharp in the long term.
Curious about more health benefits of zero gravity chairs? Check out these resources and see how they could help improve your overall health:
