4. Reduce Stress, Laugh More Often

One of the best ways to keep your brain young is for you to be happy.  Stress is known to contribute to developing ulcers, heart attacks, headaches, and premature aging.  But it also can affect your brain and especially the part of brain essential for memory.  Severe and prolonged stress can affect your short-term memory that makes you forget your keys, your computer password, or names of people around you. It also damages your hippocampus and predisposes you to developing Alzheimer’s.

Six recommendations to combat stress and prevent hippocampus shrinkage:

1. Try to have a more positive attitude and see the bottle half full, not half empty.
   
   
2. Spend more time with people who are fun and exciting, learn some jokes, and laugh more often.
   
   
3. Improve your organizational skills.  Try to plan each month at the beginning of each month, each week at the beginning of each week, and each day at the beginning of the day.  Write down a “list of things to do” for yourself every morning.  Make the list short and reasonable.  Do your best to complete the tasks.  Do not procrastinate.
   
   
4. Improve your sleep.  If you have trouble falling asleep or if you wake up early in the morning, please talk to your doctor.  Routine use of sleeping medications should be the last option and it would be best for you to identify the source of the insomnia or early awakening in the morning,  and treat it accordingly.  For example, some people who are overweight and snore during the night may have a condition called obstructive sleep apnea.  These patients also have a tendency to fall asleep easily at meetings and in movies. They have difficulty with attention and concentration.  Their treatment for obstructive sleep apnea would be to lose weight, use oxygen mask at night, and try medications that improve daytime wakefulness.
   
   
5. Be kind to yourself.  Once a week give yourself a reward in the form of micro adventure.  You can try buying yourself a gift, going for a massage, spending time with friends and family you do not see very often, or plan an adventure with your partner.  Enjoy yourself.
   
   
6. Try meditation.  The deep relaxations you experience with meditation can help relax your mental muscles as well as tension in your shoulder muscles.