Simple Smart Science

Re-GrowYour Brainat Any Age

- 10 Minutes at a Time

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About Julia Lundstrom

Re-Grow Your Brain at Any Age -

Table of Contents

Julia Lundstrom likes to refer to herself as a brain hacker. She’s a serialentrepreneur that started in venture funding and then managing a privateinvestment portfolio of $50 million. Her latest life passion is her companyshe co-founded, Simple Smart Science.

With her knowledge of brain health, she combines the neuroscience of thebrain in an entrepreneurial world to take leaps instead of steps in makingmeasurable improvements in people’s lives.

About Julia LundstromHi, my name is Julia Lundstrom and I'm an educator in the fieldsof neuroscience and brain health.

Brain Health Pillar #3: LearningEver wonder why your nine-year-old nephew can download a new appfaster than his grandfather?

It is NOT because Grandpa is too old to understand technology. And it’sNOT because Grandpa’s stuck with a shrinking brain he can’t do anythingabout.

The fact is, our brain is designed to keep growing new brain cells at anyage.

And the best news is: Re-growing your brain and memory is a fun, naturalprocess you’ve already done before. It just takes a little more dedication aswe get older.

We’ll get to that in a minute.

Why does memory fail?

Re-Grow Your Brain at AnyAge -10 Minutes at a Time

By Julia Lundstrom

First, let’s talk about what causes brain shrinkage and memory loss in the

first place...

As we get older, most of us fall prey to one sneaky thing thatDRAMATICALLY shrinks our brain: We simply stop using it as much.

We stop learning, develop fixed habits, and tend to stick to what we alreadyknow…. over and over again.

But just like any part of your body, your brain will literally shrink when youstop using it— particularly in the hippocampus, which is the memory sectionof the brain.

And when your brain is shrinking, any learning or memory recall is simplygoing to be harder.

However with practice, any person— young or old—can learn and masterany new task (including new technologies!).

Why is this true?

Take a look at how you’ve used your brain over the course of your life:

If you’re like most people, you probably went to school for your first 18 - 24

years, and then got a few jobs and started a career. Maybe you eventraveled the world for a bit.

This means you likely spent your first 30 orso years constantly learning somethingnew— all day, every day; in school, in theworld, and in the workplace.

Your learning curve was a straight upwardarrow.

And, if you’re like a most people, youprobably started to slow down somewherein your 30s and 40s, as you settled down

and developed habits that made life easier.

Maybe you got comfortable in your career, had a family and fell into aregular routine, or just put life on cruise control— without the constantchallenge of new assignments.

So what does this mean?

Your learning curve flattened out, and life became a string of habits.

The fact is, by the time most of us reach our 50s and 60s, our learning curvehas completely flat-lined.

Let me be clear: This is SHRINKING YOUR BRAIN!

If you want a strong memory and faster learning—aka: good brain health—the simple key is to keep learning and challenging yourself throughout yourwhole life.

We’ve all heard of that 90-year-old “super human” who is still whistling hisway to work every day and walking around with the of spirit and vigor of a30-year old.

Why is this? Are some people just lucky— or does learning actually growyour brain and keep you young?

The answer is:

No matter how old you are, you are100% capable of re-growing your braincells and improving memory— and we

now have the science to back it.

When you’re learning something new,you are literally and physically re-shaping the part of your brainresponsible for that particular mentaltask. Even more, studies have shown that the actively growing parts of yourbrain have stronger communication with other parts of your brain.

Learning improves memory!

For example, think of a pianist who practices for hours each day. Brainscans show that these piano players have a much larger cortex— i.e.: abigger brain.

Any form of learning increases the number of connections in your brain,improves blood flow and creates more of a chemical called BDNF– achemical critical to the survival of new brain cells AND in storing memories.

And the long term effects are even more dramatic: Studies also show thatintensive learning not only causes your hippocampus—your memory center—to grow while you are learning, but it also continues to grow after youcomplete the learning activity.

So the more you learn, the faster your brain health continues to improve.

More Learning --> Better Memory --> Happier Life

And— the story around learning gets even better! Actively learning newthings throughout life can help stave off late-life dementia & Alzheimer ’sdisease.

Need proof?

One of my favorite studies (and a program I love to promote for all myelderly customers) is a program called Experience Corps by AARP. I highlyrecommend this volunteer program to anyone over the age of 55.

This program was launched in 1996 by John Hopkins University, where theymatched young kids with elderly volunteers who committed 15 hours /week to working with these kids as tutors and mentors.

Not only did the volunteers experience increased physical activity fromworking with the kids, they also got the deep satisfaction of seeing theirlifetime of knowledge help others.

So what happened?

The third graders who participated consistently started getting significantlyhigher grades, and had fewer behavior problems.

As for the seniors, well one participant put it best:

�“This removed the cobwebs from my brain!”�

And the test results proved it. The elderly volunteers saw as high as a 51%increase in executive function and memory... after just six months!

It was a WIN-WIN from every side.

If you’re interested, you can find out more aboutthe program here:

http://www.aarp.org/experience-corps/

Lesson learned: Use it and you won’t lose it.

But— one important note on brain health:

While practicing the same activity over and over (like a piano player) cangrow and enhance certain parts of your brain, is is also CRITICAL toregularly cross-train your brain with new and different activities.

You see, new information and memories get etched more deeply in ourbrains when we do things that challenge us outside of our routine.

And the more memories we create, the better memory we have.

Evolutionarily, this makes sense. When we only had our senses to dependon for survival, our brains filtered out information that wasn’t important tolife or death situations, such as noticing a bird in the sky.

But if we saw something unusual, like a dark shadow lurking in the bushes,we would focus more attention to that area, our brain would fire a fearalarm, and that memory would get stored as a potential threat.

That fear cements a shadow—or memory—in our brain, that causes us totake what might be life-saving action.

Similarly, any emotion attached to an experience will make the memorystick better. A good example of this is how you’ll remember the lyrics to amelancholy song you love more easily than say, a telephone number.

Bottom line is, any emotion or challenge will help with cognition and makethe memory—the lesson learned—stick around for the long term. Withoutthose triggers, you might as well be seeing another bird in the sky.

So a little memory trick you can use anytime is to bring some emotion orfeeling to the experience.

Now, what if it has been a while since you challenged your cognition orlearned something new?

Good news: It’s never too late to start!

We now know we are designed with the plasticity to re-grow new brain cellsat any age.

And don’t worry— You’re not alone if you find it harder to learn or read

new things than before.

For one thing, there is so much competing for our attention in these days ofthe information age. Even the news has an extra news stream at thebottom of the screen.

With all this information overload, we’ve become experts at skimming. Just

like the bird example, it’s the only way we can filter this sea of informationto decide what’s important to focus on, and what to ignore.

The unfortunate result is that our focus and recall start to diminish as wetune things out, which means we’re using less of our brains on a regularbasis… and by now know what that means:

Your brain is shrinking!

This is very alarming of course, but simply one more reason to get yourbrain back in the game, by learning something new every day.

Cross-Train Your Brain: How does it work?

Crosswords and similar games are a good place to start… unless you’vebeen doing them for years, in which case it’s time to try something new.

A fun, easy way to get going is to make a list of things you’ve alwayswanted to do in life, and keep it somewhere you will see every day.

Then starting TODAY, pick one activity you’ve always wanted to do, and gofor it.

Ideally, pick something that involves multiple senses, like using your handsas along with something that involves mental activity, such asmathematics, organization, attention, etc.

You might try building a model airplane if you love airplanes, trying out anew musical instrument, studying a new language you’ve always wanted tospeak... ANYTHING!

The best part is, committing to constantlearning not only dramatically improves yourmemory and cognition; it is the natural pathto living your fullest and happiest life.

How To Start:

First and foremost, start off by testing your memory so you have a baseline

to see (and enjoy!) your progress. I recommend taking a few fun testsbefore starting your memory improvement practice, and then taking themagain at the 4, 8 and 12-week mark.

Here are some of my favorite tests to pick from:http://simplesmartscience.com/blog/dr-fotuhis-brain-fitness-calculator/�MyBrainTrainer

Note: For best results, do three runs of these tests to start with. Keep trackof your total score and Reaction Time, Accuracy and Conc Level, bypressing the “Detailed Results” button.

Now, you’re ready to start challenging yourself— and have fun growing newbrain cells every day.

Here’s how to start, based on where you’re at now.

Step 1: If you haven’t really “challenged” your brain in a while...

Start by picking up a few easy crosswords or a new book on a subjectyou’ve been interested to know more about.

Start simple: For the first week, dedicate just 10 minutes a day of focusedattention on your new brain challenge. Then, add 10 minutes of focus timeeach week over the next three weeks. So by the end of four weeks, you’ll bespending 40 minutes a day on focused learning— aka: 40 minutes ofliterally re-growing your brain! Next, move onto Step 2.

Step 2: If you’re already a semi-active learner...

You’re ready to take it to the next level. Pick up a high-level book from yourschool days on a subject you liked. Or get out there and try something funand new that trains your mental and physical coordination, like a danceclass or kayaking.

If you have physical restrictions, consider volunteering with a program likeExperience Corps, which I mentioned above.

Trust me: It works! When you’re actively challenging your brain every day,you should start seeing noticeably better memory and cognition. Once yourcobwebs are cleared, move onto Step 3.

Step 3: If you are already challenging yourself or consider yourself an avid

learner...

It’s time to step up your game. Pick up a book called Moonwalking withEinstein by Joshua Foer. At my lowest point in life, this was the book I usedto really jump-start my brain. Not only is it a fun read, it will teach you howto add daily memory exercises to your routine, and use your brain to the“nth” degree to re-grow brain cells… and shine your brightest.

And I’ll be honest: You might have the best practice in the world, but thetruth is ALL brains also need a little extra help if we want to see majorresults.

Hi, my name is Julia Lundstrom and I'm an educator in the fields ofneuroscience and brain health. I'd like to invite you to attend a very specialwebinar event titled:

The Memory Boosting,Brain Enhancing "Formula"That Took 7 Years toDecode.If you’re worried enough about your own memory to give me 55 minutes,you'll learn:

1. Why your brain has shrunk over 10% in the last ten years and why this isthe primary cause of your memory, attention, and focus problems. PLUS,what you can do to prevent further degeneration.

2. Why your brain requires more than 20% of your daily energy just tofunction and the SUPERFOODS you can eat right now that will BOOST

your memory.

3. The 1-minute secret that helped more than 6,000 people begin rapidbrain improvement. This is so easy that ANYONE can experience rapid

improvement in as little as 30 days.

So, if you're serious about wanting to experience rapid memory

improvement in 30 days or less without expensive medications, registernow for this special LIVE event that will show you exactly how to reverse

the normal age-related memory loss you suffer from.

Be sure to mark your reservation on your calendar. Spots fill up quickly.