Maybe tragedy has struck in the lives of someone you know and care for.

Thoughts Of Negativity.

The feelings, emotions, and decisions that can often result from these external forces can have a very real impact on how we think and what we perceive to be true.

Take for example, as horrible but very realistic as this example is if someone you love has been diagnosed or is suffering from cancer, or a disease, such as in our field of expertise, Alzheimer’s Disease or Dementia.

It can hard to experience as a witness.

The grief it generates, along-side the guilt, frustration, exhaustion and anger that may come through daily dealing with the symptoms of this disease.

With this first-hand experience, the “fear” of also having Dementia can occur.

One might question their own future.

What if it happens to me too? How likely might this occur? Am I at risk?

Fear By Association.

It’s amazing how by simply associating the thought of something that happened to someone else, it may, in turn, happen to us, can cause such stressful emotions to arise.

The fear and anxiety these questions bring up in us can be absolutely paralyzing.

But it doesn’t have to be.

Today, we discuss how we can better respond to these thoughts when in the moment.

First: The Bad News.

There is no permanent way of removing all worries from our minds.

Our mind is designed to predict danger to keep us out of harm’s way.

We are built to worry as a means of survival.

So, when your mind tells you that you may be at risk of Dementia, ironically, this is your mind trying to keep you safe by scaring you.

But, here’s is the good news.

A worrying thought is not a fact.

It’s a worry.

And worry is simply thoughts about a perceived threat.

“Perceived” meaning it is not necessarily a real threat, but we simply “see” is a threat.

You see, even though your mind is suggesting you may get Dementia one day, this is not a fact.

These worrying thoughts and feelings, however, are completely rational and normal.

However, if you choose to believe everything your mind tells you, you may act in ways that are not healthy for you.

Imagine how the thought “I am doomed” might impact your actions differently from “I am in control of my life”.

When a question like “What if Dementia happens to me?” or similar enters your mind, try the following:

Step 1:

Take a nice deep breath.

Pause and ground yourself back into the present moment.

Breathing slowly will help your brain switch from a flight and fight state (which is what leads to anxious feelings and thoughts) back to recognizing you are safe at this moment.

Right now, you are well. “This was just a worried thought”.

Step 2:

Take a few more long breaths, and with each out-breath, let go of any tension you notice.

Allow the muscles to relax and allow any tension to melt away.

This will also help the brain disengage from the flight and fight response and calm the mind from predicting all these tragic outcomes.

Notice thoughts and emotions as they are.

Simply events of the mind and body.

Step 3:

Ask yourself these two little questions and see what arises for you.

1. What is most important to me right now? and
2. How can I take care of myself at this moment?

This may help you connect to actions that matter to you (i.e. taking better care of your health).

Again, engaging your thinking brain with a profound question about values will move the brain from fight/flight to being more present and aware.

Know that feelings carry valuable information you can use to guide your actions. Use this awareness for your own good.

These simple steps will not stop the experience of anxiety from taking place but will allow you to attend to the feelings that arise with awareness.

This will reduce being trapped by the worries and then acting in unhelpful ways.

Engage in this practice whenever you feel the need to nurture and self-care any worry that is painful to you.

Attend to the anxiety with an attitude of care and compassion and be aware of the fact that feelings are temporary, and this moment too shall pass.

Most importantly, learn to recognize that anxious thoughts and feelings are not truth or a representation of reality, and use these challenging moments to connect to the healthy you that you want to be.

These suggestions are to help you handle better the anxiety when it strikes.

However, be aware that there is no quick fix and it may be uncomfortable and challenging at times.

If you would like to know more about what normal age-related cognitive decline looks like, and the things you can do to protect yourself from Dementia, have a read of some of the articles below from Prof. Dan J. Sherman, MD, as you will find them packed with information and useful hints.

• Healthy Bodies Make Healthy Minds
• How Vitamin C And Vitamin E Can Help Prevent Dementia
• 5 Steps To Preventing Alzheimer’s Disease

For more information on what one can do to take care of their health, to prevent cognitive decline, protect their brain from the effects of aging, and promote healthy aging, click on the button below to SUBSCRIBE and we’ll send you weekly updates with news, blogs, videos and articles on how you can live your best brain healthy life.

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We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our Blog, and if you have any comments, questions, suggestions or feedback, be sure to leave it in the comments below.

We’d love to hear that you were able to put some of our suggestions into action.

Until next time, Live Strong. Live Well. Live BrainFit.

As such, more and more people are becoming concerned about whether or not the disease can be inherited, or passed down through genetics.

In reality, the chance of Dementia being purely genetic is actually very small.

The link between Genetics and Dementia

Only in certain rare types of Dementia (Frontotemporal Dementia, FTD), typically appearing at an early age (30’s-40’s), do we find an abnormal gene that can be passed from a parent to child.

While inheriting the disease directly is rare, genes are thought to play some role in other types of Dementia.

Genes can have multiple forms or ‘variants’, which when combined with lifestyle and environment, can influence our chances of developing a disease.

Our genetic variants also play a role in determining how healthy we are in other ways, such as our cardiovascular health.

This means that they indirectly raise or lower our chances of developing Dementia.

Alzheimer’s Disease or Dementia?

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of Dementia and the genetics of Alzheimer’s are the best understood of all the common Dementias.

The vast majority of people with Alzheimer’s disease do not inherit it from a parent as a single-gene mutation.

Instead, the inheritance follows a more complex pattern.

The disease might skip a generation, affect people on both sides of the family, appear seemingly from nowhere, or not be passed on at all.

More than 20 gene variants (or regions within the DNA) have now been identified in AD patients, which to varying degrees, affect the chances of a person developing Alzheimer’s disease.

The effects of these genes are subtle.

Different variants act to slightly increase or decrease the risk of a person developing AD but do not directly cause it.

These variants or ‘risk genes’ interact with each other and with other factors, such as age and lifestyle, to influence someone’s overall risk of getting the disease.

The gene with the greatest known effect on the risk of developing late-onset Alzheimer’s disease is called apolipoprotein E (APOE).

Approximately one-quarter of the general population inherits a gene variant (APOE e4), increasing their lifetime risk of developing AD by a little over two times.

A small percentage of the population (2%), receives a double dose of this gene variant from both parents, increasing their risk by three to five times, however, they are still not guaranteed to develop Alzheimer’s.

Interestingly, one variant of the gene (APOE e2) is associated with a lower risk of developing the disease and is found in 11% of the population.

So, what does it all mean?

In summary, while genes are very important in building and maintaining our bodies, environment and lifestyle are also involved in a person’s physical characteristics, as well as their chances of developing a particular disease.

A predisposition to the disease can depend on whether we smoke, exercise, have a healthy diet and so on, as well as the genes we were born with and our age.

This matters because people tend to think of the effects of our genes as inevitable or completely fixed, but in most cases, this is simply not true.

How Can We Help Prevent Dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease?

At BrainFit Resorts, we are not attempting to diagnose Dementia or determine your genetics, this can be done by your physician.

Our role is to assess your risk of developing Dementia or a related disease, based on modifiable risk factors.

We focus on what you CAN control, that is to say, lifestyle choices that serve to maintain cognitive skills and prevent cognitive decline and Dementia.

No matter your genetic makeup, we will teach you how to profoundly change your quality of living, both in the present and as you ease into in what can be the best years of your life.

We hope this article provides you with some insights and assistance to living your most brain healthy life.

If you want to see more of our articles relating to dementia and ways to prevent it, check out the links to some of our other articles and videos below:

• How Iron and B Vitamins Improve Brain Activity – Article
• Can Vitamin C and E Help Prevent Dementia? – Article
• Memory Loss: Is It Normal Or Abnormal? – Video
• Cognitive Decline: Can It Be Prevented? – Video

Be sure to hit the SUBSCRIBE button below so we can send you new feature articles and videos just like this one, as we release them.

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If you would like us to feature a particular topic or interest in one of our upcoming articles or videos, leave a comment below with the details or alternatively, send us an email to info@brainfitresorts.com.

We’d love to hear what’s on your mind.

Finally, if you know someone who may benefit from this article or any of our other features, please SHARE this article with them using the icons below, and help us to better enrich the lives of those who need it.

Until next time… Live Strong. Live Well. Live BrainFit.

The food we eat literally becomes who we are, and influences our physical, mental and even emotional well-being.

A poor diet has been proven as a cause of conditions such as hypertension, heart and blood vessels diseases, obesity, and diabetes.

Nutritious food choices not only contribute to optimal brain health but can actually be a tool for supporting and even improving cognition.

Food for Brain and Thought

Unhealthy diets can ultimately increase your risk of psychiatric and neurologic conditions, such as depression and dementia, whereas healthy diets can be otherwise protected against such conditions.

Some evidence suggests that poor dietary and nutritional patterns may have contributed to the widespread rise of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias over the last three decades, especially in developed countries, such as USA, UK, Australia, and Canada.

At BrainFit Resorts, we make “Brain Food and Supplements” an essential component of our ProtectMyBrain program. We will not only provide an optimal diet but also help you understand the principles of brain-healthy nutrition.

To support the process, we will also offer you a meal plan, supplements and helpful eating habits that you will be able to incorporate when you return home after the program.

Click HERE to find out more about the ProtectMyBrain Dementia Prevention Program

For now, here are some top nutritional tips to promote your brain health:

1. Lower your carbs intake and avoid (refined) sugars.
   Natural carbohydrate sources with higher fiber content are better choices, but again, in limited quantities.
2. Avoid the “Bad” fats (trans fats, found extensively in processed foods) and limit your saturated fats intake (usually found in beef and pork). 
3. Fatty fish contain high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids, namely omega-3 fatty acids, which are beneficial for brain health. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (found in nuts, seeds, fish, and leafy green vegetables) and the monounsaturated fatty acids (found in olive oil, avocados, and nuts) decrease the risk for dementia over time. 
4. Vegetables and fruits which are not sweet are excellent sources for natural antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents, which can protect your brain. These may include green and red vegetables, berries, grapefruits and many more. 
5. Diets that have been suggested to promote brain health include The Mediterranean, The MIND and APT diets.

We hope these tips provide you with some insights and assistance to living your most brain healthy life.

If you enjoyed reading this blog, and want to see more of our articles relating to nutrition and brain healthy foods, check out the links to some of our other articles below:

• How Iron and B Vitamins Improve Brain Activity
• Can Vitamin C and E Help Prevent Dementia?
• Apricots. A Daily Nutrition Booster

Be sure to hit the SUBSCRIBE button below so we can send you new feature articles and videos just like this one, as we release them.

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If you would like us to feature a particular topic or interest in one of our upcoming articles or videos, leave a comment below with the details or alternatively, send us an email to info@brainfitresorts.com.

We’d love to hear what’s on your mind.

Finally, if you know someone who may benefit from this article or any of our other features, please SHARE this article with them using the icons below, and help us to better enrich the lives of those who need it.

Until next time… Live Strong. Live Well. Live BrainFit.

It is commonly known that as we age, both the quality and quantity of sleep are prone to deterioration.

Patients who suffer from the symptoms of Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are particularly susceptible to sleep disorders, and the severity of sleep disruption is also much higher.

Does having trouble sleeping lead to Dementia?

Up until recently, sleep disruption in people with early Dementia was considered a consequence of damage to the brain.

Today, however, more and more studies reveal the opposite; namely that sleep disorders are actually a contributing factor to the development of Alzheimer’s disease and overall brain function decline.

Astonishingly, studies also show that treating sleep disorders such as sleep-apnea can delay the onset of cognitive decline by nearly a decade!

It has been proven that during deep sleep, the brain more efficiently clears waste products that accumulate during wakefulness, including specific proteins (amyloid-β and tau) normally associated with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Furthermore, proper sleep contributes to overall physical, mental and emotional wellbeing in a myriad of complex ways.

Bottom Line: Sleep Is Important

Therefore, we’ve listed below our Top 10 tips to having a better night’s sleep.

1. Increase your exposure to bright, natural light during the day

   While this might seem obvious, natural light is good for us. Not just in our physicality, but for the connection between our eyes and brain. This improves your energy levels during the daytime, as well as nighttime sleep quality and duration

2. Avoid caffeine later in the day

   While coffee, in general, has great benefits, when consumed late in the day, coffee stimulates your nervous system and may stop your body from naturally relaxing at night.

3. Reduce blue light exposure in the evening

   Bad news for those of us who watch TV or use our Smartphones in bed. The strong Blue Light these devices omit trick your brain into thinking it is still daytime. This reduces hormones like melatonin, which helps you relax and get deep sleep.

4. Reduce irregular or long afternoon naps

   There’s a reason we grow out of afternoon naps when we’re kids. Since our brains are no longer processing as much of an ongoing influx of information each day, the “nap” comes more as a luxury or convenience. Sleeping in the daytime will actually confuse your internal clock, meaning that you may struggle to sleep at night.

5. Abstain from alcohol

   The vast majority of our readers would recognize that over-consumption of alcohol has endless negative affects on our whole body. But as sleepy as it may make us feel to have an extra couple of glasses, this is not what we consider “healthy sleep”. What we are confusing for a relaxant, Alcohol is known to cause or increase the symptoms of sleep apnea, snoring and disrupted sleep patterns.

6. Your bedroom should be your temple

   The environment you sleep in plays a BIG role in your sleep quality and duration. This is why most people have trouble sleeping while traveling, and staying in hotels, etc. It’s not so much Jetlag as it is the mind and body feeling the comfort of the environment they’re in. This includes temperature, noise, external lights, and furniture arrangement. Make your bedroom a sacred place where you feel the most comfortable.

7. Try not to eat too late

   The harder your body has to work at digesting food, the less focused it can be on slowing down and relaxing at the right times. Since our bodies are rhythmical and are tuned to do things at certain times, eating too late will not only throw your digestion into turmoil, but the discomfort of it all will make being horizontal incredibly challenging.

8. Clear your mind before bed

   That important task the next day won’t start until tomorrow, so there’s not much point letting it keep you up tonight! This can often be easier said than done, so applying certain relaxation techniques can help the mind settle before bed. This includes Yoga, deep breathing, meditation, reading a book, listing to calming music, and even taking a nice hot bath.

9. Avoid liquids before bed

   While it’s true that our body’s natural regeneration processes leave us dehydrated in the morning, compensating for this before bed will only leave us with a full bladder. While this can become increasingly prevalent with age, as a general rule, abstaining from liquids for at least 1-2 hours prior to bed will ensure the reduction, if not complete avoidance of excessive urination requirements, which commonly disrupt sleep

10. Rule out any possible sleep disorders

    An underlying health condition may be the cause of your sleep problems. One common issue is sleep apnea, which causes inconsistent and interrupted breathing. People with this disorder stop breathing repeatedly while sleeping. It seems scary to some, while others put this down to more of an irritation. It can be dangerous, so if you think you may be at risk, consult your physician.

While all of these tips can help you to have a more pleasant sleep, if you are finding consistent sleeplessness, or have concerns that there may be more to it, it could be worth looking into our ProtectMyBrain program

As part of our program at Brainfit Resorts, we will conduct a thorough analysis of your sleep patterns and stress management, and provide methods and techniques that can be adapted to give you a much more enriching and nourishing sleeping experience, that you can adopt into your lifestyle long after your stay with us.

Click HERE to find out if the ProtectMyBrain Dementia Program might be right for you.

We hope these tips provide you with some insights and assistance to living your most brain healthy life.

If you enjoyed reading this blog, and want to see more of our articles relating to disease prevention, check out the links to some of our other articles and videos below:

• How Iron and B Vitamins Improve Brain Activity
• Can Vitamin C and E Help Prevent Dementia?
• How To Beter Handle Stress & Anxiety – Video
• Brain Aging… Can We Slow It Down? – Video
• Cognitive Decline: Can It Be Prevented? – Video

Be sure to hit the SUBSCRIBE button below so we can send you new feature articles and videos just like this one, as we release them.

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If you would like us to feature a particular topic or interest in one of our upcoming articles or videos, leave a comment below with the details or alternatively, send us an email to info@brainfitresorts.com.

We’d love to hear what’s on your mind.

Finally, if you know someone who may benefit from this article or any of our other features, please SHARE this article with them using the icons below, and help us to better enrich the lives of those who need it.

Until next time… Live Strong. Live Well. Live BrainFit.

Some of these memory flaws become more pronounced with age, but unless they are extreme and persistent, they are not considered indicators of Dementia or other memory-impairing illnesses.

What causes normal memory loss?

There is a natural tendency to forget facts or events over time.

You are most likely to forget information soon after you learn it, however, memory also has a use-it-or-lose-it quality; memories that are called up and used frequently are least likely to be forgotten.

Although this might seem like a sign of memory weakness, brain scientists regard it as beneficial, because it clears the brain of unused memories, which makes way for newer, more useful ones.

Also, you tend to forget when you do not pay close enough attention to things.

You forget where you just put your pen because you did not focus on where you put it in the first place.

You were thinking of something else (or, perhaps, nothing in particular), so your brain did not encode the information securely.

We discuss the differences between what is normal and abnormal memory loss in our video series.

Click HERE to watch it now.

Memory Blocks

“Memory blocks” are another type of forgetfulness: the temporary inability to retrieve a memory.

Someone asks you a question and the answer is right on the tip of your tongue — you know that you know it, but you just can’t think of it.

Scientists believe that memory blocks become more common with age and that they account for the trouble older people have remembering other people’s’ names.

Research shows that people are able to retrieve about half of the blocked memories within just a minute.

Memory vs. Reality

In fact, there is no such thing as a “true” memory, for even the sharpest memory is not a flawless snapshot of reality.

In your memory, your perceptions are filtered by your personal biases, this includes your experiences, beliefs, prior knowledge, and even your mood at the moment.

Your biases affect your perceptions and experiences in the very moment that they are being encoded in your brain.

Amazingly, when you retrieve a memory, your mood and other biases at that very moment can influence what information you actually recall!

Most people worry about forgetting things, but in some cases, people are tormented by memories they wish they could forget but cannot.

The persistence of memories linked to traumatic events, negative feelings, and ongoing fears is another type of memory problem.

Some of these memories accurately reflect horrifying events, while others may be negative distortions of reality.

Keeping Up With Information

We now live in an age where there is a tremendous rise in the amount of information that we must absorb and process.

Numerous information sources (such as the internet, television and radio, newspapers and magazines, books, lectures, and movies), provide a constant influx of information.

This barrage of data is so immediately accessible via computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones, that the result can easily become an information overload that can be difficult to keep up with.

At BrainFit Resorts we teach all our participants in the ProtectMyBrain Program how to manage information overload, optimize technology so that it gives rather than takes energy from you, and also, how to forget or delete memories, and effectively make room for new memories to form.

Just scratching the surface

There’s a myriad of information around memory loss, and what are some of the steps you can take to help improve your memory and cognitive abilities day-by-day.

Below we’ve listed for you some of our information and resources that might just help you with some hints and tips you can apply to your daily life and improve your memory.

• Memory Loss… Is It Normal Or Abnormal? – Video
• Cognitive Decline: Can It Be Prevented? – Video
• Brain Aging… Can We Slow It Down? – Video
• Forgetfulness… Or Is It Something More? – Blog

Be sure to hit the SUBSCRIBE button below so we can send you new feature articles and videos just like this one, as we release them.

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Of course, if you have any concerns that you are experiencing “irregular” memory loss, do make it a point to consult with your physician.

If you would like us to feature a particular topic or interest in one of our upcoming articles or videos, leave a comment below with the details or alternatively, send us an email to info@brainfitresorts.com.

We’d love to hear what’s on your mind.

Finally, if you know someone who may benefit from this article or any of our other features, please SHARE this article with them using the icons below, and help us to better enrich the lives of those who need it.

Until next time… Live Strong. Live Well. Live BrainFit.