How to Increase Brain Power and Function

Everyone's brain could use a tune-up, and the old adage, "use it or lose it," seems to be true.  Here's how you can increase your brain power.

Keeping your grey matter in shape, or upping your game, is in one sense a no-brainer. Everything you do to maintain and improve your overall health does the same for your brain.

“Exercise, sleep, and diet are important parts of improving your brain power,” said Fiona Gupta, MD, a neurologist associated with Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

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How to improve brain power

The old adage, “use it or lose it,” has some science behind it, she says, if you use “it” the right way. “Some people believe that reading or doing crossword puzzles will increase brainpower, but it’s really more about doing new things, like following a recipe. There is also real power in socialization. When we socialize, we make bonds that enhance brainpower by activating various parts of the brain, creating new neuronal networks and pathways,” she said.

As for exercise, studies show that mice increase their number of neurons while running on wheels, helping them perform better on tests of learning and memory, according to Emily Anthes, author of “The Instant Egghead Guide: The Mind,” in collaboration with Scientific American magazine.  

Exercise in humans can improve the brain’s executive functions, which include reasoning, problem solving, and the ability to change course as needed during the performance of a task. People who exercise also are at lower risk of dementia as they age. Gupta suggests a combination of cardiovascular workouts and weight training.

Diet also plays a key role in maintaining and boosting brainpower, Gupta notes, especially by delivering “good” fats and antioxidants to the body. Your brain is mostly fat in the form of cell membranes and insulating sheaths around nerve fibers that increase the speed at which impulses are conducted. Omega-3 fats, found in a variety of foods — including fish, nuts, and seeds — are particularly beneficial.

Your mother’s constant exhortations to eat your vegetables were also sound advice. It’s good to eat fruit as well. Both vegetables and fruits provide antioxidants, chemicals that remove harmful free radicals. These molecules can damage brain cells as well as increase your risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Vegetables with plenty of carotenoids and vitamins E and C lead the way, according to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. To make it easy to get your nutrients, fill your meals with colors. A bright orange sweet potato offers carotenoids you won’t get in a white-skinned potato. Bright blue blueberries provide anthocyanins, an antioxidant that helps people maintain blood sugar control, among other benefits. Darker greens offer you more than iceberg lettuce.  

For vitamin E, eat nuts and seeds (particularly walnuts), and cook with canola and olive oil, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated “good” fats.

Next, make sure you get enough sleep. Everyone can describe how he or she feels when sleep deprived. It’s as if you can’t think clearly or concisely. Bullseye. The brain simply cannot operate at full capacity without enough sleep. Creativity, problem solving, and critical thinking are all reduced. Conversely, sleep is essential for optimal memory function. In a study, two Massachusetts Institute of Technology professors found a link between sleep and test scores. The less students slept, the lower their grades. Going to sleep later was linked to lower scores even if their total sleep time was adequate. A good night’s sleep right before a test didn’t make a difference. What counted was how much the students slept while they were learning the material.

If you get enough sleep — 8 hours on average — you will have better rapid eye movement (or REM) stages, during which your mind becomes highly creative, and you dream.

Other brain function boosters

Try meditation. A study in the computer department at the University of Seville in Spain found that software engineering students who followed a meditation practice over six weeks produced better models than students in the control group. 

How much meditation do you need to benefit? One study at New York University found that, among people ages 18 to 45 who had not previously meditated, a daily 13-minute meditation session improved mood, lowered anxiety, and boosted working memory. A control group of people who listened to a podcast instead didn’t see those benefits. But meditation for a month didn’t do the trick, in this study; it took eight weeks.

Similar activities, such as deep breathing techniques or walking through nature, can relax the mind to allow new information to sink in.

Parents of kids hooked on video games might object, but Anthes writes that research has shown video games can “improve mental dexterity, while boosting hand-eye coordination, depth perception, and pattern recognition.” Gamers also have “better attention spans and information-processing skills” than those of us who passed on playing “Grand Theft Auto.”

Finally, it’s been famously said that music calms the savage beast. While there is no evidence that singing to a charging rhino will save your life, music can stimulate the brain’s auditory cortex to analyze pitch, timbre, melody, and rhythm. Music also represses activity in the brain’s amygdala, home of our primitive fight-or-flight response, reducing fear and other negative emotions.

Music lessons may even give your little ones a verbal edge. In one study, kindergartners who were taught to play the piano learned to distinguish different pitches, which translated into better word discrimination.

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