Brain fitness is your brain's ability to create new brain cells called neurons and to create more connections between those brain cells.
This is important to everyone. It is not an issue exclusively for those who have suffered a brain injury. Everyone needs a healthy brain. Brain fitness, however, offers some very exciting opportunities for those who have an injured brain.
Those exciting opportunities come from recent research in the area of neuroplasticity. Yes, that's a pretty big word so let's break it down. The most recognizable part of the word is plastic. You have probably used plastic cups and plastic plates all your life.
You check out at the grocery store and must answer the question, "Paper or Plastic?" Toys are made of plastic. The computer you are using has a lot of plastic in it. And that's the point. Plastic can be shaped into just about anything.
Neuro-plasticity refers to shaping or reshaping how your brain works. Medterms, the medical dictionary at MedicineNet.com, states, "Neuroplasticity allows the neurons (nerve cells) in the brain to compensate for injury and disease and to adjust their activities in response to new situations or to changes in their environment."
That's the exciting opportunity I was talking about. Your brain can compensate for injury by adjusting to new situations. Your life after brain injury is certainly a new situation. You have experienced memory problems. You have experienced cognitive problems. You have experienced behavioral changes. Each of those is something new to your life.
Alvaro Fernandez, Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg and Caroline Latham produced a paper in January 2007 entitled, Brain Fitness 101. In it, they point out four essentials for maintaining a healthy brain.
Those four essentials are:
- Physical Exercise
- Mental Exercise
- Good Nutrition
- Stress Management
Please notice that all four of the essential for having a healthy brain can be done by someone who has suffered a brain injury. Can a brain injured person perform physical exercise? Certainly. How about mental exercise? Of course. Can a brain injured person eat nutritious meals? Yes. Can a brain injured person manage stress? With a little help...just like everyone else!
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Think of the FOUR ESSENTIALS for Brain Fitness being like a chair with four legs.
Each leg is just as important as the other three for the purpose of keeping the chair upright.
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Remove one of the legs. What happens? The chair tips over.
Developing a healthy brain requires maintaining all four legs.
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In our book, Brain Injury Survivor's Guide, Beth wrote a chapter entitled Beth's Message to Brain Injury Victims. She said, "Exercise, like walking on the treadmill, allowed me to get away from some of the stresses of life and lose myself for a while. It made it easy to take a step back from all the pressing issues I was dealing with and relax."
She also wrote, "Just as physical exercise helps me, I believe getting lost in music is a way to let the injured brain take a break from all the stress. It amazed me when I discovered that even when I could not come up with the next word I needed to use in a sentence, I could follow along with all the words in a song."
As you discover the many sections of this website, you will find many articles, games, and quizzes that deal with physical exercise, mental exercise, good nutrition and stress management.
We have put a number of humorous articles, jokes and videos on this site as well as some videos that allow you just to take a break and relax for a little bit.
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