Mind, body & soul 


How to boost your BRAIN


Our brain is the most precious organ in our body – we spend the first 18 years of our life developing and training it and it is who we are.


The preciousness of our brain is true even with all the scientific progress — modern medicine can transplant nearly any organ except the brain. For this reason, we have to value and protect the brain as we age.


Just like any organ of the body, the brain is


nourished by blood vessels susceptible to disease. Diseases and habits which clog up our arteries in the heart and cause heart attacks are the same that cause clog ups in the arteries in the brain.


Smoking, hypertension (high blood


pressure), high cholesterol and diabetes (high blood sugar levels) clog up the arteries to the brain cumulatively over years and starve the brain of blood.


This starvation to the brain can cause sudden dramatic strokes, which can paralyse, blind and disable, or more insidiously, cause a slow decay of the brain’s thought processes, resulting in dementia. This process happens over many years and decades, such that changes to our lifestyle or preventative actions we undertake now will reap dividends in 10-20 years. If you can read this article, you have a brain to save.


While smoking is a very visible habit we know to avoid,


hypertension, high cholesterol and diabetes are often invisible without medical tests. High cholesterol may be related to the food we eat. However many people have high cholesterol despite eating a healthy diet as they carry certain genes which predispose them to have high cholesterol so it is worthwhile to have this checked. Diabetes is also increasingly common due to the amount of sugar and carbohydrates in our diet, and can be detected with a simple blood test.


Hypertension is probably much more insidious as this requires regular blood pressure checks. Blood pressure changes from minute to minute and hour to hour. Blood pressure machines at pharmacists and GPs are helpful guides, but even better is checking your blood pressure at home at random times of the day and night.


Nowadays, you can buy wireless machines, which talk to your smartphone or tablet automatically.


There is a lot of interest in using brain


training games on tablets and smartphones to improve brain power. Unfortunately, their benefit is not yet backed by scientific evidence. It appears that if you play Sudoku


a lot, you just become good at Sudoku but don’t maintain all the many other things your brain


does, like planning a schedule, real-world problem-solving and story construction, to name a few. Mental agility (the ability to switch between competing tasks or thoughts)


plays a big part in how good we are and needs to be maintained by taking up different hobbies or trying new things.


You may consider a review with your doctor or a neurologist to advise on medical issues that impact on your brain, or a neuropsychologist in assessing how your brain function (cognition) measures up. Eliminating health issues and detrimental habits before they cause brain problems is the most effective strategy. Your brain is at its peak in your 20s, 30s and 40s; preventing damage to the brain is a boost in itself.


Dr James Teo


Quick tips


 Smoking is the biggest risk factor for strokes and vascular dementia


 Check your own blood pressure at home


 Drink alcohol within recommended limits (lower the better)


 Eat a healthy, mixed diet of meat, green vegetables and fresh fruit; reduce the amount of carbohydrates and processed foods


 Train mental agility: try new hobbies that challenge you


Home blood pressure machines:


 Withings blood pressure machine


 QardioArm blood pressure machine


 Omron RS8 blood pressure machine


 iHealth wireless blood pressure machine


Editorial supplied by Dr James Teo, Consultant Neurologist at Sevenoaks Medical Centre


Mid Kent Living 37


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