Take a finger jog down an Instagram timeline and you will see how highly people value looking good. Entire industries are built around the acquisition of hawt abs, a perky ass and flawless skin. It’s all good, but I would challenge you to go deeper than the skin and think about, yeah think about how you’re thinking. I’m not talking about the philosophy of enlightenment here, although many would do well to do that in doses too. Literally consider how well your control center is functioning. 

The freshness of our brains is not as obvious as the freshness of our skin. The skin is seen on the outside and is a direct indicator of our age. The brain, being as protected as it is, encased in our cute little noggins, does age slower. This said, it is not immune to father time. In the olden days, it was easier to age gracefully. A greying beard was a sign of wisdom. Older people behaved in a more statesmanly like manner, because their cognitive function was beginning to slow down and this was ok. The body would usually break down before the brain did.

Times have changed. Our bodies are remaining stronger for longer, and our brains are declining, with the result of there being a rise in the rate of altzheimers and other neurological afflictions.

We live in a plastic environment, and I’m not talking about that which is injected to make you look perky. I’m referring to the world around us. Things are changing, moving so fast, that we require plasticity, the ability to adapt.  Covid was an example of this. What would granny do if she was alone at home and was not able to flick on her IPad, open an app and connect online? I saw an old lady enter the Apple store the other day. She should have been shopping for a Zimmer-frame, but instead, she asked the guy behind the counter to update her operating software… go granny.

The bottom line here is that it is more important now than ever, to keep our brains operating as long as we can. The world is changing and we will be left behind if we are not aware of keeping the noggin firing smoothly.

So, instead of ordering that Zimmer-frame just yet, there are a few hacks which you can employ to protect your Executive functioning… and they are the 4 F’s

Fasting – When you give your body a break from the constant job of digesting food, the process of autophagy is allowed to activate. This allows the body to remove dead cells. When the dead cells are allowed to stick around, waste causes disease and premature ageing.

Feasting – Follow a plant based diet. Olive oil, red wine and not a lot of red meat. Fish is cool, and so is poultry.

Plants contain Zeno hermedic molecules, mimicking adversity; When you eat plants the body needs to work a little harder, and cells get stronger. You want the perception of adversity. This tricks the body into thinking that it must get stronger to survive. The European diet tells the body that it is living in times of plenty and the cells become weaker through dis-use.

Fighting – When you get oxygen to the brain, your cells stay alive for longer. When you train with weights, you literally grow area’s of the brain. I know this sounds like a drag, but you have to get more active when you get older.

When you look into someone’s eyes with one of those shiny torches and observe the back of your retina (the eyes are an extension of the brain). If you can see collusions of the blood vessels in the back of the retina, this is an indicator that you will be dying within a few years. No blood to the brain equals a very predictable demise of your faculties and yip, death. Get your ass into an activity, get the blood moving and prevent those collusions people.

Flow – sleep… The reason I keep going on about this, is because it’s a vicious cycle. The older we get, the more difficult it is for us to capture those Z’s and in the absence of our rest, we age quicker…
What can be done? There’s a supplement called NMN. (no, not the rapper)  NMN stands for nicotinamide mononucleotide, which aids in syncing us with the circadian rhythm of our environment. If we’re nighttime online screen fanatics, then we’re not giving our mental head-office time to power down. The trick is to do this a while before the wind down. Without restorative sleep, the body clock is just not set back into recovery mode, and this affects cortisol levels, your stress hormone. In the presence of Cortisol, most of your “good for you hormones” quietly leave out of the back door. 

Your take-aways to prevent your brain from aging faster than your body:

Eat the gnarly plants, experience hunger, don’t eat sugar.
Supplement with Resveretrol, it’s what plants produce when they’re fighting for their lives and it helps to restore yours.
Move, so the brain gets oxygen and your capillaries don’t clog up.

Stay young in your head. Hang out with people who have energy. 

Y0u may want a beautiful body and that’s cool. I would urge you to be in pursuit of a beautiful mind too.