Your strongest muscle and worst enemy is your mind. Train it well. – Anonymous
Your Brain
Your brain isn’t really a muscle, but it’s more important and more powerful than your strongest muscle. It controls every function of your body—both physical and mental.
Improving your brain takes exercise—mental exercise. Keeping it agile can be done with various activities. Whether you make a big commitment—learn a new language—a small commitment—daily learn a new word—or something in between—work crossword or Sudoku puzzles—do things to engage your brain.
Did You Know…
- The average weight of an adult human brain is about three pounds.
- An average brain is approximately 75% water.
- A brain’s storage capacity is basically unlimited.
- Adults participating in mind-challenging activities are 63% less likely to develop dementia.
- When you’re awake, your brain generates 12-25 watts of power. (Enough to fuel a lightbulb.)
- Women’s brains are about 10% smaller than men’s, but size doesn’t correlate to intelligence. Average intelligence remains the same for both sexes.
Brain Work
Your brain is the most complicated and mysterious organ in your body, and men have been trying to figure it out for thousands of years. One of the most fascinating ways it works is the way it deciphers the written word. (Click here to see for yourself.)
Did You Know…
- Over the past 20,000 years, human brains have gotten smaller by the size of a tennis ball.
- There are signs that brain surgeries were successfully performed as long ago as the Stone Age.
- Egyptians removed through the nose the brain of a person being mummified.
- The average IQ has dropped 1.6 points per decade since the late 1800s. (That means in the last thirteen decades, 1890-2020, the average IQ has decreased by 20.8 points!)
- The brain needs to forget less relevant memories to function properly.
- Your brain is chatty, having an estimated 60,000-80,000 thoughts per day.
- The harder you think, the more oxygen and fuel (up to 50% more) the brain needs.
- The back part of the brain is responsible for vision, which is why you see stars when you get hit on the back of the head.
- Relying on GPS to navigate destroys your natural sense of direction.
- The brain (268 mph) is faster than a Formula 1 race car (240 mph).
- It’s normal for your mind to wander. When the brain is resting, the part that controls daydreaming is almost always active.
Brain Health
Keeping your brain healthy is important. Yet some aspects of the brain seem contradictory to good health. For example, it’s not only the fattest organ in your body (60%), it also has the highest cholesterol content (25%).
Did You Know…
- Brain cholesterol is the key to learning and memory.
- Both depression and chronic stress can cause the brain to shrink.
- Low levels of omega-3 essential fatty acids can cause the equivalent of two years of brain aging.
- A constant supply of oxygen is critical for a brain to survive. Severe brain damage can begin after only five minutes without oxygen.
- If you have a condition called Synesthesia, your senses don’t present in the usual way. You might see numbers as colors, “smell” sounds, or “taste” words. Two people reported to have this condition were Nikola Tesla and Vincent Van Gogh.
- People with brain damage, brain injury, and stroke may have their brains healed by music.
Brain Myths
Many myths surround the brain, including that only 10% of the brain is used, multitasking is possible, people are either left- or right-brained, and the brain breaks down with age.
The truth is . . . Your brain is always active and using more than 10%, even when you’re asleep. The brain can’t learn or concentrate on two things at once. Multitasking is really “context-switching,” switching quickly back and forth between different tasks. People are “whole-brained.” Both sides of the brain are used for creative and analytical tasks. And while some functions, like memory, decline the older you get, other skills, like vocabulary, conflict resolution, and intelligence can increase.
Did You Know…
- Your IQ is temporarily reduced by up to fifteen points when you try to multitask. Research shows it takes twice as long to do things and the error rate goes up 50%.
- Millennials (born 1981-1996) are more forgetful than Baby Boomers.
Brain Take-Aways
Your mind makes you who you are. It is a powerful tool and weapon. Keep it sharp and healthy with mental exercises, but don’t forget to provide it with proper physical care, too—get plenty of exercise, nutrition, water, and sleep.
Did You Know…
- Compared to moderately physically fit women, women highly physically fit are 90% less likely to develop dementia.
- Brain functions can be negatively affected by as little as 2% dehydration.
- Lack of sleep raises the brain’s temperature. Yawning cools it down.