Stress and anxiety levels are three times higher today than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Helen Lavretsky, MD, a geriatric integrative psychiatrist with UCLA Health.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that we can increase our resilience to those emotional responses and, in turn, boost our brain health with simple, daily practices.
“Our lifestyle choices – our sleep habits, diet, exercise, exposure to drugs and alcohol, all of it – shapes this response that rebuilds our body and how we deal with chronic stress,” Dr. Lavretsky said at “An Integrated U: Integrative Medicine Across the Lifespan,” a conference presented by the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Our stress response is affected by exposure to trauma, developmental experiences, toxic exposures, and genetics, she said. It’s also affected by lifestyle choices. These practices – such as regularly eating healthy foods, managing stress, socializing, sleeping seven to nine hours nightly and getting physical and mental exercise – support brain health, which allows us to thrive cognitively, socially, emotionally and behaviorally.
- Data show that getting at least seven to nine hours of sleep each night “clears out all the unnecessary toxic waste from the day before” and improves emotion regulation and cognition, Dr. Lavretsky said.
- Exercise promotes cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health and is linked to better cognitive performance and mood regulation.
- A healthy diet, such as the plant-based Mediterranean diet, has a direct effect on cognitive and emotional states, such as depression and anxiety, Dr. Lavretsky said.
- Stress reduction and improved social support have been shown to improve brain function.
- Purposeful activities that add meaning to life, such as volunteering, also improve longevity and brain health.
- Joyful, fun activities lead to positive emotions.
If each of us would incorporate these lifestyle practices, “it would really have a profound effect on population-level cognitive resilience, reduce dementia and reduce health care costs,” Dr. Lavretsky said.
Along with its effect on the brain, chronic stress produces inflammation in the body, which can cause high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes. Lifestyle medicine can help here, too, she said.
Backed by research
Dr. Lavretsky’s research at UCLA Health confirms the brain-boosting and stress-reducing effects of lifestyle practices such as mindfulness, yoga and tai chi.
Dr. Lavretsky led a study that found that mindfulness and yoga increase gray matter and functional and structural connectivity in the brain.
Another study compared yoga and memory training in women 50 and older who had cardiovascular risk factors. It found that yoga was superior to memory training in preventing decline in gray-matter volume and, in fact, increasing gray-matter volume in multiple areas of the brain.
A third study found that tai chi training reduced depression, decreased emotional reactivity and improved resilience among people 60 and older with depression.
Mind-body practices such as these “can change the biological stress response and result in more resilient outcomes, mental and physical,” Dr. Lavretsky said.
Virtually anyone can improve their brain health by adopting healthier habits, she said: “Brain health across the lifespan is an important target for treatment and prevention.”