Knowledge is Power – Understanding Our Brains Helps Us Age Gracefully

In school, we’re constantly in a learning environment. For 7-8 hours a day, our brains are primed to receive new information and grow. As an adult, wiring ourselves for growth isn’t as easy. However, according to science, learning can have enormous benefits to healthy aging. The knowledge we gain from understanding our habits plays a big role in maintaining our health as seniors.

Cognitive Decline and Knowledge

Around the age of fifty, you might notice that you weren’t as sharp as you once were. Memories and facts are harder to recall. As we age, our cognitive abilities gradually deteriorate and we experience what is known as cognitive decline. When this occurs, the connections between our neurons, the cells in our body that send signals to the brain, weaken. This makes it harder for our brains to focus, process new information and remember things.  Yes, our brains are changing, but should I really be concerned about it? According to science, you should be. Cognitive decline  can have an impact on regular everyday activities like our ability to socialize and move our bodies. Not only does it impact our routines, it can also snowball and lead to accidents like falls. For young people, falls aren’t a big deal. But for us aging adults, this triples the probability of breaking a hip. While all this information around cognitive decline can sound like there’s nothing we can do, that’s not necessarily the case. As Dr. Max Cynader likes to put it, “knowledge is power” – knowing why cognitive decline is bad and how to prevent further deterioration can motivate us to keep up with our health. 

Try Synaptitude’s Lifestyle Assessment Today to get a free Brain Health Report. Find out how you compare to your peers across five brain health pill

Dr. Max Cynader, Founder of Synaptitude Brain Health

ars; Exercise, Sleep, Nutrition, Stress and Cognition.

Learning with Synaptitude’s Brain Fitness Program

In addition to knowing why cognitive decline is bad for us, there’s power in learning. As Dr. Cynader likes to put it, “our brains aren’t our end all and be all.” This is because neurons are just like humans – they have an incredibly limited view of the universe, they’re biased, and they’re often quite fixed in their behaviours. They can be tickled in interesting ways and they respond. And yet they have certain things that just set them off. Since our brains are complex, discovering its quirks can help us in our golden years. That’s where programs like Synaptitude’s Brain Fitness program can come in. Their integrated approach allows you to receive a personalized roadmap based on your brain health risk report and an evidence-based evaluation of your nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress, and cognition. 

In each month of the program, you’ll receive a new intervention plan that targets your risk areas. You will start with your areas of increased risk then move towards your areas of reduced risk. For example, if your high-risk areas are cognition, sleep and stress and your lower-risk areas are nutrition and exercise, your program may look like this: the first month would focus on cognitive training; the second month would focus on sleep and stress management, and the third month would focus on nutrition and exercise. In addition to receiving structured interventions, you’ll receive monthly cognitive evaluations, personalized goal-setting using the SMART (specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and timely) framework, and coaching from Lola, Synaptitude’s AI-enabled brain health coach. You can either sign up for a 3-month subscription at $39.95 USD/Month or a 12-month subscription at $34.95 USD/Month (as of January 2021). After the subscription ends, you can choose to either stay and strengthen your learning and habits or leave feeling healthy and confident. If you achieve your goals by the end of your journey, you would have successfully completed the program and can walk away feeling happy and satisfied.

How Wearables Level-Up Your Brain Health

In the program, there’s also an option to measure your sleep and exercise habits using a wearable device. At first, Max was worried about his sleep because he thought it was unhealthy. But after using a wearable, he was able to gather objective information about his habits which allowed him to create simple steps to improve his rest. After tracking his progress and incorporating those changes, his sleep immensely improved, leaving him to feel empowered. He felt the motivation to continue making strides to improve his overall health. He felt so inspired by his own findings that he wanted to give people the tools to see how they’re performing in the program.

You may no longer be in school, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop learning and growing. With Synaptitude’s Brain Fitness Program, you can find out about your brain’s unique characteristics and receive personalized strategies on how to optimize your sleep, exercise, nutrition, stress, and memory. To get started with the program, take the free Synaptitude Brain Health Lifestyle Assessment