Post 1: A Recipe for Brain Health

I was invited a while back to present at a symposium, the theme of which was “recipes for a healthy lifestyle.” The lineup included a dietician from the local hospital, and it was a catered event, with salmon and other healthy foods on the menu. As a neuropsychologist, a lover of the brain, I of course chose to talk about brain health. My “recipe” for brain health turned out to be a rather decent (in my humble opinion at least) overview of that which is required for the health of our brain and our neuropsychological health. This website is almost an extension and expansion of that initial talk, that initial recipe. 

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As a practicing neuropsychologist, I am constantly learning about issues that negatively affect the brain and our cognition and emotional health, and at the same time I am learning about ways to deal with these harmful issues and ways to promote recovery and health.

As a human being, I frequently encounter forgetfulness, word-finding difficulty, trouble remembering a name, trouble concentrating, and other cognitive difficulties. I also encounter stress, nervousness, sadness, anxiety, depression, and other unpleasant emotions. I experience these issues myself, and I also see friends, family, and other people around me experiencing these same issues. 

In the coming posts, we will discuss a variety of topics, ranging from stress management and sleep hygiene, to memory strengthening and attention exercise, to neuroplasticity and neurogenesis. Information will come from a variety of sources including reflections on popular press articles, scholarly journal articles, and my own self-reflections. 

My goal with this site is to use my background in neuropsychology to process information from scholarly research and popular media, and then share that information with you for the purpose of helping you maximize cognitive and emotional health. While I try to be as objective as possible, my own personal opinions and biases will of course influence my posts. Therefore, please don’t believe anything I post just because I have posted it. Rather, consider any information you read on this site within the context of your own personal situation in order to decide how this information may or may not be helpful for you.​

Back to the recipe. In my talk, I discussed three aspects of health that need to be attended to in order to maximize our brain health: our physical health, emotional health, and cognitive health. Three distinct facets of our being, and yet they are all so definitely intertwined. The evidence is quite clear that problems in one of these three areas will lead to problems in the other two. More optimistically, however, it is also true that strengthening one of these areas of health also benefits the other two. This is rather common sense, of course. Nothing earth-shattering here. But this is a little abstract and vague. This website is an attempt at becoming more concrete and specific, giving us information upon which we can take action to improve our neuropsychological health.


I hope you find this helpful.
Thanks for reading.