This week it is Brain Awareness Week. Since so many children are out of school there is a great website that has great kid friendly stuff to learn about our brains.
The brain is the command center of the body. It weighs 2 to 3 pounds. It controls everything from the beating of your heart to the nerves in the body and the storage of memories. There are 86 billion neurons that help the cells communicate with each other. These communication cells tell us to move our arms, walk, breathe, close our eyes, and all sorts of things. It is kind of neat if you think about it.
There are 12 nerves in the body and they are:
- Olfactory nerve: this controls your ability to smell things.
- Optic Nerve: This helps you to see things
- Oculomotor nerve: This helps with eye movement
- Trochlear Nerve: this helps with eyes movement too
- Trigeminal nerve: This affects facial sensations
- Abducens nerves: this is another eye movement nerve, facial and eye lids mainly
- Auditory nerve: This helps with hearing and balance
- Glossopharyngeal nerve: This affects taste and swallowing
- Vagus nerve: controls the neck and shoulders
- Hypoglossal nerve: controls the tongue
There are also 4 lobes to the brain too. These are:
- Frontal lobe: this is the lobe for problem solving
- Parietal lobe: This is the lobe to manage sensation, hand writing, and body position
- Temporal lobe: This is the lobe for memory and hearing
- Occipital lobe: This is the lobe for visual processing
There is so much information that I am going to stop here and let you discover all the other parts of the brain. It is quite fascinating, don’t you think?
We at Wellness Works NW promote exercise and wellness living. I can’t think of a better reason for this than to take care of our brains. 30 to 60 minutes of exercise daily thickens the cerebral cortex of the brain, which helps people not get dementia and other brain diseases and keeps us smart. But there are other reasons to exercise and I don’t mean only exercise our muscles but also our brains.
Here is why we should exercise:
- Aerobic exercise has been proven to helps us remember things. That is why many teachers and parents have their children do jumping jacks and run while they are learning.
- Exercise helps with depression and anxiety disorders.
- It makes the brain more flexible so you can handle changes in life. This is called neuroplasticity.
- It helps you avoid dementia by making your cerebral cortex thicker.
- Helps with blood flow throughout the body, but also to the brain.
- Helps you to be organized and interpret information quickly and effectively.
- Promotes cardiovascular health
- Reduces inflammation in the body
- Lowers the stress hormone, which helps with our immune system
- Mental exercises help the brain too, so we must not forget about doing them too.
There are three key things we need to do to help our brains be the best they can be:
- Stay active
- Avoid Isolation
- Try new mentally challenging things
If you would like to have brain healthy exercises in your life Karen Clemenson from Wellness Works NW would be happy to help you. Since the gym where she works is closed, she does video exercise training and will glad to work with you.
Let’s keep our brain healthy!
Here are some links I would like to share with you:
- 3D Brain by Brain Facts Staff
- Anatomy of the Brain by American Association of Neurological Surgeons Staff
- Brain Basics: Know Your Brain by National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Staff
- Celebrate Brain Awareness Week by Dana Foundation Staff
- Picture of the Brain by Matthew Hoffman, MD for WebMD
- When a Loved One has Alzheimer’s Disease Reviewed by Neil Lava, MD for WebMD
- Why Exercise Protects Your Brain’s Health (and What Kind is Best) by Cleveland Clinic Staff
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Jamie Holloway is co-owner of Wellness Works NW and she is also our Research Manager and writes our Chasing Wellness with Jamie Holloway and Dear Jamie columns. Jamie is also an Independent Wellness Advocate at dōTERRA. She lives in the Portland, Oregon area. Since October 2011 she has been sharing her Journey Toward Health and Wellness with Vasculitis through her blog at JamieChasesButterflies.com. We hope you are as inspired as we are with the raw candor Jamie uses in her writing. If you would like to help support Jamie’s writing efforts please Donate now.
