Do you know that menopause can affect your brain? According to Dr Suzuki, during menopause, you body will have less estrogen. Estrogen can protect your brain cells, increase blood flow to the brain, and handle serotonin and acetylcholine. During menopause, with less estrogen, not only will the blood flow to your brain decrease by 20%, data processing in your brain will also be slower, decision making and focus will also get worse. Research by Juntendo University shows that if you have the following 4 habits, your risk of getting dementia will increase by a staggering 3.7 times.

Bad habits that increase the risk of dementia:

1. lack of physical exercise

2. eating too much carbohydrates

3. loneliness

4. sleeping issues

In order to prevent dementia, Dr Suzuki has the following suggestions:

1. Doing physical exercise can enhance your sleep at night and increase the production of BDNF in your brain, promoting the growth of neurons.

2. Eating soy beans (or their products) and blue-backed fish is beneficial because EPA and DHA in blue-backed fish suppresses inflammation, which in turn protects your brain. And soy beans is a good protein source.

3. Talking about your true feelings at least once a week can enhance your cognitive functions by 41%.

4. Developing new hobbies, such as learning a new musical instrument, or using your non-dominant hand... etc, can stimulate the neural circuit.

5. Sleeping in a comfortable room at 19 to 20°C can deepen your sleep.

While it takes some courage and willpower to start new habits, if you are not in your best shape, I encourage you to start with really small steps. Each step will definitely add up to good progress.