Three Essentials to Keep Blood Flowing to Your Brain– and Why Your Life Depends on it

20% of your blood goes to your brain. Here are steps to protect it now.

At the age of 54, a woman in California named Jane began to have problems remembering events that had happened just minutes before. Things continued to get worse and soon, her daughter described her mother as “utterly lost in the fog of her own mind.” The diagnosis was Alzheimer’s, which had affected others in her family. Her genes were a factor, but this wasn’t the full story. The lack of proper blood flow to her brain was a critical component of what accelerated her decline.

Our brain’s blood flow becomes affected both when we age, and through bad habits. Only recently have scientists begun to show this change can be slowed and is largely preventable.

Here’s what this article covers:

Why blood flow to your brain is so important
How blood flow is measured
Three essentials to protect your brain’s blood flow
- 1. Physical exercise: why and which types help the most
- 2. Cognitive stimulation
- 3. Food + extra bonuses

Why blood flow to your brain is so important

A whopping 20% of your body’s blood goes to your brain.

Blood is like your body’s superhighway. It carries nutrients and oxygen to every part of your body. What relevance does that have with our brains? Our brains are metabolic organs, which means nutrients, oxygen, glucose, minerals, and amino acids are needed for optimal brain function.

Blood delivers practically everything the brain needs to function, including hydration and the removal of toxins. When blood flow to the brain is lacking, we are at a higher risk for not just Alzheimer’s and strokes, but also bipolar disorder, depression and suicidal tendencies. Furthermore, a study in the Journal of Neuroscience reveals that poor blood flow to the brain is correlated to the overall decline of the brain.

Pictured below: The tiny blood vessels in our brain and other parts of our body are called capillaries. They are so small that a single red blood cell can barely fit through them. These can get damaged and constricted over a person’s life, which restricts proper blood flow to the brain.

Ugreen/Getty Images

How is blood flow in the brain measured?

To understand how to first see blood flow in your body, you can start with an easy instant test recommended by medical professionals: Simply squeeze firmly on your fingernail and hold for three seconds, until it turns white. Then release the pressure. With healthy blood flow, your fingernail will turn from white to pink within 2 to 3 seconds, or even faster.

When it comes to blood flow to the brain, it is commonly measured using a functional MRI (fMRI), which is demonstrated in the center image below. An fMRI is different from a regular MRI because it measures activity in the brain rather than just showing the brain’s structure.

Note that only the middle image, using an fMRI, reveals blood flow. The image on the left is simply a structural MRI, and the image on the right is a diffusion tensor MRI, which shows the ease with which water diffuses in the brain. The lines in this image show major neural pathways. Separate from this, a laser called DCS can also be used to non-invasively measure blood flow.

The 3 essentials to protect your brain’s blood flow

These essentials are organized as follows, and described in the following sections:

Physical exercise — why and which types help the most?
Cognitive stimulation — what are some of the best forms of stimulation?
Food + Extra bonus areas — e.g., cold exposure

Physical exercise — why and which types help the most?

We all know that exercise is good for us, but how does that relate to your brain’s blood flow?

It turns out it’s pretty simple actually: as your heart rate increases during exercise, blood flow to the brain increases. Then, as blood flow increases, your brain is exposed to more oxygen and nutrients.

Next, which exercises are best? The ones detailed below are excellent — they fall into two major categories: 1) exercises that get your heart rate up, or 2) exercises that challenge your brain, e.g., games or complex motions.

Source: carlos luque, CC BY 2.5

● Dancing: Research has shown that dancing for just one hour, once a week, had vast cognitive performance improvements, including sensory-motor activity and memory.

● Games that involve exercise: Examples include tennis (both table tennis and regular tennis), basketball, and frisbee games. And if you want to stay in your living room, a video game like Wii sports is great. Balanced-based activities like paddle boarding and surfing are excellent as well.

● HIIT workouts: designed to bring your heart rate up, and then down during a period of rest.

● Running, Swimming, and Biking: each classics, they bring your heart rate up consistently over a long period.

● Weightlifting: Strength exercises like squats are strongly associated with better brain performance as they “intermittently challenge the brain with an increase of blood flow and a decrease of blood flow.” It may seem surprising, but multiple studies confirming this have been published in the Journal of American Geriatrics Society and the Journal of Applied Physiology.

● Yoga: the inversions in yoga encourage blood to flow towards your brain. For example, inversion poses such as downward dog.

Cognitive Stimulation — what are some of the best forms?

There are variety of ways to stimulate your brain — music and language are some of the best.

● Music: The blood flow to the left hemisphere of the brain can be increased with just 30 minutes of music training, according to a study conducted by Dr. G Meyer from the University of Liverpool. And even just listening to music you like has an extraordinary effect. For example, research showed measurable increases in brain function when participants simply listened to their favorite music.

● Language: Learning a new language increases blood flow to the brain, regardless of their age. For example, researchers have found that adult English speakers learning Chinese Mandarin experienced structural and functional changes in their brains. First, their brain networks were more efficient. The participants that were learning Mandarin also had more white matter, as well as dense grey matter, the part of our brains in charge of memory, emotion, and the senses. This study would suggest that brain plasticity can be improved at any age.

● Other Types of Cognitive Stimulation — your Experience. There are a myriad of other ways to stimulate your brain, some more and some less effective than others. I’d like to invite you to comment below or message me to share what has worked well for you — when have you felt that your brain becomes more clear, or more capable following a cognitive activity? I can let you know whether the scientific research confirms your hypothesis.

Extra Bonus Areas — for Your Brain’s Blood Flow

Some of these you may have known, and some are likely new for you:

● Cold exposure: Simply putting your hand in ice water for one minute can significantly increase the speed of blood flow to the brain. That’s because the cold speeds up your heart rate temporarily, which in turn pumps more blood to your brain.

● Acupuncture: In 2011, it was discovered that certain acupuncture “acupoints” can lead to an increased blood flow to the brain, without requiring increased blood pressure or pulse.

● Sex: It can certainly help, but keep in mind some caveats. Results from multiple studies have shown that sexual activity, including simply kissing and greater emotional closeness, were associated with better memory performance and blood flow, including this study by Coventry and Oxford universities. However, some of the gains were often short-term rather than long-term. And although orgasm dramatically increases blood flow to your brain in the moment, total fatigue can follow. The oxytocin wears off after orgasm, and the brain releases a cocktail of neurochemicals that make you tired. Remember to balance the risks as it is essential to practice safe sex — so that you’re not damaging your health.

Food — to protect your brain’s blood flow

– Antioxidant-rich produce: Adding an antioxidant to the mix such as pomegranate or omega-3s will increase your nitric oxide levels, which relaxes our vessels, allowing for maximum blood flow. For example, try adding more blueberries, spinach, or kale to your diet.

– Supplements containing both L-arginine and L-citrulline: Best known as amino acids, these supplements increase our nitric oxide levels as well.

– Nitrate-rich food: These foods are converted in our bodies to increase our levels of nitric oxide. Examples include celery, leafy greens, and beets. Just in the form of juice, beets increase our nitric oxide by 21 percent.

-Dark chocolate: You’ve likely heard of dark chocolate being good for you. But here’s why it works. Like beets, dark chocolate has the same positive effect on our nitric oxide. A Harvard study revealed a correlation between those who drank 2 cups of cocoa in the morning for 30 days and an improved blood flow.

Special thanks to a woman named Linda Hart, for being a key inspiration to turn the research I had on this subject into this article. Even at over 80 years old, she exemplifies health. Thank you Linda for inspiring all of us.