TOPS Club offers ways to boost brain health during World Alzheimer’s Month | Lifestyle

TOPS Club offers ways to boost brain health during World Alzheimer’s Month | Lifestyle

Milwaukee, Wis. – It’s time to act on Alzheimer’s.

This is the 2024 theme for World Alzheimer’s Month, which occurs annually in September. World Alzheimer’s Month is dedicated to raising public awareness around Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, reducing the stigma attached to them, and highlighting the steps organizations take to develop a more dementia-friendly society.

TOPS Club, Inc. (Take Off Pounds Sensibly SM), the nonprofit weight-loss support organization, with a “Real People. Real Weight Loss.®” philosophy, recognizes World Alzheimer’s Month and the need for education around cognitive decline. It also emphasizes that making healthy lifestyle changes can lower an individual’s risk of developing dementia or Alzheimer’s.

Factors like obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes can increase the risk of dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. The following are a few actions for individuals to help slow — and potentially avoid altogether — the effects of cognitive decline:

Increase Blood Flow to Your Brain

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), regular cardiovascular activity increases blood flow to your brain and can reduce dementia risk factors.

Exercise can do everything from increasing the hippocampus, or the part of the brain associated with memory and learning, to promoting healthy synapses, the space between neurons that send messages from your brain to your body. The oxygen and glucose fed to the brain during movement can also help make the brain more efficient.

TOPS encourages individuals to find a physical activity they enjoy or can seamlessly integrate into their lives. Suggestions include taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking the car farther from the store entrance, taking a dance class, or going with friends for morning walks or a round of golf.

Feed Your Brain

Eating right nourishes the brain, assisting in critical thinking, attentiveness, and memory.

According to Harvard Health, while no single food, beverage, vitamin, or supplement is proven to cure or prevent Alzheimer’s or dementia, certain foods are more brain-friendly, like:

Leafy greens, such as kale, spinach, and broccoli, have been shown to slow cognitive decline.

Fish like salmon, cod, and pollack contain low levels of beta-amyloids that cause unhealthy build-up in the brains of those with Alzheimer’s.

Berries, such as strawberries and blueberries, contain a flavonoid that gives the berries their color and helps individuals with memory.

Exercise Your Brain

Apart from healthy habits like moving more and adopting a better diet, remaining mentally and socially active can reduce the risk of cognitive decline. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, regularly socializing can delay the onset of dementia.

Try regularly engaging with family and friends, joining a volunteer group, or making new friends. Consider focusing on your health by checking out a local TOPS chapter –www.tops.org.

About TOPS®

TOPS Club Inc. (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) is the original weight-loss support and wellness education organization. Founded in 1948, TOPS is the only nonprofit, noncommercial weight-loss organization of its kind. TOPS promotes successful weight management with a “Real People. Real Weight Loss.®” philosophy that combines support from others at weekly chapter meetings, healthy eating, regular exercise, and wellness information.

Today there are about 65,000 members, including men, women, and international members who join chapter meetings online, with thousands of chapters in all 50 states and Canada. TOPS also has an online program for people who might prefer that model or who live too far to attend in-person chapter meetings. Online resources include news and information from the health and inspirational community, meal planning ideas, workouts, chapter resources, and more.

Visitors are welcome to attend their first TOPS meeting free of charge. Membership is affordable, starting at $49 per year in the U.S. and $59 annually in Canada, plus nominal chapter fees. Members aged 65 and older with qualifying Medicare plans may receive financial support for attending meetings through TOPS’ partnership with Grouper. Join TOPS, visit www.tops.org, or call 800-932-8677 to learn more about TOPS and to find a local chapter.

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