Women's Brain Health Initiative
30 St. Clair Avenue W, Suite 900 M4V 3A1 Toronto, ON, Canada

Although it’s great to celebrate the big achievements, it’s also important to celebrate the small wins. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Don’t worry about others. Share your wins and be proud. You deserve it!

Poor mental well-being (e.g., pessimism, not feeling useful) may negatively impact your ability to think and reason, while greater mental well-being is associated with reduced dementia risk. Research shows that optimism is good for your health in numerous ways, both psychologically and physically. For example, optimists tend to experience better recovery rates after surgery, improved cancer survival rates, better cardiovascular health, lower rates of depression, and longer ...life spans. They also tend to have lower stress levels and cope better with the amounts of stress that they do face. Hope you see the brighter side of life!

Christmas gives us an opportunity to pause and recognize the important aspects of our lives. Wishing you peace, health, and resilience this season.

Being grateful can keep you healthier and happier. Researchers found higher levels of gratitude are associated with better sleep, and with lower anxiety and depression. Gratitude also has a huge influence on your metabolism and stress levels, and increases dopamine, the feel good neurotransmitter. So once you start seeing things to be grateful for, your brain starts looking for more things to be grateful for.

Peppermint is a delicious holiday favourite and as it turns out, can help your brain too. A hybrid plant of both spearmint and water mint, peppermint contains over 40 chemical compounds with many beneficial health properties including digestive, antiseptic, antibacterial, antiviral, antispasmodic, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory. Peppermint tea, candy, and oil can be used to help improve mental awareness. The menthol stimulates the area of the brain which controls mental c...larity and memory. The odour makes you more alert, triggering you to wake up and pay attention. In a small study, capsules of peppermint oil helped people process problems longer without getting mentally tired. Peppermint aroma caused improvement on tasks related to attentional processes, virtual recognition memory, working memory, and visual-motor response. Another study found that it relaxes muscles and can relieve pain. It was also effective against tension and migraine headaches. This holiday season, enjoy great peppermint recipes Memory Morsels

Hate exercising? No pain, no brain! According to the Cleveland Clinic, in a recent study, 454 older adults underwent yearly physical exams and cognitive tests for 20 years and agreed to donate their brains for research when they died. The participants were given accelerometers, which tracked their movement and physical activity around the clock. Those who moved more scored better on the memory and thinking tests, and every increase in physical activity by one standard deviati...on was associated with a 31% lower risk of dementia, the researchers reported. The association between physical activity and cognitive function remained consistent even after the study authors accounted for the participants’ brain pathology and whether or not they had dementia, according to the study. Get moving for your brain.