Can You Rejuvenate Your Brain? 3 Ways to Maintain and Train Your Brain

🌟[TT] Rejuvenate 🧠

I’ve been curiously observing this trend of the word “rejuvenate” being used in marketing. Maybe because I’m Gen X and get served targeted adverts on social media because of my age bracket!

People are being sold supplements and promises that taking this or buying that can rejuvenate their body.

It is understandable, what with people feeling tired with modern day challenges.

But let’s step aside from the hype.

Some fun fact to kick start: did you know that your body replaces around 330 billion cells a day? That’s about 80 grams of you, remade daily. Your gut lining turns over every few days. Red blood cells last about 120 days. Even your fat cells renew, at roughly 10% a year.

But what about the brain’s neuronal cells? We don’t get to replace those. Your nerve cells (neurons) are as old as you are and are not replaced at any detectable rate.

There is one possible exception, your memory centre (hippocampus), where new neurons may be made in small numbers, though there is some scientific debate about that fact.

That said, brain scans do show an increase in size of hippocampus with exercise or training, but since we can’t go inside the brain of living humans to measure the number of brain cells, the change in brain scan may indicate volume rather than number of cells.

Although you can’t replace the brain’s neuronal cells, you can maintain it, and you can train it. Both are within your control. Both are powerful levers.

If you are quietly worrying that your brain might be on a decline, these are 3 things that matter, for “training and maintaining” for your brain performance.

3 ways to Train-and-Maintain for your Brain Performance

[1] Flush it Out

(BRA(i)NS® Method: Building Brain Resilience, under Sleep)

Something happens in deep sleep that is rather incredible…

In deep sleep, researchers can measure waves of brain fluid (called the cerebrospinal fluid) pulsing through every 20 seconds, timed with the slow electrical waves of deep sleep.

The process is called the glymphatic system, and colloquially called the “flushing effect”, as the scientific thinking is that this effect helps clear out metabolic wastes and toxins.

This highlights the importance of deep sleep and the quality of sleep. Working on your inner body clock (aka circadian rhythm) can help improve sleep.

Try this: To support your circadian rhythm, keep your morning wake time the same for the next 14 days, and notice how you feel.

[2] Move for your Mighty Mito

(BRA(i)NS® Method: Building Brain Resilience, under Physical Activity)

Your brain cells cannot be replaced, but their powerhouses, the mitochondria, are continuously rebuilt.

A powerful way to support that is aerobic exercise. In mice, eight weeks of treadmill running raised the markers of new mitochondria being built across most brain regions. But “that’s mice, not men”, you may be thinking. Fair. Nobody has measured mitochondria inside a living human brain, because we cannot get in there to look in living humans 🙂

But research showing the benefits of walking is shown in a study of sedentary older adults that compared walking 3x a week for up to 40 minutes with a stretching group. After a year, the walkers increased their hippocampal volume by 2%. The stretching group lost 1.4%.

Try this: schedule in three walks this week as appointments. Bonus if you can do this somewhere green! I recently posted about walking in Nature on 25/6/26, let me know if you’d like me to send you the link to that post.

[3] Learn by being Bad First

(BRA(i)NS® Method: Optimisation, under Habits and Mindset)

It’s quite human to avoid things we are bad at.

But how about actively finding something you’re “bad” at, so that you have the opportunity to learn and grow?

A study on adults averaging 60 years old who were taught to juggle showed that three months later, their scans showed grey matter increases in the brain areas related to visual motion and memory. However, when they stopped practising, the changes reversed.

Try this: pick something you will be openly “bad” at, and have some fun with the learning process! Think of it as training, not testing.

📍Where this sits in the BRA(i)NS® Method

For those new to the Thursday Tips Tribe, welcome! A quick summary of the BRA(i)NS® Method:

It is my framework for building your brain health ecosystem for consistent energy, focus and performance. It has Purpose and Meaning as its container, with three pillars inside:

= Building Brain Resilience covers your physical foundations.
= Balancing the Autonomic Nervous System covers your stress and relaxation responses.
= Optimisation pulls these together through mindset, habits and community.

The (i)? All this is individualised to you, giving the (i) in BRA(i)NS®.

So training & maintaining your brain reaches across all three BRA(i)NS® pillars. Sleep is the maintenance, the one thing you cannot force and can only make room for, and it sits in Building Brain Resilience alongside movement. Choosing to be bad at something in public, and staying with it, is the training, under Optimisation. Balancing the Autonomic Nervous System sits underneath both, since a nervous system stuck in high alert makes deep sleep harder to reach. And the (i) fits too. How much sleep you need, what counts as aerobic for you, and what you are willing to be a “newbie” at all differ from person to person.

📍Question for you today

Which of the 3 above tips would you implement today?

Hit reply, I would love to hear it! Your replies come straight to my inbox.

Wishing you a steady train-and-maintain rhythm,

Dr Sui Wong

PS: If you’d like to improve your sleep and circadian rhythm, my Sleep Anchor Method® app helps you create your personalised, downloadable tracker. Learn more: [LINK]

*References:

Sender & Milo (2021) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33432173/
Spalding et al (2008) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18454136/
Bhardwaj et al (2006) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16901981/
Fultz et al (2019) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31672896/
Steiner et al (1985) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31672896/
Erickson et al (2011) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21282661/
Boyke et al (2008) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18614670/

📌 Summary

Your body is constantly renewing itself, but most of your brain cells are not replaced in the same way. The good news is that you can still maintain and train your brain. This Thursday Tips explores three ways to support brain health: getting good quality deep sleep to support the brain’s “flushing” processes, moving to support mitochondria and hippocampal health, and learning something you’re initially bad at to encourage the brain to adapt.

❓ FAQ

Can you replace brain cells?

Most neurons in the human brain are not replaced at a detectable rate. There is ongoing scientific debate about whether new neurons may be produced in small numbers in areas such as the hippocampus.

How can you support brain health as you age?

Sleep, physical activity and continued learning are three practical ways to support brain health. The BRA(i)NS® Method brings these together through physical foundations, nervous system regulation, and habits and mindset.

Can exercise improve the hippocampus?

Research has found that regular aerobic exercise can increase hippocampal volume. One study of sedentary older adults found that walking three times a week for a year was associated with a 2% increase in hippocampal volume.

Can learning something new change the brain?

Learning a new skill can be associated with changes in brain structure. Research involving older adults learning to juggle found increases in grey matter in areas involved in visual motion and memory, although the changes reversed after practice stopped.

My mission:

To inspire a movement for better brain health.

Because better brain health supports better wellbeing. And better wellbeing creates a ripple effect that benefits individuals, families, communities, and beyond. Making the world a better place for all. And it all starts with you as the individual.

I am a practising medical doctor (MBBS MD FRCP MA FHEA DipIBLM) working as a Neurologist and Neuro-Ophthalmologist, and am an active neuroscience researcher. My research is inspired by questions arising from my busy clinical practice, and I am grateful that both have been recognised with awards.

I am also an Author and Speaker, creating public-facing health content in my spare time.

Learn more:
drsuiwongmd.com

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