Lifestyle

You are what you eat. Depending on your own neurological condition, your neurologist may prescribe specific dietary recommendations that can promote healing and help you maintain the best possible functioning.

Whether you are healing from or living with a specific neurological condition—or just want to optimize your health—it's always a good idea to follow sound nutritional guidelines. These include

• Eat a wide and balanced variety of food types (fruits, vegetables, grains, meats).
  
• Try eating five smaller meals instead of three large meals.
  
• All foods in moderation.
  
• Avoid processed foods and fast foods as much as possible.
  
• Practice food handling safety, especially with respect to raw poultry.
  
• Unless instructed otherwise, take medications with food.

While we always recommend getting nutrition from whole foods, there are some compounds and nutrients that can be particularly beneficial for optimizing overall health. These include

• Antioxidants (found in cranberries, blueberries, and red bell peppers)
  
• Folic Acid (found in leafy vegetables)
  
• Omega 3 Fatty Acids (found in salmon and other oily fish, wheat germ, grains and seeds)
  
• Vitamin B6 (found in garlic, tuna and cauliflower)
  
• Vitamin B12 (found in salmon, snapper, calf's liver, venison, shrimp and scallops)
  
• Vitamin C (found in citrus fruits, cranberries, apricots and red bell peppers)
  
• Vitamin E (found in almonds, sunflower seed and wheat germ)

Always check with your physician before significantly supplementing your diet with these or other nutrients. Large amounts may interfere with your body's ability to absorb prescribed medications or may interact with your medications in harmful ways.

Like all animals, people are not meant to be sedentary. We are built for activity and motion. Exercise can take many different forms, and nearly all of them are beneficial when practiced within normal limits.

Benefits: Physical and mental exercise produces a feeling of well-being. It builds strength, flexibility and endurance while it promotes neurological and overall health. It can help you sleep more soundly and be more alert when you're awake.

For some people, simply standing upright constitutes a form of exercise. So do household chores like cleaning and vacuuming. Other people might need an hour on an elliptical trainer three days a week.

Like any other activity, exercise can be helpful or harmful depending on how you do it. If you have any neurological or other health condition, check with your neurologist or physical or occupational therapist before starting or changing an exercise program. To avoid injury, always take time to learn the proper techniques for performing each exercise. Some general guidelines:

• Caution: If you feel an unusual pain, stop exercising immediately and assess what's wrong. Playing through the pain is usually counterproductive.
  
• Consistency: Whatever form your workout takes, you derive the most benefit when you do it on a regular basis.
  
• Hydration: Always make sure you drink enough water before, during and after your exercise routine. Do not substitute coffee, tea, juice or soda for water.
  
• Impact: In all but a few cases, low-impact exercise (walking, swimming, bicycling) is better for you than high-impact activities like running because it produces less stress on muscles and joints.
  
• Moderation: Start with low intensity exercise and move gradually toward higher intensity. With weight training, as a rule, do not add more than 10 percent to your resistance from one set to the next.
  
• Stretching: Gently stretch your muscles before and after every workout.
  
• Variety: Exercise is more beneficial when you vary the form. For example, it's better to rotate different kinds of cardiovascular training (walking, swimming, bicycling) than limit yourself to only one.
  

Types of exercise: Most exercises fall into one of three categories: aerobic (cardiovascular), anaerobic (strength training) and cognitive (mental).

Aerobic exercise is repetitive motion that makes your whole body work harder by raising your heart and breathing rates. Examples include jogging, walking, bicycling, swimming or using an elliptical trainer. Depending on your goals and overall fitness level, your aerobic workout might last five minutes or an hour. Your ideal heart rate declines with age.

Anaerobic training builds muscle by pushing or pulling against resistance. Most weight training is anaerobic. You can push against your own body weight, as with pushups, or use free weights (dumbbells and barbells) or strength training machines that isolate individual muscle groups.

Cognitive exercises are often recommended for patients with cognitive disorders like Alzheimer's disease, but they can be beneficial for everyone. The same use-it-or-lose-it principle behind physical activity applies to mental exercise. A few examples:

• Make a mental list (such as a grocery list) and memorize it.
  
• Draw a map from memory.
  
• Perform basic math calculations in your head.
  
• Engage in activities that use all five senses.
  
• Learn a new language or how to play a musical instrument.

Stress is the body's natural reaction to a perceived threat. Blood pressure, breathing and heart rate all increase automatically without any conscious effort. This response serves us well in times of real danger, such as an injury. But when the body feels a constant level of unremitting stress it can have adverse consequences and lead to illness.

Modern life is filled with stress, and managing it is a challenge—even if you're not already coping with a neurological condition, and especially if you are. Some kinds of stress can be imposed from outside, like demands from a boss. Others are internal, like being overcritical of yourself. For most people, reducing the stress of daily life is harder than managing the stress we do encounter.

Techniques to reduce incoming sources of stress:

• Simplify your responsibilities by setting priorities. Taking on more tasks than you can handle comfortably increases others' expectations of you, which raises your stress levels.
  
• Ask for help when you need it. For example, share household responsibilities with family members.
  
• Reduce visual and auditory stimulation. Loud noises and bright lights can increase your stress level without your noticing. Given the choice of walking or taking the subway, walking is the less stressful alternative.

Techniques for coping with existing sources of stress:

• Identify what stresses you out and tell someone how you feel about it. Sharing your thoughts can help you cope and might even get you some help from co-workers or family members.
  
• Try relaxation and meditation exercises. Yoga is particularly useful for stress management.
  
• Use your time and energy efficiently. Many people experience added stress because they waste these resources.
  
• Start an exercise program. You'll burn excess energy, improve your breathing, produce stress-reducing endorphins and feel better.
  
• Pursue activities you enjoy. Whether it's a round of golf, an afternoon of fishing or a symphony, doing things you enjoy is quality time that helps you cope with stress.
  
• Get a massage. Massage therapy helps you relax, be in the moment and forget about stress factors in your life.