By GREGG MONTGOMERY
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
Various practices from birth to old age can affect brain health.
Pleasure reading, exercising, eating fruits and vegetables, sleeping several hours each night, and managing stress can affect brain health. Also, children’s brain health can be helped with prolonged breastfeeding, or simply by adults reading kids a story.
Indiana didn’t rank well on brain health in a compilation of metrics turned into an analysis from Life Extension, a seller of vitamins and supplements and lab tests. The analysis released in December used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Survey of Children’s Health, and Google Trends.
Indiana ranked 42nd among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The analysis of Indiana showed 41.4 percent of residents read literature, 67.95 percent eat fruits and vegetables daily, 27.6 percent of babies are breastfed, and 77.7 percent of adults exercise.
Of Indiana’s neighbors, Illinois ranked 20th; Michigan, 28th; Ohio, 34th; and Kentucky, 44th.
The top five in the analysis were Vermont, Oregon, Colorado, the District of Columbia, and Massachusetts. The analysis said, “In general, the top-ranked states tend to eat fruits and vegetables every day, get enough sleep, read literature for fun and to their children, breastfeed for longer and have an interest in meditation. Interestingly, regular exercise had a weaker association with a state’s overall score than the other six metrics.”
The bottom five were West Virginia, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
The conclusion of the analysis said, “Overall, our analysis offers insight into the factors driving cognitive well-being across the U.S. States where people prioritize a healthy diet, sleep, mental stimulation and breastfeeding tend to perform better, though Americans in a handful of poorly ranked states do practice some of these brain-boosting habits, notably exercise. The findings underscore the importance of proactive efforts to promote brain health, which can also improve the quality of life for Americans of all ages.”