Cognitive reserve is the brain’s ability to adapt to challenges, aging and health issues.
The human brain has a remarkable ability to grow new circuitry (neurogenesis) and to rewire (neuroplasticity) to meet new demands or to overcome malfunction in parts of the brain.
When I trained as a neurofeedback therapist 12 years ago, my professor told a story about her husband. He had had a devastating stroke, with significant damage to one side of his brain. This led to paralysis of the arm and leg of the other side. He was told he would never regain function, as the stroke was so significant. But over the next couple of years he worked hard with physical therapy, neurofeedback, dietary interventions, and so on. He was able to regain some of his function, to walk again and be able to look after himself. Brain scans showed that the brain damage from the stroke remained (large areas of his brain were effectively dead), his brain had rewired and found new ways to do things.
Your brain’s cognitive reserve is developed by challenging it, by forcing it to rewire on a regular basis. The challenges might include new learning (formal or informal), new physical exercise, challenging yourself through work or other endeavors, problem-solving, socializing with positive people or new people, creative endeavors, travel, hobbies, trying new things (like food, hobbies, music), volunteering and brain training activities or games (such as scrabble, sudoku, chess, bridge, Lego and crosswords).
Cognitive reserve needs to be actively trained. It’s a bit like training a muscle in the gym, your muscle is not going to grow if you start off with a 5lb weight and do 10 reps every day for the rest of your life. You need to increase the weight you lift and/or the number of reps in order for the muscle to grow.
Your brain’s cognitive reserve can be damaged by many things too: chronic stress, trauma (physical and emotional), toxin exposure, alcohol, nicotine, (excess) caffeine, extremes of weight, lack of quality sleep, sleep apnea, toxic chemicals in the environment, food or drugs (prescribed and illicit), poor diet and importantly unmanaged health problems such as diabetes and high blood pressure.
A healthy cognitive reserve does not mean that you will not face brain health problems, but it does decrease the deficits that will arise if you do. For example, research shows that people with a high cognitive reserve who develop Alzheimer’s will be less impacted and their decline will be much slower than someone with low cognitive reserve.
Coaching can help improve your cognitive reserve in several ways. You may learn new things, be challenged to think in new ways, be encouraged to solve problems in creative ways and push yourself to do things that are beyond your comfort zone. Also, if your coach is a good fit, they will also provide positive social interaction on a regular basis.
Want to live a vibrant life and cope better when life throws you a challenge? If the answer is “yes” I would encourage you to make a list of the positive things you already do or that you might want to add in to increase your cognitive reserve. Next, make a list of things that might be reducing your cognitive reserve. Are you willing to make changes? If so, set a goal, make a plan and commit to action. Your future self will thank you if you do!
