HERE ARE 5 WAYS HOW READING CAN AFFECT YOUR BRAIN

Reading is an important activity that helps us not only improve our language and culture but also keeps our mind active and awake. Parents, teachers and professionals recommend reading for plenty of reasons and all of them bring so many benefits to our wellbeing and brain. Let’s discover some of these benefits:

1. KEEPS YOU MENTALLY STIMULATED

Reading activates several parts of your brain, increasing the level of neural pathways and connections. This activity makes your brain active for a longer time and in a higher intensity, which means that it will be fighting (slow the progress and reduce the risk) mental diseases such as Alzheimer's and dementia. Writing has also similar effects and stimulates the brain in a similar way. Therefore, if you were wondering what a nice afternoon activity would be, grab that book you have been having on your counter for a while, and start exercising.

2. REDUCES STRESS LEVELS

Reading a novel is a great way to lose yourself in a different time and place without moving from your couch. This makes you forget about whatever has been stressing you lately, whether it is work or a broken heart. A study conducted in 2009 has shown that reading can reduce stress levels by as much as 68%, which is a number higher than what listening to music or going for a walk can offer. In fact, only 6 minutes of reading can lead to slower heart rates and less tense muscles.

3. ENHANCES YOUR SOCIAL SKILLS

Social skills are the skills that help you interact, communicate and get help from people in a successful way. Having good social skills helps you a lot in leading a successful social life. So in order to enhance these skills you can start by reading! A study conducted in 2013, proved that people who read fiction books might have better capabilities to comprehend other persons’ needs, desires, emotional and mental states, beliefs, and different thoughts.

4. EXPANDS YOUR VOCABULARY

This one is an expected consequence of reading! Being exposed to hundreds of words every time you open a book, will help you learn a few new words, or improve how you put words together and form sentences. Also, a study found that adults who had a larger vocabulary were prone to have a higher income, and if you need proof, look at the CEOs of the biggest companies of the world, and you will find that they read around 60 books per year. How many books do you read?

5. IMPROVES YOUR MEMORY

Nowadays, many people struggle with memory issues, and reading could be one of the solutions. In fact, reading is considered a neural workout; it activated parts of your brain (such as vision, associative learning, and language) that have different and sometimes opposites functions. One study showed that this activity can slow the deterioration of memory and other important mental competences. It can as well decrease the levels of a brain protein involved in Alzheimer’s names beta-amyloid, by keeping your mind cognitively stimulated.