Generally thought to be good for the brain:
Fish oil (Omega 3 in general but fish oil is tough to beat)
Exercise (Read the book Spark for more details)
Meditation (While this needs to be studied more some of the studies on long-time meditators look very promising)
Keeping the brain active, especially as we age (learning a language, doing crosswords or other brain puzzles, etc.)
Quality sleep
Some supplements (While I think there may be more definitive studies necessary, certain supplements like blueberry extract, vitamin D and melatonin are showing promising benefits to the brain)
Generally thought to be bad for the brain:
Excessive consumption of alcohol (1-2 drinks/day may be OK but more than that is typically
Excessive consumption of sugar (the book Sugar Blues goes into a lot more detail)
Toxic fats (Trans Fatty Acids, etc.)
Head injuries (concussions, wear helmets, seatbelts, etc.)
Many drugs (while some drugs are neuroprotective, many are neurotoxic, proceed with caution and reference Daniel Amen's work for more details)
Overexposure to certain chemicals (many people who work in factories with constant exposure suffer problems)
Two of my favorite books in this are are Making a Good Brain Great by Daniel Amen and The Ultra Mind Solution by Mark Hyman.
I met a guy at Hackers and Founders (SF) and the topic of Vitamin D came up. We discussed some of the research that I've found lately about how much good it can do you in terms of general health/brain health/immune health, etc., and how more-than-likely most hackers are deficient because they stay out of the sun during the hours when your body produces Vitamin D (generally thought to be 10am - 3pm).
Then we got on the topic of how it would be cool to have some kind of Health for Hackers meetup to discuss this and other things hackers can do to have optimal brain and general health.
jonbischke (or others with an interest in this topic), if you're interested in putting on something like this with me in the Bay Area shoot me an email (see my bio). I'm curious if this would be of interest to anybody else who is in the area. Send feedback if anybody's interested in attending or help put on something like this.
Edited for clarity
Saving Your Brain is a fantastic book by Jeff Victoroff, M.D. He reviewed 14,000 medical research studies to write that book. He's also the Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board for Nolan Bushnell's new company, Anti-AgingGames.com.
I would add to your list above: not smoking; being within 5-10 lbs of your ideal weight; partnering with a doctor who is both proactive and focused on prevention; getting an annual checkup with tests that can spot if you have Vitamin D, E, B12, calcium, or iron deficiency; maintaining regular social contact with your friends; buying cars with a good safety rating (in one study the chance of getting Alzheimers was 4x higher in people who sustain head injuries after the age of 39; doing activities that are new and mentally engaging (helps keep the brain's plasticity). You said this but I wanted to stress that the activity should be new because that's what helps the most.
The short version:
EXERCISE | Rule #1: Exercise boosts brain power.
SURVIVAL | Rule #2: The human brain evolved, too.
WIRING | Rule #3: Every brain is wired differently.
ATTENTION | Rule #4: We don't pay attention to boring things.
SHORT-TERM MEMORY | Rule #5: Repeat to remember.
LONG-TERM MEMORY | Rule #6: Remember to repeat.
SLEEP | Rule #7: Sleep well, think well.
STRESS | Rule #8: Stressed brains don't learn the same way.
SENSORY INTEGRATION | Rule #9: Stimulate more of the senses.
VISION | Rule #10: Vision trumps all other senses.
GENDER | Rule #11: Male and female brains are different.
EXPLORATION | Rule #12: We are powerful and natural explorers.
Mentat Wiki has a ton of interesting articles/tips: http://www.ludism.org/mentat
And the Memoriad Competition Software is awesome and challenging; it's great practice every day: http://www.memoriad.com/memoriadsoftware.asp
The idea is to look for the mental health equivalent of "an apple a day".
- reading news, fiction books (99.99% of them are crap);
- programming in boring languages (Java);
- chatting drunk in a bar;
- watching any movies (youtube included), tv;
- blogging about nonsense (life, politics, etc);
- listening to a podcast while doing nothing (like sitting on a sofa);
- participating in any social network (livejournal, facebook);
- living in the countryside (I don't really know this, but it seems true by my observations on other people).
Good:
- living in a country where common language isn't your mother tongue;
- reading very carefully chosen books (non-mother tongue are preferred);
- regular sex;
- friends which share your interests;
- regular jogging (not on a treadmill);
- walking when you are stuck;
- programming in functional languages.
It's not the language IMHO, but for me rather the problem that Java programming involves using libs and configuring stuff (which is rather dumb and boring) rather then designing algorithm and understanding how stuff really works..
This is Zataar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Za%27atar
Wet your hands with cold water and twist and turn your ear with two finger (not too hard, the idea is to generate blood flow so they get warm. You are not trying to hurt yourself). It jolts my attention for about 20-30 minutes.
When I was writing this, I thought to myself if there is any science behind it. Turns out this seems like a fairly well-known thing to some people. I found this out myself. Now I will go read what causes this to happen.
22 ways to overclock your brain - http://ririanproject.com/2006/11/03/22-ways-to-overclok-your...
omega 3s
good nutrition - vitamins, protein, fiber
regular exercise
deliberate practice
meditation
regular sleep
Covering head to toe when you are sleeping is bad for your brain. The reason is that it'll increase CO2 concentration in your breathing air.
Good: writing, quiet, solitary runs and walks, thinking in the shower, schedule with plenty of margin, moving around, standing, working in large blocks of time.
Bad: noise, too much information (TV, radio, clutter), hurry, packed schedule, too much food, too little water, sitting too long.
Can't find the word your searching for? Rapidly look with your eyes left and right a few times and it may jolt your memory.
//I promise I'm not trying to make you look silly
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100310162823.ht...
They have some pretty interesting stuff over there. It's too bad that I can't afford to buy the book.