In ancient time Latin people were used to say: “Mens sana in corpore sana” and we can translate this sentence like this: “Healthy body in healthy mind”.This is because there are no doubts that body and mind are strictly connected and that if our body is in a good health, even our mind will have its benefits.

Nowadays all the scientists agree about something: our mind needs a lot of energy to work well; so, the first thing it needs, is, for sure, a rich and balanced diet.So the food is the first or one of the first things to relate body and mind.For example, the correct consumption of sugar is very important for our brain because sugar activates the dopamine levels and, a good level of dopamine help to avoid depression, sleep disorders and anxiety. Instead, too much sugar, together with stress hormones, can improve the risk of mental disorder.Some researchers have shown even that the obesity is connected with inflammation in the brain.

In the same way, some other researchers have shown the connection between exercises and better performance of the brain: for example, German scientists showed that running or cycling when you are studying a foreign language, helps to improve better the vocabulary.It seems, in this case, that exercises have memory-boost effects.Other researchers have shown that students perform better if they can have, during the time lessons, even only 20 minutes of aerobics exercises.Ending this list of researchers we can mention even Thoreau and Nietzsche; according to them walking have a very deep and good effect on the imagination.

 So, according to these theories, which are the most common and useful habits that can help us to have a “Healthy body in healthy mind”?.First of all the diet: there are some foods that help the health of our mind and some foods that it will be better to reduce or avoid at all.We can consider friends of our mind: spinach, broccoli, beans, fish, garlic, oranges and fruits in general.Not less important is to take daily exercises for at least 20 minutes: it was shown, for example, that at the age of 50, people used to be involved in regular activities as running or swimming, perform better in the mental test.But also to have the right time to sleep and relax is a primary habit to take.The results will be better if we can join to these habits even some mental exercises that help the memory, the concentration, and the ability.