Scientists Find These 5 Factors Improve Brain Health and Keep Aging Minds Sharp
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New research links certain healthy habits to a sharper brain as you age.
The study followed participants for more than two decades.
Doctors say these are good habits to follow for brain and overall health.
There’s a general recipe for living well that includes regular physical activity, eating a healthy diet, and avoiding smoking. Now, new research finds five factors that can also help support brain health and sharp thinking as you age,
The study, which was published in JAMA Neurology, looked at the autopsies of 586 people who lived to an average age of 91. Those study participants participated in the Rush Memory and Aging Project before their deaths, which involved them undergoing regular mental and physical tests, along with annual questionnaires on their lifestyles for more than 20 years.
The researchers found a direct link between healthy lifestyle habits and a lowered risk of cognitive decline as the participants got older—that was true, even in people who had hallmark signs of developing Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. Lead study author Klodian Dhana, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of geriatrics and palliative medicine at the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging, says his team wanted to see if certain factors could influence whether someone develops Alzheimer’s or dementia. “As individuals age, there is a progressive accumulation of dementia-related brain pathologies,” he says. However, not everyone goes on to develop dementia, despite these changes in the brain. The goal of the study, Dr. Dhana says, was to see if lifestyle factors would make a difference in how likely someone is to develop dementia.
Here’s what Dr. Dhana and his team discovered.
Factors to improve brain health
The study participants were labeled as having a low-risk or healthy lifestyle if they did the following:
No smoking.
Doing moderate to vigorous exercise for at least 150 minutes a week.
Limit alcohol use to one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men.
Engage in brain-stimulating activities, like reading, playing games, and visiting museums.
Follow a variation of the MIND diet.
Study participants received a healthy lifestyle score within these areas and, the healthier they were, the better their brain health. The researchers found that for every one-point increase in the healthy lifestyle score, the lower the amount of beta-amyloid plaques (hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease) and the higher their score on cognitive tests that looked at factors like memory and attention span.
An editorial that was published alongside the study pointed out that the benefits of following these healthy lifestyle factors were still there, regardless of whether the study participants had signs of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in their brains.
Why are these habits good for the brain?
At baseline, these lifestyle factors and habits are known to be good for you. “Following a healthy lifestyle is good for the brain,” says Amit Sachdev, M.D., M.S., medical director in the Department of Neurology at Michigan State University.
These factors in particular “have been investigated and shown to be associated with slower cognitive decline and a lower risk of dementia,” Dr. Dhana says.
While plant-based diets have been linked to healthier brains, the MIND diet is a specific kind of plant-based diet. It incorporates several elements of the Mediterranean diet, like plenty of fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, olive oil, and whole grains, explains Jessica Cording, M.S., R.D., author of The Little Book of Game-Changers: 50 Healthy Habits For Managing Stress & Anxiety.
“Previous studies on similar diet patterns have shown that this style of eating is very rich in polyphenols, which are powerful plant compounds that have been shown to have neuroprotective properties,” Cording says. “That’s a big piece of the puzzle.” The foods featured in this diet can help tamp down on bodily inflammation and promote good gut and heart health, she points out.
That diet, along with regular exercise, limiting alcohol use, and avoiding smoking is good for the cardiovascular system, Cording says. “What’s good for the heart and blood vessels is generally good for the brain—we have tons of blood vessels in the brain,” she says.
Clifford Segil, D.O., a neurologist at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA., agrees. “A healthy lifestyle increases your heart health and brain health,” he says. “A healthy heart can only help your brain.”
Research has also found that doing mentally stimulating activities is linked with a lowered risk of developing dementia. “The thing I most often recommend to patients for their brain health is structured cognitive exercise,” Dr. Segil says. “That can mean taking a class at a junior college. With muscles, if you don’t use it, you lose it. The same is true of your brain.”
Dr. Segil stresses the importance of healthy lifestyle habits for brain health, noting that he sees patients do better after making lifestyle tweaks than they do taking certain medications to lower the risk of cognitive decline.
Overall, Dr. Dhana says the lifestyle factors laid out in his study may help provide cognitive benefits over time. But, if you’re concerned about your own risk of dementia or have a family history of the disease, he recommends seeing a doctor for personalized recommendations.
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