How To Keep Your Brain Healthy As You Age
More than 55 million people worldwide were living with dementia in 2020, and Alzheimer’s Disease International estimates that one person develops dementia every 3 seconds. As more people around the world live longer, the number of seniors is growing. This makes early diagnosis and intervention in dementia increasingly important as dementia mainly affects older people.
Researchers are studying various factors that contribute to declining brain health. A 2022 study in the European Heart Journal looked at the impact of vascular risk factors, such as smoking, blood pressure, BMI and cholesterol levels, as they can affect blood flow to the brain. The researchers took MRI scans of people between the ages of 44 and 79 and asked how often they smoked and whether they had been diagnosed with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. They also measured pulse pressure, BMI and waist-to-hip ratio.
The study found that smoking, high blood pressure and diabetes were the biggest factors contributing to various brain declines. Higher BMI and waist-to-hip ratio also contributed to some brain decline.
Therefore, to keep your brain healthy over the years, one way is to quit smoking. According to a 2011 study by NeuroImage, smokers lost significantly more gray matter in the brain than non-smokers after 2 years. Loss of gray matter in the brain is linked to cognitive decline.
Exercise helps brain health by lowering high blood pressure
The National Institutes of Health defines high blood pressure as 130 or greater for systolic pressure or 80 or greater for diastolic pressure. If your blood pressure is elevated (a systolic reading between 120 and 129) or higher, incorporating a walking routine may lower your blood pressure. A 2018 study in PeerJ recruited people with a systolic pressure over 120 to start walking for 15 to 30 minutes a day. Participants built up the number of weekly minutes and walked for 2 months until they reached a total of 300 minutes of walking per week. After 6 months, the participants reduced their systolic blood pressure significantly. Those whose blood pressure was the highest saw the greatest drop in blood pressure, and participants also saw reductions in weight, BMI, and waist circumference.
Another study looked at the direct effects of walking on brain health. A 2013 study in Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics found that Alzheimer’s patients who walked more than 2 hours per week had improved their scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination after one year.
Healthy eating helps brain health by reducing the risk of diabetes
To keep your brain healthy, you can lower your risk of diabetes by following the Mediterranean diet. The Mediterranean diet emphasizes whole grains, vegetables, and legumes, and includes moderate amounts of seafood, dairy, and poultry, according to the Mayo Clinic. A 2020 study in Nutrition & Diabetes tracked the health habits of nearly 12,000 people aged 45 to 65 for 30 years. The researchers found that eating foods that adhered to the Mediterranean diet was less likely to develop diabetes. In particular, people who ate more nuts and legumes, drank alcohol in moderation, and chose less processed meat and red meat had less diabetes.
The Mediterranean diet has also been more directly linked to cognitive health. In a 2020 study in Complementary Therapies in Medicine, Parkinson’s disease patients who followed the Mediterranean diet for 10 weeks showed improved executive function, language, attention, memory, and concentration.
An overall healthy lifestyle reduces the likelihood of developing dementia. A 2022 study in Nutrients found that sticking to the Mediterranean diet, getting good sleep, physical activity, and social activities make you more resilient to cognitive decline.