A new study suggests that a healthy lifestyle can help prevent brain decline as you get older.
A nutritious diet, avoidance of smoking, regular exercise, minimal alcohol intake, and brain stimulation have all been shown to provide cognitive benefits, and these benefits may be associated with early signs of dementia. It also extends to people who are
The study, published in JAMA Neurology, performed autopsies on 586 people living in Chicago-area retirement communities, senior housing, and private residences who participated in the Rush Memory and Aging Project between 1997 and 2022. Ta.
Participants who lived to an average age of 91 underwent regular cognitive and physical examinations and completed annual lifestyle questionnaires over the 20 years prior to death.
Study suggests quitting smoking reduces risk of cognitive decline
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People in the study were classified as having a low-risk or healthy lifestyle if they scored the highest in five different categories. They did at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per week. They limited their alcohol intake to about one drink a day for women and about two drinks a day for men. I regularly stimulated my brain by reading books, visiting museums, and playing games like cards, checkers, crosswords, and puzzles.
The fifth category measured how well they followed the Mediterranean DASH diet intervention or the MIND diet for neurodegeneration delay.
The MIND diet (Mediterranean DASH Diet Intervention for Delaying Neurodegeneration) was designed to target the health of the aging brain, specifically dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
Contains foods rich in certain vitamins, carotenoids, and flavonoids that are thought to protect the brain by reducing oxidative stress and inflammation.
Researchers then scored participants on how closely they adhered to the five habits.
Researchers found that higher scores indicating a healthier lifestyle were associated with better cognitive function, regardless of whether participants had a brain disease such as Alzheimer's disease. did.
Higher lifestyle scores were also associated with lower levels of beta-amyloid plaques, a protein that accumulates in the brains of Alzheimer's patients.
Professor Yue Ren and Dr Christine Yaffe found that more than 88 per cent of a person's overall cognitive score is “directly related to lifestyle”, with the remaining just under 12 per cent influenced by the presence of beta amyloid. He said that
Stimulating the brain has been shown to prevent cognitive decline
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Yaffe, who was not involved in the study, is a professor of psychiatry, neurology, and epidemiology at the Weill Institute for Neuroscience at the University of California, San Francisco.
Ren, who was not involved in the study, is also an associate professor of psychiatry at the facility.
The observational nature of the study makes it impossible to prove direct cause and effect, the professors said.
However, the researchers added that this is an “important step” in understanding how this affects people's risk of Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia.
In fact, “lifestyle changes made the brain more resilient to some of the most common causes of dementia,” says a study from the Florida Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, which was not involved in the study. Director Dr Richard Isaacson added:
