How to help your ageing brain
At a certain point, yes, your mind may start to slip. But that doesn’t mean you’re becoming senile or that you have something to worry about, finds Christie Aschwanden.
When you reach a certain age, every lost key or hard-to-conjure word comes with a nagging question – is my mind slipping? The answer, unfortunately, is probably yes, but that doesn’t mean you’re going senile or have anything to be concerned about, says Denise Park, distinguished university chair in behavioural and brain sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Most people experience a bit of forgetfulness as they get older, particularly in their 60s and 70s, Park says, as the result of subtle changes in processing speed that begin in your 20s. Initially, these changes are too small to perceive, but eventually they become noticeable.
‘‘It’s like taking just a little bit of money out of your bank account each month. It won’t seem like much at first, but eventually you’ll notice you don’t have as much money,’’ Park says.
Requiring an extra moment or two to remember someone’s name or having a little trouble keeping a lot of information in your head at one time or switching between focused tasks are normal parts of ageing and not a sign that you’re losing your mind, she says.
‘‘These changes are not threatening to your everyday life, as a general rule.’’
Your 60-year-old brain won’t function like it did at 25 any more than your skin will look like it did at that age, but that doesn’t mean you’ll become senile. The brain’s frontal cortex, which is used for problem-solving and some aspects of word processing, shrinks with age, but it also shows more activity as you get older.
There’s also evidence that older adults can create new brain pathways to cope with diminished ones and to increase their processing capability.
The value of exercise
Research has identified numerous ways to keep your mind healthy as you get older.
If you’re a smoker, quitting the habit is the No 1 thing you can do, says Elizabeth Zelinski, a psychologist at the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California.
Once that has been achieved, the next most powerful way to keep your mind healthy is with exercise. Physical activity has been shown to promote neurogenesis – the formation of new neurons – so it’s not surprising that exercise would help keep your mind sharp. In 2012, Zelinski published a meta analysis on methods to improve cognition in older adults.
‘‘What we found is that exercise was just as effective as doing any kind of cognitive training like brain games,’’ she says. ‘‘Moderate exercise, even just walking, seems to be fine,’’ Zelinski says.
An analysis from the Mayo Clinic Study of Ageing found that moderate exercise in mid or late life was linked to a reduced chance of developing mild cognitive impairment. A review of 46 trials with more than 5000 participants published last year concluded that exercise is associated with reduced cognitive decline, and seems especially helpful for helping working memory.
A 2017 review of randomised, controlled trials concluded that in adults 50 and older, moderate intensity exercise (either aerobic exercise or strength training) was linked to improved cognitive function.
Pushing your brain
‘‘Cognitive training is very much like taking your brain to the gym,’’ says Amit Lampit, a clinical neuroscientist at the University of Melbourne in Australia. The idea is to use highly structured exercises to practise cognitive processes, so you can improve and maintain cognitive performance.
These exercises can improve performance on the cognitive tasks that they challenge, but the problem is that the improvements may not transfer to the things we care about. Does getting faster at a computerised memory test also make you faster at remembering someone’s name? It’s hard to say.
Numerous computerised brain training exercises are available commercially. While some studies have suggested these programmes might be helpful, ‘‘there is currently little evidence that computerised cognitive training can delay or forestall dementia,’’ Lampit says.
Computerised brain games are ‘‘what I like to think of as ‘get smart quick’ schemes,’’ says Walter Boot, a psychologist at Florida State University. ‘‘Something you can sit down and do, and you can improve your performance and get better ar in a relatively short amount of time,’’ he says.
But ultimately they probably won’t make a meaningful difference in how your mind works as you age. Instead, he says, it’s probably the lifelong things that you do, such as engaging with the world and being social, that matter.
Boot co-wrote a 2016 paper that reviewed the evidence on brain training interventions and concluded that there was ‘‘extensive evidence’’ that they improve performance on the trained tasks.
There was less evidence that they improve performance on closely related tasks, and little evidence that they enhance performance on distantly related tasks. The researchers also found scant evidence that such training improves everyday cognitive performance.
Even with the ones that show the most promising results, ‘‘what ends up happening is people find them hard and don’t like doing them, so they drop out,’’ Zelinski says.
This means it’s important to find a cognitive challenge that you’ll stick to. Park says the trick is to find something mentally difficult that’s also engaging and that allows some room to progress.
That could be learning a new language or musical instrument or even taking up quilting, a hobby that can require advanced spatial thinking.
Things you can do to stay mentally and socially engaged appear to be especially helpful. For instance, some evidence exists that people who retire, especially from low-level jobs, have relatively faster mental declines than people who keep working, Zelinski says. So if you retire find some other activities, such as volunteering, to keep you socially and mentally engaged.
The right diet
What you eat probably matters too, scientists say. A Mediterranean diet (high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, fish, and olive oil) may help keep your brain healthy, Zelinski says. A 2019 study looked at more than 2600 participants in a longitudinal study of ageing and found that those who had eaten a Mediterranean-style diet as adults had better cognitive performance in middle age.
But teasing out which components of diet might be important is tricky, and not every study has found an association between a Mediterranean diet and cognition. For instance, an examination of more than 6000 participants in the large-scale and long-term Women’s Health study found no relationship between a Mediterranean diet and cognitive decline.
The Mediterranean diet is often prescribed as a way to keep the heart and cardiovascular system healthy, and this may explain the association. Anything that impairs the vascular system increases the risk of cognitive decline, Zelinski says.
Vascular disease is known to increase the risk of mini-strokes and other cardiovascular problems that can produce cognitive impairments. Controlling high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease, whether through lifestyle measures, drugs or some combination of the two, can help your mind stay healthier, too.
Your 60-yearold brain won’t function like it did at 25 any more than your skin will look like it did at that age.
No magic pill
One place you’re unlikely to find cognitive enhancement is in a pill. Unless you have a documented vitamin or nutrient deficiency, it’s unclear any vitamin or supplement will help your brain, Zelinski says. And, she adds, there’s not enough evidence to recommend any supplements, which are heavily marketed for memory and brain function.
The evidence that any of this stuff works is slim to none, says Pieter Cohen, a physician at Harvard Medical School and the Cambridge Health Alliance. Cohen and his colleagues published an investigation of supplements claiming to improve memory or mental focus.
Their study found five unapproved and potentially dangerous pharmaceuticals, including vinpocetine, in some of these products. The Food and Drug Administration has warned that vinpocetine can cause miscarriage or harm fetal development. Cohen’s group also found piracetam in some of these supplements, despite the FDA’s rejection of attempts to market this ingredient in supplements.
A 1994 law allows supplements to be promoted as having a ‘‘structure/function’’ claim.
‘‘For practical purposes, it means that companies can sell products as if they do things like enhance cognitive function or maintain cognitive function without any evidence in humans,’’ Cohen says. ‘‘In fact, you can have things that have been proven not to work.’’
He points to ginkgo biloba, where a large study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health showed that it did not prevent dementia or declines in memory.
Like so many other aspects of health, the secret to staying cognitively healthy is pretty simple, Zelinski says: ‘‘Eat right, exercise, stay engaged and socialise.’’