Think younger

Here’s a scary thought. Your brain power peaks in your 40s and possibly even earlier. Shocked? It’s not actually as depressing as it sounds, says Dr Carol Routledge, of Alzheimer’s Research UK. ‘Our brains are resilient and even though there is a natural decline with age, you can build resilience by boosting your cognitive function.’ So although your brain’s plasticity – its ability to adapt and change – may decrease as you get older, keeping it active can help maintain it. Every time you learn something new, you create new connections in your brain.

‘We now think that with dementia the underlying disease starts very early but building cognitive resilience will give you reserves that kick in to protect you for longer,’ says Dr Routledge. There’s now a wealth of research that suggests some simple ways we can all build our reserves.

EXERCISE BODY AND MIND

Fit people have sharper brains. A review of 39 studies to assess the impact of exercise on brain health in people in their 50s found that taking up moderate or vigorous exercise improved people’s performance in thinking skill tests. Exercise may even affect the size of your brain – one study found that people with a good level of fitness in their 40s had larger brains 20 years on than those who were unfit. ‘Exercise improves the health of blood vessels everywhere in your body – and that includes your brain,’ says Dr Routledge. It’s thought that exercise also reduces inflammation and stimulates the production of a substance that nurtures the development of nerve cells in the brain.

LEARN FOR LIFE

Master a language, take up photography, learn a musical instrument – anything that challenges you and takes you into uncharted territory mentally will alter your brain activity and help you build cognitive resilience.

Canadian researchers found that learning to play a musical instrument changes brainwaves in a way that improves listening