How a sunny outlook toward ageing can help to protect your memory 

Researchers say a positive mindset can be one of the most influential factors in preventing or reversing mild cognitive impairment. We look at steps you can take to protect your brain

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A POSITIVE attitude towards ageing can help you ward off mild cognitive impairment better than people who become grumpier and more cantankerous. It certainly seems to be working for 96-year-old David Attenborough, who said last year that “focus and curiosity” help him stay clear-minded. And researchers at Yale University School of Public Health have shown how a positive attitude could help the rest of us avoid or even reverse age-related memory loss and restore cognitive ability to normal.

Forgetting names of people and places and appointments and misplacing things are all common symptoms of age-related MCI (mild cognitive impairment), which, according to the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, affects as many as 10% of people in Ireland. “Most people assume there is no recovery from MCI, but, in fact, half of those who have it do recover,” says Becca Levy, public health and psychology professor at Yale and lead author of the new study. “Little is known about why some recover while others don’t.”