Out of the fog: Six ways to prime your brain for longevity 

A decline in brainpower is not an inevitable part of ageing. Studies show it’s possible to future-proof your cognitive function through a combination of everyday healthy lifestyle habits

Exercise is good for memory and thinking skills. It also thickens the cerebral cortex and increases brain volume. Pic: iStock

Can you prime your brain to become a cognitive super-ager? 

Scientists say just as you can take steps towards futureproofing your body with a healthy diet and exercise; you can also enhance your brain’s resilience to age-related disease by boosting what is referred to as your “cognitive reserve”.

“This term refers to your brain functions rather than its structural size. It is concerned with the flexibility of cognitive networks in the face of ageing, injury and disease,” says neuroscientist and psychologist Dr Sabina Brennan, who leads the Brain Fit study of brain health, lifestyle, genetics, and dementia at Trinity College Dublin and is the author of Beating Brain Fog.

With good habits over the years, you can mitigate the decline, reaching your 60s, 70s, and even 80s with the brain power you had in middle age.

Keeping your brain active with hobbies, learning new skills, and volunteering can help build your cognitive reserve. For a study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry , Dr Dorina Cadar is a senior lecturer in cognitive epidemiology and dementia at Brighton and Sussex Medical School. Her team tracked 12,280 mid-lifers for up to 15 years for a study that showed those with higher levels of cognitive reserve had lower levels of dementia.

You don’t necessarily have to learn a new language or take a degree. “Anything that soups up your brain is good,” says Brennan. “Things that train your brain to cope with or adapt to disruptions.”

That includes brain apps and puzzles such as crosswords and sudoku, which provide your brain with a better repertoire of skills to draw upon. But even reading, doing your tax return, or organising a party fires up neuronal pathways, promoting connections between neurons in the brain.

In brain studies of older people who show signs of Alzheimer’s, such as telltale amyloid plaque deposits, but who do not exhibit the symptoms, their cognitive reserve is thought to help slow the onset of the disease.

“There are many people with high cognitive reserve who still develop Alzheimer’s disease,” Cadar says. “The difference is that those with high cognitive reserve will be able to mask the symptoms and cognitive deficits for longer because they will be able to compensate for the parts of the brain affected where healthy neurons are dying.”

The effects are wide-reaching. “The more robust your cognitive reserve, the better able you will be to stave off symptoms of degenerative brain changes associated not just with dementia but with other brain diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis or a stroke,” Cadar says. “It will also help you to function better for longer if you are exposed to unexpected life events, such as stress, surgery, or toxins in the environment as you get older.”

The younger you implement steps to bolster your brain, the better. However, it is never too late to start. 

Here are the best maintenance steps to boost your brain’s cognitive reserve:

Do yoga, tai chi, or meditate to reduce stress

Too much work or other stress, as you might expect, has an adverse effect on our cognitive reserve. Any demanding tasks that require prolonged mental effort cause our brains to gobble up available energy resources. 

“Glucose, a vital fuel for brain function, gets depleted. Some research discovered that mentally demanding tasks lead to a build-up of certain chemicals that may disrupt brain functioning,” says Cedar.

In other words, thinking too hard for too long can wear us out, affecting brain chemistry.

“Successful people learn to balance periods of mental demand with periods of relaxation to release this form of neurotoxicity,” says Cadar. “Mind-body practices like yoga, tai chi, and meditation promote relaxation and, indirectly, cognitive health.”

Plan for retirement

Just as studies show that having a cognitively stimulating job or career is linked to higher cognitive reserve and mental resilience, retiring from such jobs can lead to a faster cognitive decline. 

A lot depends on why you retire, with researchers at Sony Brook University suggesting that people who quit work for health reasons experience a steeper drop in scores for verbal memory and verbal fluency than those who retired voluntarily or for family reasons.

Early retirement is not bad for your brain — provided you keep it active. Plan to make sure you stay cognitively busy and engaged.

Socialise as much as you can

Research published earlier this year in Nature Ageing underlined the importance of regular social interaction for the brain. 

Meeting with friends and greater participation in midlife and late-life social gatherings were associated with 30-50% lower subsequent dementia risk. 

Cadar describes social get-togethers as “a workout for the brain” as they require us to think and react and make judgements, remember things about people, and make jokes.

Maintain regular sleep patterns

Typically, we get less sleep as we age, but getting too little or too much is a risk factor for diminished cognitive reserve. Ideally, seven to nine hours is optimal for enhancing cognitive reserve. 

“Sleep loss doesn’t just make you tired during the day; it can also make you forgetful, interfering with your ability to concentrate and learn new concepts,” says Brennan. “New information is strengthened, and new memories are formed when we sleep.”

The worst thing you can do is stress if you don’t get enough. Simple steps can improve your sleep pattern. A good start is to keep a sleep diary to log when and when you might struggle to drop off, Brennan says. 

“Make sure you get exposure to natural light for 30 minutes a day and avoid alcohol, caffeine, smoking, and intense exercise before bedtime,” Brenan says.

“Maintain a regular sleep pattern by sticking to a strict bedtime and getting-up time.”

Get out for a brisk walk or run or lift weights

Exercise has a remarkable impact on cognition, benefiting our memory and thinking skills and enhancing cognitive reserve in the process. 

It thickens the cerebral cortex and increases brain volume, strengthening the frontal lobes associated with cognition. But it also improves mood, promotes better sleep, and reduces stress and anxiety, all boosting cognitive function.

“Any form of exercise is good for the brain,” says Cadar. “Running, swimming and cycling or regular walking of 30 to 60 minutes a day has been shown to have benefits for cognitive health and strength training or resistance exercise improves muscle strength and indirectly benefits brain function.”

Listen to music

Putting on your headphones and listening to music — or playing a musical instrument — has been shown to stimulate the production of grey matter (brain tissue packed with synapses and neuron cells) as well as improving neuroplasticity. In a study of a group of 100 retirees published in the journal NeuroImage: Reports, a team from the University of Geneva and other Swiss institutions asked participants, none of whom had been engaged in musical hobbies before the trial, to take piano lessons or music awareness training — listening lessons in which they were taught how to focus on instrument recognition — for six months.

Neuroimaging revealed an increase in grey matter in four brain regions involved in high-level cognitive functioning in all participants, including areas involved in working memory.