Eight lifestyle changes experts recommend to protect your brain in middle age

Cognitive decline becomes more rapid in our 40s and 50s, even among those who are healthy. However, by making simple lifestyle changes it's possible to protect our brain 

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Middle-age can hit hard. Turn 40, and seemingly overnight, you put up weight; joints start creaking and niggling health complaints begin to rise. As if that’s not enough to deal with, neuroscientists at University College Cork (UCC) now warn that the middle-aged brain is prone to “accelerated changes” in size and function, resulting in a steep drop in cognitive health in our 40s and 50s.

According to Sebastian Dohm-Hansen, a researcher in UCC’s Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, and lead author of a paper recently published in the journal Trends In Neurosciences, a deterioration in basic cognitive abilities can occur even in those who are otherwise healthy.