While disease prevention often focuses on heart disease and cancer, brain health seems to be less talked about. Perhaps this is because heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S.—and cancer ranks second, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Taking seventh place, though, is Alzheimer’s disease, a type of dementia.
Dementia is a general term for declining memory, reasoning or other thinking skills, whereas Alzheimer’s disease is a specific brain disease that accounts for the majority of dementia cases, affecting nearly 7 million people in the U.S., says the Alzheimer’s Association.
As with any disease, your genes can influence your risk for Alzheimer’s, but a healthy lifestyle has been shown to decrease the risk of dementia, no matter your genetic makeup.
The earlier you start practicing healthy lifestyle habits the better. This is because the changes in the brain that lead to Alzheimer’s disease can begin at least 20 years before any symptoms show up. Known risk factors for dementia include not getting enough physical activity, cigarette smoking, excessive alcohol intake, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, depression, and hearing loss.
The #1 Habit to Start Now to Reduce Your Risk of Dementia
Exercise is the No. 1 habit to start now if you’re not already doing it regularly. There are so many benefits to moving your body, including strengthening your heart, lungs, and muscles, improving your mood, and reducing your risk of diseases like diabetes and cancer.
As far as your brain is concerned, exercise boosts blood flow to your brain, which may be one reason it reduces your risk of dementia, suggests one study.
The study looked at 70 men and women between the ages of 55 to 80 with diagnosed mild memory loss. The participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups for 12 months. One group completed regular stretching sessions and the other group performed four to five weekly exercise sessions (two of which were high-intensity), each lasting 30 to 40 minutes. (The exercise group progressed over the yearlong study period, starting with three weekly sessions for 25 to 30 minutes.)
After a year, those in the exercise group had less stiffness in the blood vessels in their necks and more blood flow to their brains. Those in the stretching-only group didn’t experience similar beneficial changes.
“There is still a lot we don’t know about the effects of exercise on cognitive decline later in life,” says C. Munro Cullum, Ph.D., a professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and co-senior author of the study. “Mild cognitive impairment and dementia are likely to be influenced by a complex interplay of many factors, and we think that, at least for some people, exercise is one of those factors.”
It’s too soon to say from this study if the increased blood flow might directly impact memory or other cognitive function, but an increase in blood flow could precede changes to cognition, the researchers say. This finding will help direct their future research.
“This is part of a growing body of evidence linking exercise with brain health,” says study leader Rong Zhang, Ph.D., a professor of neurology at UTSWMC. “We’ve shown for the first time in a randomized trial in these older adults that exercise gets more blood flowing to your brain.”
Other studies have also linked physical activity to a healthier brain. For example, a study review found that physical activity was associated with a 20% lower incidence of all-cause dementia and a 14% reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease. And another review found a small but significant link between higher levels of physical activity and better cognition later in life.
Even a minimal amount of physical activity may help those who have a difficult time moving their bodies, as in the case of people with osteoarthritis, according to another study. Compared to people who were not physically active, those who walked for 15 to 30 minutes one or two times per week had a 52% reduced risk of dementia. Those who walked at least three times per week had an 81% lower risk.
While more research is needed, there are some clues as to why physical activity may improve cognition. For example, a study suggests that exercise may directly impact many of the brain changes involved in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. In other words, exercise may impact the brain on a cellular level.
How to Fit in More Activity for Brain Health
If you’re not currently engaging in regular physical activity, today is a good day to begin. It can be as simple as a walk around the block. Just start where you’re at and, over time, progressively increase your time and intensity.
Try out new activities, such as pickleball, dance, or yoga. Learning something new improves brain health too. While people who are already in the exercise groove will tell you that you’ll feel so much better after a workout, that feeling may not come for a while. But once you get into the habit—and you move your body in ways that bring you joy—you may really come to like it.
Other Habits for a Healthy Brain
Fire up your brainpower with these additional habits:
- Eat a balanced diet: One example of this is the MIND diet, a fusion of the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet, which was designed for healthy blood pressure, that includes eating ample whole grains, leafy greens, berries, fish, nuts, beans, and vegetables. There is evidence that eating in line with the MIND diet can lessen risk of cognitive decline, even if you’re already experiencing symptoms.
- Get adequate sleep: A lack of sleep, which in turn, increases stress, has been linked to an increased risk of dementia. Aim for seven to nine hours of quality sleep per night. Waking up at the same time each morning, exercising, and avoiding blue light before bed can all help you get a better night’s rest.
- Connect with others: Social isolation and loneliness are linked to depression and dementia. On the flip side, it’s been shown that people who maintain close social ties have younger brains.
- Avoid smoking and excessive alcohol intake: These can both speed up cognitive decline. Even drinking moderate amounts of alcohol has been shown to reduce brain volume.
The Bottom Line
Exercise—or the lack of it—impacts health on numerous levels, including your brain. Research shows that physical activity may help preserve cognition by increasing blood flow to the brain and may help decrease the risk of dementia like Alzheimer’s. If you aren’t currently physically active, start with small breaks of movement during the day and build a regular routine from there.