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Protect your brain as you age with 20 daily habits backed by research on exercise, sleep, hearing, vision and heart health
Dementia is not an inevitable part of growing older. The 2024 report from the Lancet Commission on dementia prevention, intervention, and care found something striking. Roughly 45 percent of dementia cases worldwide are linked to 14 modifiable risk factors. That means nearly half of all cases could theoretically be delayed or prevented. The changes involved are ones most adults are able to make. That reframes brain health as less a matter of genetic luck and more a matter of daily habit, in much the same way heart health responds to diet and exercise.
The brain changes throughout life, and some decline in processing speed and memory is a normal part of aging. But the line between normal aging and dementia is not fixed. Hypertension, hearing loss, smoking, and physical inactivity all interact with the brain over decades. So do social isolation, poor sleep, and chronic stress. Some habits, such as regular aerobic exercise, appear to physically preserve the hippocampus, the brain region most responsible for forming new memories. Others, such as treating hearing loss or cataracts, address sensory strain. Straining to hear or see forces the brain to work harder just to follow a conversation or read a street sign, leaving fewer resources for everything else.
