Five straightforward habits could potentially keep your brain “younger”, according to recent research. The study indicates that adhering to these lifestyle practices might keep your brain functioning as though it were “eight years younger” than your actual age.
This pattern was observed particularly amongst people experiencing chronic pain – which is usually associated with declining cognitive function. The recent study, featured in Brain Communications journal, examined whether everyday routines influence brain ageing in those suffering from persistent pain.
According to Medical News Today, researchers discovered that individuals who maintained wholesome lifestyle behaviours demonstrated a younger brain age. In some instances, participants’ brain age was as much as eight years below their actual age.
During the investigation, a research team from three American universities examined data from over 100 adults aged between 45 and 85, who were monitored over a two-year period. These individuals were already enrolled in a broader observational investigation into pain and osteoarthritis susceptibility.
Each participant’s chronic pain severity was rated on a scale from one to five, with one representing minimal to no chronic pain and five indicating severe chronic pain. Their lifestyle patterns and psychological characteristics, including smoking habits, waist circumference, sleep quality, stress levels and optimism, were also assessed.
This information was utilised to calculate a “protective score”. At the study’s commencement, people with elevated protective scores, including those experiencing chronic pain, possessed brain ages up to eight years younger than their actual age.
Conversely, those with reduced protective scores displayed brain ages exceeding their chronological years. Following a two-year period, participants maintaining the most wholesome lifestyle patterns continued to exhibit younger brain ages.
This implies that beneficial habits may exert lasting effects on cognitive wellbeing. The five most crucial protective elements for brain age amongst those suffering from chronic pain were identified as:
- Practising good sleep hygiene
- Maintaining a healthy body weight
- Avoiding tobacco
- Good stress management strategies
- Maintaining positive social ties
The study’s authors noted: “Our results indicate that while chronic pain is correlated with overall brain structure, socioenvironmental and behavioural/psychosocial factors appear to play a more significant role.
“Given that the behavioural/psychosocial factors correlate with brain age over time and are potentially modifiable, the protective factors provide a set of potential clinical targets (e.g. sleep, smoking, social support) for interventions that might reduce brain ageing in middle and old age within and without the context of chronic pain.”
This isn’t the first instance where these elements have been associated with brain health. A pioneering study, published in The Lancet, previously linked some of these factors to the risk of dementia.
The researchers identified 14 lifestyle factors that could potentially increase the risk of dementia in approximately 45% of cases. These included:
- Midlife smoking – a potential 2% reduction in dementia cases if this risk factor is eliminated
- Midlife obesity – 1%
- Late-life social isolation – 5%
The remaining risk factors were less education in early life, hearing loss, high cholesterol, depression, traumatic brain injury, physical inactivity, diabetes, hypertension, excessive alcohol, air pollution, and visual loss.