Lifestyle matters: What we can do in 2024 to optimize cognition and life, delaying cognitive problems even dementia

Walk 10,000 steps a day, cut back alco­hol, get bet­ter sleep at night, stay social­ly active — we’re told that changes like these can pre­vent up to 40 per cent of demen­tia cas­es world­wide. Giv­en that demen­tia is still one of the most feared dis­eases, why aren’t we push­ing our doc­tors and gov­ern­ments to support…

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Study identifies protective brain structure that delays the onset of frontotemporal dementia symptoms over 2 years

Few peo­ple had prob­a­bly heard of fron­totem­po­ral demen­tia until ear­li­er this year, when the fam­i­ly of actor Bruce Willis announced the 68-year-old had been diag­nosed with the con­di­tion. Fron­totem­po­ral demen­tia is a rare dis­ease – thought to account for only one in every 20 cas­es of demen­tia. Symp­toms usu­al­ly devel­op in a person’s late 50s,…

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Building cognitive reserve helps delay memory and thinking decline regardless of genetic or childhood markers

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing time­ly brain news and a few fun brain teasers to test your per­cep­tu­al and cog­ni­tive skills. #1. Study: Build­ing cog­ni­tive reserve helps delay mem­o­ry and think­ing decline regard­less of genet­ic or child­hood mark­ers “While our child­hood can influ­ence our mem­o­ry and think­ing skills lat­er in life,…

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Study: Building cognitive reserve helps delay memory and thinking decline regardless of genetic or childhood markers

Build­ing cog­ni­tive reserve could pro­tect against mem­o­ry and think­ing decline, even with low child­hood cog­ni­tion scores (Alzheimer’s Research UK): New research sug­gests that peo­ple who devel­op high ‘cog­ni­tive reserve’ by the time they reach 69 years old may reduce their like­li­hood of mem­o­ry and think­ing decline, even with low child­hood cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties. The study was…

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Large neuroimaging study finds social isolation to be an early indicator of increased dementia risk

Why do we get a buzz from being in large groups at fes­ti­vals, jubilees and oth­er pub­lic events? Accord­ing to the social brain hypoth­e­sis, it’s because the human brain specif­i­cal­ly evolved to sup­port social inter­ac­tions. Stud­ies have shown that belong­ing to a group can lead to improved well­be­ing and increased sat­is­fac­tion with life. Unfor­tu­nate­ly though, many…

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New book provides practical guidance for women (and men) to rebalance our lifestyles and build Cognitive Reserve

On one of our “walk and talks” around the lush trails of Rock Creek Park in DC sur­round­ed by bik­ers, run­ners, cars and the occa­sion­al deer, Wendy and Lisa talked about aging. Wendy’s moth­er, who had her chil­dren in her ear­ly 20s, was still join­ing the family’s gru­el­ing sum­mer hikes with her chil­dren and nine…

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