Lifestyle Matters: Let’s optimize cognition, health and life in 2024

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing fas­ci­nat­ing research find­ings on lifestyle, pro­tec­tive brain struc­tures, Inter­net access, men­tal health, brain imag­ing, and more. #1. Lifestyle mat­ters: What we can do in 2024 to opti­mize cog­ni­tion and life, delay­ing cog­ni­tive prob­lems even demen­tia “Actor Chris Hemsworth…watched his grand­fa­ther live with Alzheimer’s and is mak­ing lifestyle…

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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 finds that cognitive activity in old age may delay the onset of dementia by 5 years

Demen­tia Comes 5 Years Lat­er for Some (Med­Page Today): A cog­ni­tive­ly active lifestyle that involves read­ing and pro­cess­ing infor­ma­tion in old age may delay the onset of demen­tia in Alzheimer’s dis­ease by as much as 5 years, a lon­gi­tu­di­nal study sug­gest­ed. Old­er adults who had the high­est lev­el of late-life cog­ni­tive activ­i­ty had a mean onset…

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Study: Over-the-counter “brain enhancement” supplements in the US found both to a) contain multiple unapproved drugs and b) lack some ingredients listed on the label

Study: Your Brain Sup­ple­ments Could Con­tain Dan­ger­ous, Ille­gal Ingre­di­ents (Being Patient): Brain sup­ple­ments that claim to boost cog­ni­tive func­tion are increas­ing­ly pop­u­lar, grow­ing from a $4 bil­lion indus­try of about 4,000 unique prod­ucts to a $40 bil­lion indus­try with as many as 80,000 dif­fer­ent prod­ucts on the market. 

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Study: Actual, sustained practice–not mere knowledge–is needed to harness neuroplasticity and improve cognition over time

Lifestyle improve­ments may lessen cog­ni­tive decline (Wiley): ” … 19 indi­vid­u­als old­er than 65 years of age who were expe­ri­enc­ing cog­ni­tive decline were ran­dom­ized to a con­trol group or an inter­ven­tion group for 8 weeks. The con­trol group received online infor­ma­tion relat­ed to demen­tia and lifestyle risk fac­tors, Mediter­ranean diet, phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, and cog­ni­tive engagement.…

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