At the same time, other connections are strengthened. The main change is that unused connections in the thinking and processing part of your child’s brain (called the grey matter) are ‘pruned’ away. Inside the teenage brainĪdolescence is a time of significant growth and development inside the teenage brain. Brain change depends on age, experience and hormonal changes in puberty. This brain remodelling happens intensively during adolescence, continuing until your child is in their mid-20s. The early years are a critical time for brain development, but the brain still needs a lot of remodelling before it can function as an adult brain. By the time they’re six, their brains are already about 90-95% of adult size. Improving control of medical conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes that are toxic to the brain.Children’s brains have a massive growth spurt when they’re very young.
Certain brain games and what Baker called an "intellectual stimulation barrage," outings and other steps that keep people social, not sitting home on a computer, while they exercise their brains.A diet that includes more leafy greens, vegetables, whole grains, fish and poultry than the typical American menu.She starts exercise-newbies at 10 minutes a day for two days a week and works up to longer walks on more days. Wake Forest's Baker puts seniors on treadmills at the local YMCA to avoid bumpy sidewalks. Would those strategies help Americans, who tend to be sicker, fatter and more sedentary than Scandinavians? The Alzheimer's Association is funding a study to find out, with enrollment of 2,500 cognitively healthy but high-risk older adults to begin next year. In fact, the strongest evidence that lifestyle changes help comes from Finland, where a large, randomized study found older adults at high risk of dementia scored better on brain tests after two years of exercise, diet, cognitive stimulation and social activities. But so far there aren't studies proving hearing aids reverse that risk. Studies show people with hearing loss are more likely to experience memory problems, and have speculated that it's because hearing loss leads to depression and social isolation - or even makes the brain work harder to deal with garbled sound, at the expense of other thinking skills. Other factors have less scientific support. studies have suggested that generations better educated than their grandparents have somewhat less risk of dementia. The more you learn, the more connections your brain forms, what scientists call cognitive reserve. In fact, high blood pressure that can trigger heart attacks and strokes also increase risk for what's called "vascular dementia."Īnd exercising your gray matter may bulk up the brain, whether it's from childhood education or learning a new language as an adult. Why? What's good for the heart is generally good for the brain. That report found some evidence that controlling blood pressure, exercise and some forms of brain training - keeping intellectually stimulated - might work and couldn't hurt. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine reported there's little rigorous proof.
The theory: These factors together play a role in whether your brain is resilient enough to withstand years of silent damage that eventually leads to Alzheimer's.ĭOES CHANGING THESE OR OTHER LIFESTYLE FACTORS REALLY HELP?Last month, the U.S. Their resulting recommendations: Ensure good childhood education avoid high blood pressure, obesity and smoking manage diabetes, depression and age-related hearing loss be physically active stay socially engaged in old age. Here's the latest from this week's Alzheimer's Association International Conference on possible ways to guard your brain:Ī Lancet-appointed panel created a model of dementia risks throughout life that estimates about 35 percent of all cases of dementia are attributable to nine risk factors - risks that people potentially could change. National Institute on Aging and an avid exerciser. "If in fact it should also improve the prospects for cognitive function and dementia, all the better," said Dr. study.Ĭonsider physical activity, crucial for heart health.
"Increased health of the body supports increased health of the brain," said cognitive neuroscientist Laura Baker of Wake Forest School of Medicine in North Carolina, who will lead the upcoming U.S. In the meantime, Alzheimer's specialists say there's little down side to certain common-sense recommendations. study will begin rigorously testing if some simple day-to-day activities truly help older adults stay sharp. "Although dementia is diagnosed in later life, the brain changes usually begin to develop years before," she noted.Įarly next year, a $20 million U.S.