Adopting certain health and lifestyle measures can help protect against cognitive decline in midlife and beyond.
Getty Images
When Terrell “T.O.” Owens was at the top of his game, he had to master complex playbooks packed with terminology, formations, and routes. Over the course of his 16-year professional football career, that required keeping a lot of information straight.
“I’d sometimes forget things, but I knew it was because I had a lot to learn in a short time,” said Owens. His solution? Organizing key information in a database to help him remember what he needed to know on the field.
After retiring from the NFL, Owens began incorporating crossword puzzles and word games into his routine and finding other creative ways to exercise his memory. “When I get a new credit card, I memorize the entire number, including the expiration date and the CVC code,” he said.
These habits underscore an important principle: Just as physical activity helps keep your body strong, challenging your mind may help preserve cognitive function. “If you don’t use it, you lose it,” said Arjun V. Masurkar, MD, PhD, a cognitive and behavioral neurologist at NYU Langone Health’s Pearl I. Barlow Center for Memory Evaluation and Treatment.
Still, some forgetfulness over time can be expected. “As we get older, our memories aren’t going to be as sharp as they were 20 or 30 years ago, because memory becomes less efficient with age,” said Dr. Masurkar. Forgetting why you walked into a room only to remember a few minutes later? “That’s normal,” he said.
Brain games can help memory, so Owens is on the right track, especially when the activities require varied cognitive skills, such as math, visual processing, and word recall, Dr. Masurkar said.
To protect your memory in midlife and beyond, Dr. Masurkar recommends incorporating these three strategies into your game plan.
Boost Brain Health With Aerobic Exercise
“Exercise, specifically aerobic exercise, which really gets the heart pumping, is probably the simple most important lifestyle habit to improve brain health,” said Dr. Masurkar.
Exercise boosts neurogenesis, the brain’s ability to generate new neurons (nerve cells in the brain), throughout your entire life. Neurogenesis naturally declines with age, but exercise helps temper that process by generating new neurons, especially in the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus, two areas that tend to decline first with normal aging. “Even just 20 to 30 minutes of brisk walking a day can be beneficial,” said Dr. Masurkar.
Manage Blood Pressure to Reduce Dementia Risk Factors
People who develop high blood pressure in their 40s, 50s, and 60s are significantly more likely to develop dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, later in life. “If there’s one medical metric that I would focus on in midlife, it’s blood pressure,” said Dr. Masurkar. “Cardiovascular health is so important at that age to prevent future cognitive decline.”
Blood pressure is the pressure in every blood vessel in your body, including the blood vessels in the brain. Blood pressure of 120/80 or less is the goal.
To learn more about high blood pressure and dementia, including the midlife health habits tied to 13 more dementia-free years, check out “Six Things to Know About High Blood Pressure and Dementia.”
Give Your Brain a Rest
Most adults need seven to nine hours of sleep each night for a sound reason: Sleep is the cornerstone of health and well-being. “Sleep is restorative to our brain,” said Dr. Masurkar. Consistently not getting enough sleep can put you at increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, as well as other chronic conditions, and contribute to memory issues.
To help yourself get enough sleep, stick to a sleep schedule. Go to bed and wake up at the same time each day, even on weekends, and at least 30 minutes before bedtime, turn off electronic devices and the TV. Avoiding bright lights and loud sounds from your TV and devices helps set the stage for slumber.
For more on how memory changes with age, watch the latest Future You vodcast with Owens, Dr. Masurkar, and Men’s Health and Women’s Health Editorial Director Richard Dorment.
What About Brain Health Supplements?
Just focusing on aerobic exercise, managing blood pressure, and getting enough sleep can go a long way toward protecting your memory as you get older. Still, you may be wondering: Do memory supplements work? It’s too soon to tell. “We need more evidence through carefully controlled clinical studies to show what works and what doesn’t,” said Dr. Masurkar.
When Should You Seek Help?
Occasionally misplacing your keys or forgetting someone’s name is a normal part of aging. “But if forgetfulness is happening every day and impacts your daily activity, it starts to become concerning,” said Dr. Masurkar.
As a first step, talk to your primary care doctor, who can evaluate whether underlying medical conditions, medications, or lifestyle habits may be impacting your memory. If that doesn’t help, you may be a candidate for cognitive testing.
“There’s no cure for Alzheimer’s yet, but we’ve made strides in being able to diagnose dementia earlier, and we have medications that, coupled with lifestyle approaches such as diet and exercise, can slow the progression of the disease,” said Dr. Masurkar.
For more information about brain health, cognitive testing, and dementia risk factors, visit the Pearl I. Barlow Center for Memory Evaluation and Treatment or call 212-263-3210.
