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Memory and cognitive abilities tend to decline with age.
According to a study that was recently published, you can slow down this process with your lifestyle.
Eating a healthy diet, regular exercise, and an active social life can boost your memory.
A healthy diet, regular exercise, and an active social life can help preserve memory as you age. That’s going out a long-term study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and for which almost 30,000 people in China were examined over a period of ten years. Those who had a “healthy lifestyle” had slower memory decline than those who didn’t. The participants were all 60 years or older at the start of the study.
The researchers examined six factors: healthy diet, regular exercise, regular social contacts, cognitive activities and not smoking and alcohol.
The scientists defined the individual factors as follows:
- Healthy eating: a varied diet that includes at least seven out of twelve food categories: fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, dairy, salt, oil, eggs, grains, legumes, nuts, and tea
- Regular exercise: at least 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week
- Regular social contacts: Visiting friends or relatives, attending meetings, or chatting online at least twice a week.
- Cognitive Activities: Played, read or written games (card games or mahjong) at least twice a week
- smoking cessation: never smoked or stopped smoking at least three years ago
- Abstinence from alcohol: never drank alcohol or only very occasionally
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People who followed four to six of these habits were placed in the “beneficial group,” while those who followed two to three were placed in the “average group.” Participants with zero or only one applicable factor were divided into the “unfavorable group”.
After ten years, the researchers found that people who stuck to healthier habits had slower memory decline than those who didn’t. To do this, they used a standard test that asked patients to listen to a list of words and then recall them to track changes in memory over time.
The study also showed that healthy lifestyle habits benefited participants who had a risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. This suggests that despite a higher risk of memory loss, a healthy lifestyle may have a positive effect on slowing down memory loss, the report’s authors said.
Of the six factors examined in the study, the researchers concluded that a healthy diet has the strongest impact on memory, followed by cognitive activity and physical activity.
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in one editorial the study authors explained that their research results might provide important information. These might help protect older adults from memory loss. They also added that the link between healthy habits and slowing memory loss needs more research.
“Prevention is important as there are no effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias,” the authors said.
This article was translated from English by Zoe Brunner. You can find the original here.
This article was first published on February 9, 2023 and was updated on February 10, 2023.