Recently, I came upon a book called Brain Rules for Aging Well: 10 Principles for Staying Vital, Happy, and Sharp. It’s authored by US-based scientist, John Medina, who specialises in human brain development and the genetics of psychiatric disorders.

We all know that our minds and bodies deteriorate as we age. The good news is that our brains are highly malleable. That is, they can change and adapt due to experience. Medina gives an overview of the latest findings in neuroscience, and he writes with humour and good grace, with references to the likes of Captain Kirk and the ‘I Love Lucy’ show - which I particularly enjoyed.

Here are some of Medina’s top tips for keeping our brains sharp as we age:

Socialise a lot

I have a seven-year-old son and like most kids, he makes friends easily. It doesn’t require much for children to become friends. In my son’s case, get any kind of sporting ball out and he’s bound to quickly become best buddies with you.

Contrast that with myself. I’ve known people from work or sport for years and have never bothered to get closer to them and become friends. It seems that as I get older, it almost requires a 20-point checklist for someone to become a new friend.

Medina says be more like my son and not me, because friendships extend lives while loneliness kills them.

He says the latest research reveals three things about loneliness:

  • It increases with age. Depending on the study, the proportion of older adults experiencing at least moderate amounts of loneliness is between 20% and 40%.
  • It’s uneven throughout a person’s lifetime, following a U-shaped curve.
  • It’s the greatest risk factor for clinical depression.

Conversely, socialising is like exercise for our brains. Social interactions take so much energy to maintain that they give you a bona-fide workout. Because of this, they help to reduce stress, which improves your immune system and health.

But the science doesn’t just say to spend time with everybody. Overall social interaction levels don’t benefit health – it’s the net quality of those interactions that counts. Note also that face-to-face socialising is deemed best, though video calls with friends is better than nothing at all.

Also, dancing is one of the best forms of socialising that you can do. Many scientific studies suggest it helps cognitive abilities though they can’t pinpoint why. Medina suggests it’s perhaps a combination of exercise, touch, and face-to-face interaction.

Practice gratitude and optimism

The stereotypical grumpy older person isn’t generally true, according to the science. Subject to life experiences, most people become happier as they age. They tend to pay more attention to positive things during their day. They are also more likely to remember positive experiences over negative ones. As people age and realise their own mortality, they’re inclined to prize relationships, and that makes them happier.

According to Medina, practicing gratitude daily can strengthen these tendencies. For instance, scheduling gratitude visits with people who mean a lot to you. Or each evening, writing down three positive things that happened that day, and looking at the list first thing the next morning.

De-stress

It’s no surprise that stress is bad for us as we age. Our fight or flight system is designed for short-term stress. Chronic, or long-term, stress increases cortisol, which damages our brains if it hangs around too long.

Medina says mindfulness meditation is one of the best ways to de-stress and help our brains. It can extend our lives by improving sleep and reducing the likelihood of depression and anxiety. Fascinatingly, it can also help our ageing brains to switch between tasks, which makes our brains more efficient.

Many people think of meditation as unproductive, though Medina suggests it’s anything but. Though he acknowledges it isn’t easy:

“It reminds me of a poster where a serene-looking woman practicing meditation says: “Come on, inner peace, I don’t have all damn day!”

Learn a demanding skill

Medina says there are many different types of memory. Some get better as we get older, while others go downhill. For instance, working memory (a type of short-term memory) and episodic memory (stories of life events) deteriorate. However, procedural memory (for motor skills) and vocabulary improve.

What can improve memory? Put simply, it’s learning and teaching.

Learning a demanding skill is the most scientifically proven way to reduce age-related memory decline. That skill can be:

  • Learning a language. Bilingual people perform better on cognition tests – no matter when a language is learned. And those who know three languages outscore those who know two.
  • Reading books. One study shows that if older people read at least 3.5 hours a day, they are 17% less likely to die by a certain age compared to those who don’t read. Reading books is best, newspaper articles less so.
  • Learning a musical instrument.

Teaching has similar effects. Studies show older people who teach elementary schoolchildren basic skills like literacy, library usage, or proper behaviour in the classroom, have dramatic improvements in specific memory functions.

Argue with people

In psychology, there are two types of learning: passive and active. Active learning is where you experience a novel idea and actively, even aggressively, engage it. Medina calls this type of learning “the Energizer bunny of memory learning”.

He says the best exercise is to find people with whom you do not agree and regularly argue. Studies have shown that active learning has a tremendous impact on episodic memory (memory of life events, as mentioned previously).

That said, having heated arguments may not be to everyone’s taste...

Play video games

This one is a surprise and something I haven’t heard of before. Medina writes of certain video games that can improve your ability to solve problems. They in turn help parts of your brain to stay strong and can aid in preventing dementia.

To be clear, Medina isn’t referring to video games such as Fortnite and others that your kids or grandkids might play. Instead, he’s referencing special types of games, called brain training programs. Examples include commercially available games such as Beep Seeker, Night Driver, and Neuro Racer.

Studies have shown that these games can reduce the likelihood of getting dementia by up to 48%. The science is too definitive to ignore, Medina believes.

Mind your meals and get moving

Exercise improves intellectual vigour, regardless of age. It’s especially helpful with executive function – the part of the brain that does everyday tasks.

You don’t have to be an Olympian to reap the benefits. As little as walking 2-3 times a week makes a big difference to your brain. Strength training a similar amount each week helps too.

Medina puts it bluntly:

"Those who think they have no time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness."

Eating the right foods improves brain health too. One great statistic he cites: the brain is only 2% of body weight yet consumes 20% of what we eat. Medina advocates a largely Mediterranean diet, with lots of whole grains, vegetables, berries, nuts, and fish.

Get enough, though not too much, sleep

New research has found that sleep isn’t just to restore energy. It’s also so we can learn by consolidating the day’s experiences into memories. And, sleep allows waste and clutter (of the mental kind) to be removed from our brains.

Sleep does vary a lot between individuals though as a rule, it gets more fragmented as we get older. That results in waste not being removed from our brains to the same degree as when we’re young.

How do we get a good night’s sleep? Medina says it’s best to start accruing positive sleep habits when younger as it helps reduce cognitive decline as we age. However, it’s never too late to improve our sleep:

  • Commit to getting 6-8 hours a night.
  • Take it easy on the caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine.
  • Keep your bedroom dark and cool.
  • Dim the lights long before you’re ready to go to bed.
  • Go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every day. This means weekends as well!

Never retire

Ok, this is a controversial one. According to scientific studies, retirement has the following health effects:

  • Memory scores drop by 25%.
  • A 40% increase in cardiovascular incidents like heart attack or stroke.
  • It increases blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass, chance of cancer and likelihood of diabetes.
  • It lifts the chance of any chronic health condition by 21%.
  • The chance of major depressive disorder increases by 40%.

In contrast, if you stay working:

  • It keeps your social network 25% larger.
  • For every year you work after 60, your risk of dementia drops by 3.2%.
  • It reduces mortality risk by 11%.

Still not convinced by the benefits of continuing to work and never retiring? Don’t worry, neither am I.

Be sure to reminisce

Recently, I was taking my kids to their respective junior soccer matches and to get them in the right frame of mind, I put on a song called 'Eye of the Tiger'. It was released as the theme song for Rocky III in 1982 and became a big hit.

My memory of it doesn’t come from the movie, but later when it was played before National Soccer league games that I’d go to with my Dad in Adelaide. Playing the song brings me back to that time and the time I got to spend with my father.

It turns out that this type of nostalgia is good for our brains as we age. Nostalgia boosts ‘social connectedness’ scores, positive memories and feelings of well-being.

So, take the time to reminisce and your health will thank you.

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