When we talk about healthy brain ageing we are really discussing one of two things: how to minimize ongoing damage to the hardware of the brain, mostly by keeping its blood supply as good as possible; or how to improve the operation of the brain's software.
There is currently no magic bullet to protect the brain, but one area that has been best researched, and about which we can say with reasonable confidence, "this will help", is mental activity.
There is plenty of evidence that older people who stay mentally active, by learning a new language, doing crosswords or taking part in other intellectually challenging activities, preserve full cognitive function for longer. They have spent more time doing cognitively demanding activities over a lifetime, and they are, to some extent, buffered from the physical effects of brain ageing and degenerative diseases. We call this buffer "cognitive reserve" - a back-up reservoir of brain function that can protect from the consequences of brain damage, allowing us to continue to perform well. For example, people with a higher IQ, longer education or cognitively challenging employment have been found to have a lower risk of developing dementia. In fact, studies have found that people with higher cognitive, reserve who do get dementia exhibit less severe symptoms even when they have more brain damage than those with lower cognitive reserve.
The more we understand about its role in protecting our brain and how to boost our reserve, the more effective we will be3 in designing interventions to keep the human brain healthier for longer.
We think it can be built up throughout life for everyone. Therefore, taking part in cognitively challenging activities, learning new skills and continuing to "use it or lose it" probably applies no matter how old you are. Crucially, it's never to late to start.
A. Many ways of doing this have been suggested, but few have scientific weight behind them.
B. Though there is not enough scientific research about it, many suggestions have been put forward.
C. Cognitive reserve isn't exclusive to those who have the IQ of a genius or who've devoted their life to theoretical physics.
D. Yet there's still much to discover about the potential of cognitive reserve for optimizing the brain's resilience.
E. This is despite the fact that their brains actually show normal amounts of age- and disease-related damage.
F. However, studies about the potential of cognitive reserve for optimizing the brain's resilience leave much to be desired.
