Walking into a room and forgetting why you went there can feel unsettling. So can losing a familiar name during a conversation or searching for the glasses already resting on top of your head.
Most people experience occasional lapses like these as they grow older. The brain, like the rest of the body, changes with age. It may take a little longer to retrieve a word, absorb new information or shift between several tasks.
Dementia is different. It involves changes in memory, judgment, language or thinking that become serious enough to interfere with everyday life. It is not an inevitable or normal part of getting older.
No crossword puzzle, diet, vitamin or exercise program can guarantee that someone will never develop dementia. Age, genetics and factors outside our control still matter. Yet the idea that there is nothing we can do is also outdated.
The 2024 Lancet Commission concluded that approximately 45% of dementia cases worldwide could potentially be prevented or delayed by addressing 14 modifiable risk factors across a person’s lifetime. These include physical inactivity, hearing and vision loss, high blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, social isolation, depression and traumatic brain injury. That percentage applies to populations, not as a promise to any individual, but it carries an encouraging message: everyday choices and basic health care may influence how well our brains age.
What Is Good for the Heart Is Usually Good for the Brain
The brain requires a constant supply of oxygen-rich blood. Conditions that damage blood vessels—including high blood pressure, diabetes and elevated cholesterol—can also affect the brain.
That makes managing cardiovascular health one of the most practical steps a person can take. Know your blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar numbers. Take prescribed medications consistently, and do not assume a reading that is “only a little high” is harmless.
This does not require becoming obsessed with every laboratory result. It means treating the health of the heart and blood vessels as part of brain care rather than as a separate issue.
The same principle applies to smoking. Quitting protects the lungs and heart, but it may also lower the risk of cognitive decline. Limiting excessive alcohol consumption and maintaining a reasonable weight can further reduce strain on the body’s vascular and metabolic systems.
Exercise May Be the Best Brain Game We Have
Many people think of brain health as something that happens from the neck up. In reality, one of the most reliable ways to support the brain is to move the entire body.
Walking, swimming, cycling, dancing and other aerobic activities increase the heart rate and improve blood flow. Strength training helps preserve muscle, mobility and metabolic health. Balance work can prevent falls and the head injuries that sometimes follow them.
Brain Games Help—but Not All in the Same Way
Crosswords, Sudoku, card games and word puzzles can be enjoyable and mentally stimulating. They are certainly better than spending every evening passively watching television.
However, becoming excellent at Sudoku mostly makes you excellent at Sudoku. There is not strong evidence that any ordinary puzzle or commercial brain-game application, by itself, will prevent dementia.
Cognitive training appears most useful when it is challenging, progressive and aimed at particular thinking skills. In a major long-running trial, participants practiced memory, reasoning or visual processing exercises. A 2026 analysis found that the group receiving adaptive speed-of-processing training followed by later booster sessions had a 25% lower rate of dementia diagnoses in Medicare claims over approximately 20 years. The memory and reasoning groups did not show the same result, and researchers cautioned that more work is needed to understand why.
This does not mean everyone needs to purchase a particular computer program. It suggests that effective mental exercise should stretch the brain rather than simply repeat what has become comfortable.
Learn to play an instrument. Study a language. Take a class in a subject you know little about. Try photography, painting, woodworking or genealogy software. Learn new dance steps. Play a strategy game with another person.
The important word is new. Your brain should occasionally have to slow down, make mistakes and figure something out.
Eat for the Whole Body
There is no single miracle food that prevents Alzheimer’s disease. Healthy eating patterns appear more promising than individual ingredients.
The MIND diet used in the U.S. POINTER program emphasizes dark leafy vegetables, berries, nuts, whole grains, olive oil and fish while limiting added sugar and unhealthy fats. Mediterranean and DASH-style diets follow similar principles: more vegetables, beans, fruit, whole grains, seafood and unsaturated fats, with fewer heavily processed foods and excessive amounts of red or processed meat.
The goal is not perfection. Add greens to lunch. Replace one processed snack with nuts or fruit. Eat fish once or twice a week when practical. Use beans in soups and salads. Choose meals that protect the heart as well as the brain.
Do Not Ignore Hearing, Vision or Sleep
Hearing loss can gradually cause someone to withdraw from conversations, social events and mentally stimulating situations. Untreated vision loss can reduce reading, driving, exercise and independence. Both are now recognized as potentially modifiable dementia risk factors.
Have your hearing and vision checked, and use the glasses or hearing devices you need. These are not admissions of old age. They are tools that keep the brain connected to the world.
Sleep matters as well. Poor sleep can affect attention and memory the following day, while untreated sleep apnea repeatedly disrupts breathing during the night. Loud snoring, waking with headaches, gasping during sleep or persistent daytime sleepiness deserve a conversation with a health professional.
Build a Life That Requires Your Brain
The most promising brain-health strategy is not one clever trick. It is a way of living that asks the brain and body to remain involved. You are not merely trying to preserve a brain for some distant future. You are building a fuller life now—and giving that brain more reasons to stay engaged in it.
5 Ways to Give Your Brain a Workout
1. Choose games that make you think. Try strategy games, bridge, chess, word games, jigsaw puzzles or number puzzles. Rotate activities instead of repeating the same familiar puzzle every day. A game should require attention and problem-solving, not just occupy time.
2. Add speed and variety. Research on adaptive visual-processing training is promising, although it does not prove that all brain-game apps prevent dementia. Activities that gradually become faster or more complex may provide a greater challenge.
3. Use your body and brain together. Dance, play tennis, practice tai chi or walk a changing route. Activities that combine movement, coordination, memory and decision-making give the brain more than one job to perform.
4. Make it social. Play cards with friends rather than always on a screen. Join a book club, choir, exercise group or continuing-education class.
5. Change familiar routines. Brush your teeth with the opposite hand. Cook a new recipe without relying on your usual sequence. Drive a different safe route. Rearrange the order of a workout. Small changes force the brain to pay attention.