{"id":560942,"date":"2026-04-02T22:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T22:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/560942\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T22:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T22:00:13","slug":"want-to-prevent-dementia-and-alzheimers-the-best-brain-health-training-might-surprise-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/560942\/","title":{"rendered":"Want to prevent dementia and Alzheimer\u2019s? The best brain health training might surprise you."},"content":{"rendered":"

A lot of people are looking for ways to improve, preserve, and prolong their brain\u2019s health. Just look at the seemingly endless amount of self-help books<\/a>, podcasts<\/a>, phone apps<\/a>, TikToks<\/a>, and Instagram Reels<\/a> dedicated to the subject.<\/p>\n

And, frankly, it makes sense. Alzheimer\u2019s disease and dementia \u2014 conditions that fundamentally involve the loss of one\u2019s sense of identity and sense of time and place \u2014 are distinctly terrifying<\/a> compared to physical ailments. They rob a person and their loved ones of what should be a special period of their lives. After all, Americans are living longer than ever<\/a>. It\u2019s only natural that we want to be as present as we can be to enjoy it.<\/p>\n

But despite the many promises you may hear about how to \u201cexercise\u201d or \u201ctrain\u201d your brain to improve your cognition long-term, there\u2019s still a lot we don\u2019t know. In fact, when I reached out to experts about how to exercise your brain, I received a fair amount of skepticism. Multiple studies that have used tailored tasks or games to test whether they can improve a person\u2019s longer-term general intelligence have found negligible benefits; here\u2019s one from 2019<\/a> and another with markedly similar results in 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems to be the case that no one has discovered a way to do cognitive training that transfers from the training task to anything general or interesting,\u201d said Michael Cole, an associate professor in the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience at Rutgers University and author of Brain Flows: How Network Dynamics Compose the Human Mind<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still, the science of brain health has come a long way in the past 20 years, and we have better, evidence-based strategies for staying sharp as you age. There are no simple answers, but by combining frameworks from leading experts on learning, flourishing, and cognitive aging, there is a playbook. Making a point to do these things can make life right now more fulfilling \u2014 and it could also pay off as you get older.<\/p>\n

First things first: If you want to have a healthy brain, you should take good care of your overall health in the boring-but-effective ways you\u2019ve heard a million times by now: Eat a healthy diet, exercise regularly, do your best to reduce stress, and try to get enough sleep.<\/p>\n

High blood pressure is associated with a higher risk of dementia<\/a>. Chronic inflammation, another modern fixation<\/a>, could also play a role in cognitive decline. On the flip side, exercise does seem to be associated with cognitive benefits: One major meta-analysis<\/a> of the relevant research concluded that \u201cexercise, even light intensity, benefits general cognition, memory and executive function across all populations.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Scientists have also repeatedly found<\/a> that exercise seems to protect against the risk of Alzheimer\u2019s or dementia. One study published<\/a> last year found that the adults who are active in the middle and later periods of their lives had a more than 40 percent lower risk of all-cause dementia.<\/p>\n

So, a heart-healthy diet and exercise are the first steps toward taking care of your mind\u2019s hardware.<\/p>\n

But what about exercising your brain itself?<\/p>\n

If you do want to know how best to learn anything, you should get familiar with the concept of \u201cdesirable difficulty.\u201d Advanced by Nate Kornell<\/a>, a psychologist focused on memory and learning at Williams College in Massachusetts, the basic idea is this: If something comes too easily, it won\u2019t stick. You need some friction when learning new skills. To do that, you should space out learning and mix it up; Kornell proposes the notions of \u201cspacing\u201d (taking a break from new material and returning to it) and \u201cinterleaving\u201d (mixing new material with old material) as effective strategies for learning.<\/p>\n

These frameworks are about not improving your cognitive health, per se, but they could make it easier for you to learn something new when that is what you want to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a larger point in terms of cognitive health, it\u2019s really not changing how your mind processes things,\u201d Kornell told me. \u201cIt\u2019s just putting yourself in situations that are more advantageous.\u201d<\/p>\n

But even if narrowly defined brain \u201ctraining\u201d may not have any established long-term benefits, that doesn\u2019t mean we shouldn\u2019t try to challenge ourselves mentally or intellectually. We should just have realistic expectations about what those exercises can do. At the same time, developing new interests is still part of a healthy aging mindset, because it helps nurture some of the good habits that are solidly linked with less cognitive decline, like social connections and curiosity.<\/p>\n

Learning a new skill demonstrates curiosity \u2014 and research continues to show that curiosity has benefits for the aging mind. Take one paper from last year<\/a>, co-authored by Alan Castel, a professor in the Department of Psychology at UCLA and author of Better With Age: The Psychology of Successful Aging<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The researchers uncovered a nuanced relationship between aging and curiosity. They did find that what scientists call \u201ctrait\u201d curiosity \u2014 your innate interest in seeking out new things to discover \u2014 does tend to drop with age. But at the same time, your \u201cstate\u201d curiosity \u2014 your interest when presented with new or unexpected information \u2014 tends to start increasing in your fifth and sixth decades compared to middle age.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think that has some implications for cognitive health and brain health,\u201d Castel told me, \u201cthat those individuals who are stimulating their brain, who are focusing on hobbies, or interested in lifelong learning, continued engagement with life and learning new things, are less likely to get dementia.\u201d<\/p>\n

These findings could lead to more productive forms of \u201cbrain training\u201d than a random computer game supposedly designed to improve your intelligence. Instead, based on their findings, an older person may find their curiosity more piqued by something that is relevant to their own self-interest or something they already know about. For example, a person who\u2019s gardened in the past might be stimulated by reading a book or magazine about gardening, joining a gardening club, and learning some new gardening skill \u2014 and the research suggests they\u2019ll reap cognitive benefits from that curiosity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re interested in gardening and you\u2019re out and doing it and you\u2019re trying to cultivate a new plant or determine how much rainfall there\u2019ll be in the next week, this is all very stimulating, and you\u2019re interpreting it at almost a different level than the novice person,\u201d Castel said. \u201cWe think that this sort of engagement is really important as we get older to stimulate knowledge structures that are in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

So don\u2019t get stuck in your ways as you age. Castel writes in his book that even changing up your old habits \u2014 hiking a familiar trail in the opposite direction, taking your dog for a morning walk, or even shopping at a different market \u2014 can benefit your brain.<\/p>\n

Despite experts\u2019 initial skepticism, I would still encourage you to learn a new game or pick up a hobby \u2014 but think of it less as \u201ctraining\u201d your brain in a way that will lead to a perceptible increase in your intelligence. It\u2019s more about trying to form connections with other people and feel a sense of purpose as you age.<\/p>\n

Experts at the University of Wisconsin\u2019s Center for Healthy Minds have characterized this mindset as \u201cflourishing\u201d \u2014 and it could also have the long-term benefits to our cognition that so many of us are seeking.<\/p>\n

\u201cCultivating these positive qualities of the mind changes the brain in ways that are very clearly conducive to increased brain health,\u201d Richard Davidson, founder and director of the Center for Healthy Minds, told me. \u201cWe know, for example, that objective metrics of brain aging are changed by these practices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davidson and his colleague Cortland Dahl recently wrote a book called Born to Flourish: New Science Reveals the Four Practices of Thriving<\/a>. In it, they say flourishing has four main components:<\/p>\n

Awareness (being attentive to what\u2019s happening around you right now)Connection (to other human beings)Insight (into yourself and why you feel the way you do)Purpose (feeling as if you have something to strive for)<\/p>\n

Each of these qualities can have benefits for your long-term cognitive health, Davidson said, but purpose is a particular area of interest. As Davidson and Dahl write in their book, based on research from their group, \u201ca strong sense of purpose supports healthy aging, particularly in brain regions tied to learning and memory that are susceptible to stress.\u201d People who feel they have a purpose generally experience less severe cognitive decline and better longevity overall<\/a>. \u201cHaving a strong sense of purpose is probably the most important psychological predictor of longevity,\u201d Davidson said.<\/p>\n

And as I think about these different strategies for nurturing your mind, both right now and for the long term, I see the ways that learning new skills and taking on new hobbies is good for a healthy mind as you age because it will stoke your curiosity and relieve stress. And if it\u2019s something you can do in conjunction with other people, it may help you feel that sense of connection and purpose that is associated with better cognitive well-being over the course of your life. The synthesis across these neuroscientists was striking at times: Davidson spoke of the value of purpose, while Cole has outlined how pursuing goals that align with your values can lead to more effective learning. Castel, in our conversation, emphasized that stimulating your curiosity is even better when done with a dose of human connection, another pillar of the program Davidson and Dahl laid out. So don\u2019t just dive deeper into birdwatching on your own, but consider joining a nature walking club.<\/p>\n

Think of this work less as taking your brain to a mental gym and more as cultivating the strange and wondrous garden that is your mind. You\u2019re training your brain not to be \u201csmarter,\u201d but to be more present, more connected to other people, and more attuned to what gives you an all-important sense of purpose.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been playing chess lately, for the first time in my life. I do find it prods my brain to think differently. But after reporting for this story, I\u2019m thinking of finding a local chess club. The game itself may not be a prophylactic for my brain, but finding the community of like-minded people, a sense of connection, and a sense of purpose that stokes my curiosity, just might.<\/p>\n