Getting your brain into shape

Scientists once thought that the brain was like a vault with a limited pile of currency. As you aged, your brain spent those reserves and got poorer as brain cells dwindled in number. But that’s simply not the case, says Prof Yaakov Stern, a brain scientist at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. 

You can add brain cells and add connections between them throughout life.  And there are straightforward ways for you to top up your brain reserves.

Use it or lose it

“A lot of people are familiar with the phrase ‘use it or lose it’ and though that might sound like just a slogan it also summarises what research on large populations have begun to indicate,” says Prof Stern. What we do throughout our lives affects how much cognitive reserve we build up. Treat your brain to stimulation and it will squirrel away extra brain capacity. Diet, exercise, education and engaging in social activities can all add to your reserves. 

Stern is a New Yorker who got interested in brain differences 25 years ago. One of his early studies looked at a large number of elderly people from Manhattan to study risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease. While working on this, he began hearing researchers talk about how people with higher education attainments were less likely to get Alzheimer’s compared to those with lower education.

Gift yourself a better brain

“I thought it must be a diagnostic error, but it got me thinking. How could something like education influence a brain disease like Alzheimer’s?” The hallmark of the disease is tangles of odd proteins, which affects memory and brain function, but it turns out that the brain tries to work around these blockages. “Some people can do this better than others, something that wasn’t well recognised,” says Prof Stern. It seems with higher reserves you have extra capacity to cope with the brain changes of Alzheimer’s and other conditions. 

So by behaving in certain ways, eating a healthy diet and through moderate exercise you can gift yourself a more adaptable, better brain.  And you can pep up your reserves throughout life. Stern is also fascinated by differences between us.  “I was always intrigued by individual differences.  Why does one person age more successfully than another?”

Stern is still working to solve such riddles – what parts of the brain are affected and why? For now, you can’t go wrong by taking exercises like running or walking and challenging yourself by staying active and socially engaged, he says, and it’s never too late to start building reserves.

“Two people can have the same amount of education, have the exact same jobs and then later in life one person could remain more active in leisure activities and that person would have more reserve. So it’s a flexible kind of thing. You can do things to promote this reserve even in later life.” 

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