Of course, stress is an element of life we can’t always control, and it’s the chronic, ongoing stress, not the occasional stress, that damages cognition. Meditation, yoga, improved sleep and other stress-reducing approaches, play an important mitigating role.

We now know that there is a neurological explanation: they’ve formed such deep and lasting connections in their brains for certain daily functions that the opportunities to form new connections from day to day, month to month, and year to year have become limited.

Don't become a creature of habit

Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change and adapt due to experience. It’s what allows us to keep learning. But like a muscle, this part of the brain needs regular flexing to keep it in good shape.

This neural network is also the storage site for an astonishing quantity of memories. Your brain can store 2.5... See more

It can be hard at first to get into the habit of this, so keeping a list of ideas for these daily challenges and then journaling what you will do or have done each day is a good way to track your progress and success.

Once you’ve completed a specific daily cognitive challenge, is it off-limits? Certainly not. In fact, it might be very beneficial to... See more

Toxins: There’s growing evidence that exposure to toxins is tied to the development of dementia. Tiny amounts of toxic exposures occur daily – in your own home, during your commute, and in your place of work. But while there’s little hope of avoiding all of these, there are steps you can take to limit exposure including keeping your house... See more

Viruses and inflammation: If you were among the many millions of people who suffered from brain fog during or following a bout of COVID-19, you know how much a pathogen can impact your memory and ability to concentrate.

When researchers in the US reviewed the records of more than 6 million people during the first year of the pandemic, they saw... See more

So, how do you get flexing your brain again? It’s actually quite easy to organise our lives in ways that allow us to consistently create new neural pathways. We obviously can’t change everything about our lives every day, but I don’t think we need to.

Instead, we should be striving to take on a small new cognitive challenge each day, a medium new... See more

It used to be widely accepted that our hearts would simply weaken with age, that cancer was a death sentence and that conditions like Type 2 diabetes couldn’t be prevented let alone reversed.

Today we know better. We know there is plenty we can do to strengthen our hearts; that cancer can often be spotted early and treated effectively; that... See more

A small flex would be almost anything that requires you to engage your memory, attention, language, perception, problem-solving or decision-making in a way that encourages you to do something differently than you’ve done before.

None of these need to become new habits and, in fact, the point is that they aren’t something that continues day after day... See more