Health research · Memory

Six Everyday Levers Researchers Have Tested for Thinking Skills After 60

Some of them worked in the trials, some only showed up as associations, and one large trial found no overall effect. Here is what each study actually reported.

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Losing a word or a name for a moment is common with age, and on its own it usually means little. Researchers have still spent decades testing which everyday levers go along with thinking skills that hold up. We picked six studies that cover very different ground, from fitness to hearing, and summarized what each one found and what it did not.

Lever oneGet the heart rate up

A meta-analysis pooled 18 intervention studies in which healthy but sedentary older adults were given aerobic fitness training. [1] The benefits for thinking were real but selective: the largest gains were in executive control, the set of skills used to plan, focus and switch between tasks. Longer programs and longer sessions tended to do better.

Lever twoGuard the hours of sleep

In the Whitehall II study, researchers followed 7,959 British civil servants for 25 years. [2] People who slept six hours or less at ages 50 and 60 had a higher risk of dementia later on than people who slept about seven hours. It is an observational finding, so it shows a link and not a cause.

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Lever threeKeep reading and writing

A cohort of older adults rated how often they read, wrote letters and did other mentally active pastimes, then took thinking tests every year for a mean of 5.8 years. [3] More frequent mental activity, both late in life and earlier, went along with slower decline. In the 294 participants whose brains were examined after death, the link held even after accounting for the brain changes found.

Lever fourTrain a specific skill

The ACTIVE trial randomly assigned 2,832 adults aged 65 to 94 to ten group sessions of memory training, reasoning training or speed-of-processing training, or to no training. [4] Each kind of training improved the ability it targeted, and the gains were still there two years later. The trial did not detect an effect on everyday functioning at two years.

Lever fiveKnow your blood pressure

SPRINT MIND enrolled 9,361 adults aged 50 or older with high blood pressure and assigned them to a systolic target below 120 or below 140 mm Hg. [5] The lower target did not significantly reduce probable dementia, though the trial may have been too small to tell. The combined rate of mild cognitive impairment or probable dementia was lower with the lower target: 20.2 against 24.1 cases per 1,000 person-years.

Lever sixGet your hearing checked

The ACHIEVE trial gave 977 adults aged 70 to 84 with hearing loss either hearing aids with counseling or health education sessions. [6] Across the whole group, three-year cognitive decline was the same in both arms. In the part of the group with more risk factors, the effect differed, and the authors suggest hearing care might matter most for people at higher risk.

First things firstWhen to see a doctor

Talk to a doctor if memory changes start to get in the way of daily life, for example:

• repeating the same questions within a short time;
• getting lost on familiar routes;
• difficulty managing bills, recipes or directions that used to be easy;
• changes in mood or behavior that family members notice.

Medication side effects, low vitamin B12, thyroid problems, hearing loss and poor sleep can all affect memory, and a check-up can look for them. A supplement does not replace that visit; if you take medication, ask your doctor or pharmacist before starting one. St. John's wort, one of the ingredients in the advertised formula, interacts with many medications, including antidepressants, blood thinners and birth control.

WATCH NOWWatch the presentation from the maker of Brain Memory Keeper (advertisement)