‘Wear earplugs when mowing the lawn’: Ten easy things to do to keep your brain healthy

Small tweaks to your daily routine can go a long way toward protecting your body’s control centre and preventing cognitive decline down the road. In fact, scientists believe that as many as 45 per cent of dementia cases could be delayed or prevented with help from some simple, sometimes surprising, changes in behaviour.

It’s never too early or too late to start, but time is of the essence when it comes to building your brain’s defences, especially since it’s generally impossible to reverse brain damage once it’s happened, said Dr Eva Feldman, a professor of neurology at the University of Michigan’s Neuroscience Institute.

Here, eight neurologists and neuroscientists share their best tips.

1. Wear a helmet

Physically protecting your head is the single most important step you can take to safeguard your brain, experts said. Recurrent head trauma from traumatic brain injuries and concussions can lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which can worsen cognition overall, and in some cases cause dementia.

Wearing a helmet during activities such as biking and skiing can significantly reduce the risk of injury, Feldman said. Mo...
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