What if something as simple as continuing to learn could help your brain stay capable longer?
No supplement required.
Researchers have been studying something called cognitive enrichment. Reading, writing, learning new things, playing music, speaking another language, doing work that makes you think. Basically, continuing to give your brain something to do.
And the results are encouraging.
One long-term study found that people with greater cognitive activity across their lives developed dementia several years later, on average, than people with lower levels of cognitive activity.
That’s worth paying attention to.
Not because reading a book guarantees you won’t get Alzheimer’s. It doesn’t.
But because it adds to something I’ve come to believe about the rest of the body too.
Use what you’ve got.
We talk about that constantly with movement.
If you want your legs to remain useful, use them.
If you want balance, practice balancing.
If you want strength, give your muscles a reason to stay strong.
Why would we assume the brain is completely different?
I feel this in my own life.
I’m still learning things. Still changing my mind about things. Still trying new technology, reading, writing, teaching, building a business, asking questions and occasionally arguing with ChatGPT. 😄
My brain has work to do.
And I like that.
I don’t want to reach some arbitrary age and decide I’ve learned enough. Curiosity is one of the things that makes life interesting in the first place.
So don’t turn this into another anti-Alzheimer’s protocol.
Just stay curious.
Read something that makes you think.
Learn a skill you’ve always wanted to learn.
Pick up an instrument.
Write.
Take a class.
Talk with somebody who knows something you don’t.
Ask better questions.
Your brain has been learning since the day you were born.
Don’t give it a retirement date.