When you eat a healthy diet, exercise daily, and stay socially connected and mentally active, you are living a “brain protective” lifestyle.

In a large-scale, two-year study, Dr. Miia Kivipelto and her co-workers at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm confirmed these benefits.

The researchers randomly assigned volunteers ages 60 to 77 to one of two study groups. At the start of the study, all the volunteers performed in the average or mildly below average range on their memory and other cognitive tests.

One group then attended sessions that taught them diet, exercise, and brain and social engagement strategies, while the second group learned about general health information.

Two years later, the scientists retested the volunteers and found significantly more cognitive decline in the health education group than the multicomponent intervention group.

This new study provides even more reason to adopt a brain healthy lifestyle to maintain cognitive abilities.

Other research attributes a third of Alzheimer’s risk to factors such as high blood pressure, depression, smoking, and lack of exercise.