Managing stress, improving sleep, building social connections and keeping blood pressure under control are just a few of the things people need to do to have a healthy brain and reduce the risk of dementia as they age.
You can keep score of your healthy brain habits using the new McCance Brain Care Score, produced by researchers at Mass General Brigham’s McCance Center for Brain Health, which led the effort. Along with collaborators at Yale University, they published the findings in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry.
Besides showing a reduced risk of dementia and stroke, a high score is linked to lower risk of late-life depression, the researchers said in a news release.
“This paper provides compelling evidence that raising your BCS is not only likely to make your brain healthier and more resistant to disease like dementia and stroke, but that it also offers the hope of protection from depression,” Dr. Jonathan Rosand, a study author and co-founder of the McCance Center for Brain Health. He led the effort to create the score.
“Dementia, stroke and depression are leading causes of human suffering as we age,” added corresponding author Dr. Christopher D. Anderson, chief of stroke and cerebrovascular disease at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “This study highlights an extraordinary opportunity to prevent these conditions from developing in the first place.”
Dangerous and growing trio of ills
The numbers from those who track these conditions are alarming: As many as 5.8 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The American Heart Association has said that strokes among Americans age 18-45 has increased, though in the general population numbers have gone down. And in 2021, roughly 14.5 million U.S. adults had at least one major depressive episode with severe impairment, per the National Institute of Mental Health.
The researchers believe that the earlier people look at the factors that contribute, the sooner they will be able to make a difference to their futures.
The scorecard
Per the researchers, it boils down to doing simple things that help maintain your brain. The score includes 12 factors you can change to improve your brain health and brighten your future. They include physical factors like having healthy blood pressure, hemoglobin A1C, cholesterol and body mass index. Lifestyle factors like good nutrition, little or no alcohol intake, not smoking, being physically active and high-quality sleep in the right quantity have a positive impact on the score. Finally, social or emotional factors matter, too, including stress levels, good relationships and having a sense of personal purpose.
The better the score, the lower the risk of brain disease.
The researchers collected data from more than 350,000 people who were part of the U.K. Biobank and used that to help validate the scorecard. They were able to show that a 5-point increase in baseline score was associated with 33% less risk of late-life depression and 27% lower risk of all three — depression, stroke and dementia — over 13 years’ median follow up. The release said they also saw a significant association between the baseline score and risk of depression in people younger than 50.
You can take the Brain Care Score quiz here.