People are living longer than ever. But the average gap between healthspan (the number of years in good health) and lifespan (the number of years one lives) is 9.6 years, according to scientific data taking into account 183 countries.
Certainly, no one wants to spend a decade of their life in poor health, and with dementia cases on the rise in the U.S., it’s worthwhile to establish habits that support brainspan — the number of years in optimal cognitive health. So, what can you do to increase it?
Keep reading to learn more about the latest science and simple steps you can take to improve your own brainspan.
What Is Brainspan and How Is It Measured?
It can be easy to conflate healthspan and brainspan, but they aren’t the same, says Mike Brown, a director on the Future of Aging team within Milken Institute Health (a pillar of the Milken Institute, a non-profit think tank). Brown is also the co-author of a new report that identifies key ways everyone can prioritize cognitive health as a pillar of healthy aging.
According to Brown, “healthspan is how long you are in good health, and brainspan is how long you have cognitive health without cognitive impairments.”
Still, brainspan isn’t just about cognitive health; mental and behavioral health matter, too, experts say. Sports neurologist Vernon Williams, M.D., who is unaffiliated with the Milken Institute’s report, says he thinks of brainspan as being neurologically fit. “Brainspan is about being able to think clearly, staying focused, having good mental processing speed, having good balance, good reaction times, and good vision,” he says.
Measuring brainspan can be a bit subjective, but there are a few scientific tools that are often used, Brown says. He explains that one is a PET imaging scan, which can identify the presence of amyloid plaques and tau tangles — key indicators of Alzheimer’s disease.
“You can also look at cerebrospinal fluid, which is fluid in the spinal cord,” Brown says. He explains that if the cerebrospinal fluid includes fragments of tau (a protein that can prevent neurons in the brain from functioning properly), it could be a sign of Alzheimer’s disease.
Brown adds that, recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a blood test for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease, which could soon also be used as a diagnostic tool in the future. “This test is a game-changer that should allow for early detection and diagnosis,” Brown says.
Digital cognitive assessments are also used to measure brainspan. “These are computerized cognitive tests that can help assess one's memory, cognitive processing speed, attention, and executive function compared to others in their age group or to cognitively impaired individuals. These tools can help quantify symptoms of cognitive impairment,” Brown explains.
How to Increase Brainspan
1. Figure out the best way to eat for your body.
You might already know the basics of how to eat for brain health: Minimize your intake of processed foods. Eat mostly plants. Don’t skip out on omega-3s. But Dr. Williams says it’s also important to know what makes you feel good. “There is a significant connection between the health of the G.I. system and the health of the brain,” he says. If a certain food is messing with your digestive system, it’s likely negatively impacting the brain, too.
Dr. Williams says it’s also worth staying on top of your annual check-in with your doctor, getting bloodwork done to identify any possible nutrient deficiencies. He says to pay special attention to your vitamin B12, folate, and magnesium levels — all nutrients that are crucial for long-term brain health.
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2. Train hard, and switch up your routine often.
As a sports neurologist, Dr. Williams has a front row seat to seeing how different types of exercise impact the brain. What type of workout is best for brainspan? In general, he says that all forms of movement can support brain health, but some scientific evidence shows that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) may be particularly beneficial.
“After a HIIT workout, there is a temporary, but measurable increase in BNDF [brain-derived neurotrophic factor], a protein that promotes survival, growth, and function of neurons,” Dr. Williams says, adding that an increase in BNDF contributes to good brain function. “Even activities we can do that increase BNDF temporarily are beneficial,” he says. Dr. Williams points out HIIT workouts also lead to an endorphin rush, which is linked to lowering inflammation in the brain.
While your brain will benefit from a hard workout, Dr. Williams says that moderate-intensity cardio benefits the brain, too. This, he says, is because it increases blood flow to the brain, which supports long-term brain health.
Switching up your workout is good for the brain as well, Dr. Williams says. He explains that varying your workout regularly requires more brain power, which can help you stay mentally sharp.
3. Stimulate your vagus nerve.
You know what doesn’t support brainspan? Stress. Especially if you have a lot of life or work responsibilities, Dr. Williams says that it’s important to find a way to not exist in fight-or-flight all the time, which many people don’t even realize they’re in. (One tell-tale sign: You’re breathing shallowly without even realizing it.)
“One way to activate the parasympathetic nervous system — which is the ‘rest-and-digest’ state and the opposite of ‘fight-or-flight’ — is to stimulate your vagus nerve,” Dr. Williams says. This nerve carries signals between the brain, gut, and heart and is a key part of the aforementioned parasympathetic nervous system.
To do so, try a wearable from companies like Apollo, Neuropod, and Pulsetto, which make vagus nerve stimulation devices. Or, go tech-free; deep breathing also stimulates the vagus nerve.
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4. Prioritize sleep.
Getting enough sleep may seem like an obvious way to improve brainspan, but Dr. Williams says it’s a low-hanging fruit people often overlook. “Sleep is when the brain clears a lot of the proteins that can accumulate, and you need to be in deep sleep for that to happen,” he explains. “There is clear evidence that optimizing sleep is really important in terms of neurologic function.” To this point, scientific research shows that consistently not getting enough sleep increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
5. Take advantage of screening tools.
When it comes to improving brainspan, Brown encourages using screening tools as they become available to learn more about your brain. “The next step [in monitoring our personal health] is going to be monitoring our brain aging based on genetics, biomarkers, and lifestyle interventions,” he says. This will allow someone to see if they are aging mentally slower than their chronological age, he explains.
If you are aging cognitively slower than your actual age, both experts say that there is a lot you can do to slow or even reverse the damage, starting with the above tips. You don’t have to lose your cognitive edge as you age. With conscious effort, you just might keep getting sharper.