Daily habits for brain health

A woman in her seventies doing gentle morning exercises on a sunlit patio

Did you know...

The World Health Organization (WHO) 2026 guidelines concluded that up to 45% of dementia cases could potentially be prevented or delayed by addressing modifiable risk factors. Many of these factors are everyday habits and health conditions.

None of this is extraordinary, and that's exactly the point.

What WHO recommends

Increasing physical activity
Stopping tobacco use
Reducing alcohol intake
Eating a healthy diet
Reducing exposure to air pollution
Managing blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol
Considering hearing aids as part of risk reduction
Cognitive training and stimulation
Social engagement

What it does not recommend is supplementation with vitamin B, vitamin E, omega-3 or multivitamins in people without a diagnosed deficiency. The full guidance is covered here.

Two old friends in their seventies laughing at something a grandchild just whispered

A Latino man in his seventies feeding a neighbour's cat through a back door

Being realistic

The nine WHO recommendations above are best approached gradually. Most are lifelong habits, not short-term projects.

Blood pressure and hearing are worth prioritizing because both are checked easily, treated effectively and frequently missed.

It also bears noting these recommendations are based on population-level risk. Doing everything on the list does not guarantee anything for any individual, and a diagnosis is not evidence someone failed to follow these recommendations.

Start with blood pressure and hearing

If you do nothing else on the WHO list of recommendations, do these two.

1. Blood pressure Keeping blood pressure under control, especially in midlife, is one of the best-supported ways to reduce dementia risk. It is measured in two minutes, treatment is cheap and well understood, and it requires no change in how you live. High blood pressure has no symptoms, which is exactly why it can go untreated for years.

2. Hearing is a modifiable factor people often dismiss. Untreated hearing loss makes conversation exhausting, which leads to withdrawal, which is itself a risk factor. It is also frequently mistaken for inattention or early memory trouble by families. A hearing test is quick and the fix is well established.

Your doctor can address blood pressure and hearing at a single appointment, which is not true of most of the rest of the list.

What cognitive stimulation means

WHO recommends cognitive training and stimulation, and this recommendation is often distorted for brain training games.

Brain training games, often sold as apps, reliably make you better at the specific games they contain. Evidence that this transfers to everyday function, or to dementia risk, is much weaker.

What the research supports for better results is genuine novelty and difficulty: learning an instrument or a language, taking a class, doing complex work, demanding hobbies or reading substantially. The common thread is sustained effort at something you are not already good at — and if you do this, often alongside other people, you will also cover the social recommendation, too.

You do not need to buy an app for this.

A Latina woman in her seventies sorting beans into a glass jar

A small clinical team in their forties and fifties around a t

Understanding what helps

Building habits can be slow and their effects are often not visible from the outside.

While habits are important, a baseline you repeat is the only practical way to see whether your cognition is holding steady over years. It will not attribute a change to any particular habit, but it will tell you whether there has been one.

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