Your brain is a pretty incredible organ. Despite being made of 75% water, it houses a whopping 86 billion neurons which communicate with each other via trillions of synapses, travelling at speeds of almost 300 miles per hour.

Your prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for decision-making and planning, isn’t fully formed until your mid-20s, then shortly after you turn 40, the brain starts to shrink at a rate of 5% per decade.

It’s thought that this natural ageing process is the strongest risk factor for cognitive conditions like dementia, but memory loss isn’t an inevitable part of getting older. Recent research from the University of Oxford has shone light on some of the actionable things we can do to slow down brain ageing over time.

The study, which was published in the journal Nature Communications, looked at the brain scans of around 40,000 people over the age of 45 and examined 161 different modifiable risk factors for dementia. Through this investigation, three key things shone out to the researchers as driving earlier degeneration of brain regions that are particularly vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease.

Here, we’ve rounded up the trio of risks you need to know and the practical steps you can take to minimise or avoid them.

Diabetes

It’s estimated that 415 million people are living with diabetes worldwide, around 1 in 11 of the adult population. The chronic condition, which causes high levels of blood sugar in the body, typically occurs either when the pancreas fails to produce enough insulin, or when the body can’t effectively use its in-built insulin stores.

After looking into a range of factors, the researchers from the University of Oxford classified diabetes as a high risk for brain ageing, ranking a diagnosis of the condition above lifestyle habits like smoking, poor sleep and loneliness.

While lifestyle changes can’t lower your risk of type 1 diabetes, a lifelong condition that typically develops early in life, eating a healthy diet, moving more and losing weight can help to cut your risk of type 2 diabetes – the type that’s diagnosed in around 90% of cases. Studies also show that it’s possible for some people to reverse type 2 diabetes after diagnosis, with evidence suggesting that weight loss is the strongest combatant.

Traffic-Related Air Pollution

If you’ve ever walked along a busy road in a major city and struggled to breathe due to traffic emissions, you’ll know that air pollution isn’t great for our health. Classed as one of the largest environmental threats to human health worldwide, 90% of us are currently estimated to breathe air that exceeds the World Health Organisation’s guideline limits for pollutants.

Speaking on the Oxford University research, Professor Gwenaëlle Douaud, who led the study, said that traffic-related air pollution is “increasingly a major player in dementia”, as it affects “a constellation of brain regions that degenerate earlier in ageing”.

If you live in an urban environment, curbing your exposure to air pollution entirely is impossible, but there are steps you can take to reduce your overall risk. Opting for the scenic route and avoiding journeys that run through heavily polluted areas, like major roads with cars idling in traffic, will help limit your time breathing in harmful smog and soot.

Another key step? Swap your car for a bicycle as your main way of getting around. Even if you can’t avoid traffic jams, there’s substantial evidence that even on busy roads, cyclists take in the least air pollution.

Frequency of Alcohol Consumption

Current advice for men and women is to drink no more than 14 units of alcohol per week, and to space drinks out to avoid binge drinking. That figure works out as six pints of beer or six medium-sized glasses of wine.

But a fairly recent study published in The Lancet reappraised everything we previously understood about alcohol, suggesting that when it comes to major health risks like cardiovascular disease and cancer, there’s no safe limit.

Pair this with the fact that Oxford University researchers ranked alcohol frequency as one of the top risks for dementia that’s most within our control, and it’s unsurprising that many of us are seeking ways to cut down.

If you enjoy drinking alcohol at home, stocking your wine rack with alcohol-free options can be a good way to stick to low-risk drinking guidelines. Avoid rounds of drinks, switch full pints to half pints, and freeze leftover wine for cooking instead of drinking it.

If you’re committed to kicking the habit entirely, simply setting a month-long challenge can keep you motivated and accountable to take practical steps towards sobriety.

For data-minded people, there’s also Reframe, a handy psychology-based app that utilises the teachings of neuroscience to rewire your thinking around alcohol. Developed by a team of medical and mental health experts, it’ll coach you through various exercises and activities to help you monitor, understand and eventually cut down your drinking.

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