Behaviors

Rather than relying only on gym sessions, build movement into daily routines and environment; examples include walking uphill or on uneven surfaces and bike commuting.

Volunteering is recommended as generative engagement that helps older adults feel connected and useful.

About five hours per week with grandchildren was associated with improved memory in correlational research, whereas more than 20 hours per week did not show the same benefit.

Do not rely on highlighting huge portions of material; instead focus selectively on what matters.

When learning, step back and look for overarching themes that connect things rather than trying to capture everything.

Use walking as a form of self-care and mental health support; it can also be combined with listening to a podcast.

Presented as a promising treatment in some bipolar cases, especially for treatment-resistant depression rather than manic symptoms; described as invasive, hospital-based, often requiring inpatient care and anesthesia, with risk of memory loss.

Support the nervous system and psyche with better sleep, adequate exercise, proper nutrition, quality healthy social interactions, regular daytime sunlight exposure, and avoiding bright light at night.

If you suspect you or someone else has bipolar disorder, speak to a qualified health professional.

Maintain cognitively engaging or demanding hobbies and activities to help preserve cognitive function with age; examples given included lectures, volunteering, reading, and crosswords, though familiar activities like crosswords may be less capacity-building than newer challenges.

Engage in novel cognitive activities in older adulthood to improve function, especially executive function; examples included language learning, complex coordinative movement, and musical training.

Memory-focused cognitive training; examples included mnemonics and memory palaces to help remember information.

Training based on looking for patterns in numbers and letters.

Visual processing speed training with progressively shorter stimulus durations; the task requires remembering what was seen and where it appeared. Booster sessions at 1 and 3 years were associated with lower dementia risk 20 years later.

Probably the number one evidence-based activity hitting multiple networks at once for cognitive function. Includes learning new dances; ballroom and line dancing had the strongest evidence in older adults, though dancing on your own was still encouraged as fun physical activity.

Suggested as having interesting data for supporting network stability and function in the brain, particularly frontoparietal networks involved in focus and attention.

Suggested as potentially beneficial because they require solving complex problems and reacting quickly to a changing environment.

Amount of practice was emphasized as a key predictor of maintaining task-specific skill, more than age in the pianist example.

For hard skill practice beyond current ability, a good rule was about two sessions per day of 60 to 90 minutes, with a couple of breaks; hard cognitive work within those sessions may only be sustainable in 20 to 30 minute chunks.

25 minutes of work followed by a 5 minute break, repeated a few times; noted to fit the rhythm of sustainable hard cognitive work.

If nutrients cannot be obtained adequately from diet, supplementation was endorsed.

Subjective feeling was recommended as a strong predictor of performance, often better than HRV or blood tests; a simple 1-to-10 scale was suggested.

Exercise helps learning as long as it is not truly exhaustive; if you want to perform hard cognitive work afterward, leave some volume in the tank and train below your maximal capacity.

Described as the exercise protocol with the best evidence for acute post-exercise cognitive benefits.

Morning cortisol was explicitly framed as desirable because it supports daytime energy and better sleep at night.

For acute cognitive benefits: a couple of sets of 8 to 12 reps at about 80% of max, not maxing out, using compound or multi-joint machine movements such as leg press, chest press, and lat pulldown, for about 20 to 30 minutes. Longer-term studies used 2 to 3 sessions per week, 5 to 6 exercises, 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps for 6 to 12 months.

Include both aerobic and resistance training because they affect different brain systems; aerobic exercise was discussed as benefiting gray matter and memory, while resistance training may benefit white matter and executive function.

Framed as one of the best things you can do to maintain function over long periods of time.

Vaccinations were discussed as potentially beneficial because they may minimize the time spent really sick in older age.

After concussion or TBI, be seen by a doctor and get whatever scans and immediate medical care are needed before focusing on supplements or recovery protocols.