Five lifestyle tweaks to help you live well for longer

Simple, science-backed changes you can make now to keep yourself healthier in later life.

If you misplace your keys on a regular basis, you're not alone. Increased forgetfulness is a common part of ageing and there is a widespread belief that our cognitive abilities will decline as we get older.

But cognitive impairments are not an inevitable part of ageing. There are steps we can all take to live well for longer, protecting our brains in the process.

In early infancy our brain constantly builds new connections between neurons or strengthens existing ones. As children, more than one million new neural connections are formed every second in our first few years. But as we age this starts to slow down, especially when some of these connections are no longer needed. One recent study showed that our brains go through five major "epochs" in our lifetime, with key turning points happening on average at the ages of nine, 32, 66 and 83 years old. It found that our brains only hit their "adult" phase in our 30s as our brain regions become more compartmentalised while the architecture begins showing signs of ageing in our mid-60s.

But these transitions in the way our brains are wired aren't the same for everyone, nor are they set in stone. Just as we exercise muscles to keep them strong, maintaining brain connections requires us to keep our minds active. One large study found that an active lifestyle can significantly delay or even help people avoid dementia. The team showed that education, socialising, work and leisure activities, helped build up what's known as "cognitive reserve", which refers to the brain's ability to withstand any damage from ageing, as the brain can find new pathways to compensate, making the brain more resilient against any age-related decline.

I've spent the last few months delving into the science of how we can age better and speaking to experts for our brand-new newsletter course, Live Well For Longer, launching on 17 January 2026. We have packed it full of simple but actionable, science-backed exercises designed to give you a health boost that lasts.

The most notable for me is that research demonstrates how we can influence our longevity by making small consistent changes. For instance, it's clear that when we are physically active, it benefits our brain health and wellbeing too. With this in mind, below are five ways you can boost your wellbeing and keep your brain younger in the process.

It's never too late to learn something new

First, it's important to think about our cognitive health as a broad set of skills that we use day to day. This includes the ability to reason, problem solve and concentrate, as well as the speed we process information.

These skills are varied and can develop and change depending on our lifestyle. Crucially they can be protected as well as enhanced at any age. As psychologist Alan Gow from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, tells me, that while some of these processes slow down, significant cognitive decline is not an inevitable consequence of ageing. "We do have opportunities to protect and promote our brain health at every age and stage of the life," he says.

We can, in fact, give our cognitive skills a boost that will protect how well we can think in the future. While some cognitive capabilities are prone to age-related changes, such as how fast we process information, Gow says this shouldn't necessarily be considered problematic, and a decline can start to occur when we are in the prime of our working years. A powerful message as part of an awareness campaign by Alzheimer's Research is that "it's never too early and never too late" to take action.

One simple way to enhance our cognition and reduce the risk of dementia is by trying something new. For the green-fingered among you, perhaps you could try gardening – as research shows it preserves cognitive function and can therefore help you live for longer. Doctors are now even integrating it into healthcare. Gardening can be especially useful as we age, as the process of learning about plants and how to keep them alive can stimulate parts of our brain that we might not otherwise use. 

Or how about learning a new language, as it engages various parts of the brain, boosting connections between these areas. Doing so has been found to delay the onset of Alzheimer's symptoms by up to five years.

You need the right fuel for your brain

Decades of research has told us we need a balanced and healthy diet, that much is clear but there's so much choice it's hard to know what to focus on. A simple guideline is to add as much colour from fruits and vegetables as possible into our diet. If we do so we should be getting the vitamins, minerals and fibre we need, benefiting brain health in the process.

One extra portion of fruit and vegetables per day for instance, has been shown to improve wellbeing. As we have reported previously, the health benefits of a diet rich in fruit and vegetables on our brain and heart are among the most consistent findings within nutrition science. Karen Scott, a professor of gut biology at the University of Aberdeen in the UK, emphasises that one of the most impactful dietary changes for cognitive health is to increase fibre. A recent study found that a simple fibre supplement showed improved brain function in three months. The good news is that there's so many different sources, from nuts to fruits and vegetables, making it easy to increase our intake.

We should consider eating the right kinds of fats like polyunsaturated fats, found in fatty fish – such as salmon and trout – and walnuts. These are known to be protective against dementia.  At the same time, reducing our intake of saturated fats, common in processed meats, can also be beneficial. These can cause the liver to produce harmful compounds called ceramides, which have been linked to both cardiovascular disease and an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease.

We should also ensure we're getting enough choline in our diet. Choline is commonly found in eggs as well as many other animal-based foods and it's linked to improve our memory, whilst a deficiency has been linked to Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. Having a higher intake has also been linked to a lower risk of depression.

Exercise helps us feel energised and mentally well

When it comes to moving enough, despite our best intentions, it can be hard to hit the recommended weekly amount of exercise. It's therefore worth understanding that you don't have to exercise intensively to gain benefits as even regular bouts of walking are beneficial. How fast you walk, whether it's to the shops or the park, can even give an insight into your overall health and age of your brain. Or if your office has escalators, try taking the steps instead as even scaling just a few flights a day could give your health and mind a boost.

Whatever form of exercise you take part in, regular movement has enormous benefits for our physical and mental health. It strengthens brain areas that are vulnerable to Alzheimer's disease too, making the brain more resilient to the effects of ageing and potentially slowing down cognitive decline. One recent report found that those who exercised most at midlife had up to a 45% lower risk of dementia compared to those who exercised least.

Best of all, exercise is a mood booster and can decrease depression. Melanie Burke, professor in cognitive ageing and neuroimaging at Leeds University in the UK, says that an important and positive message about ageing well isn't about the external factors of ageing but that "internal factors are much more important, because if you feel well, you'll look well". And feeling well is crucial to staying active and having a better quality of life, she adds.

Prioritise your friends to live for longer

What I personally found most compelling while researching the Live Well for Longer course, and something I can benefit from immediately is how important our social world is for our wellbeing, not only now, but as we age too.

Sometimes I much prefer an evening in than venturing out into a busy and noisy pub, but I always feel much better once I've seen friends. I've learnt that prioritising regular meetings with friends, perhaps during a run or a short coffee, really boosts my mood and yet I notice so many people simply stop making the effort to meet up with others. There's increasing evidence that loneliness is increasing globally.

Social interactions with others improves our longevity and those who are sociable tend to be healthier than those who are more isolated. As one of my colleagues David Robson has reported, our friendships can "influence everything from our immune system's strength to our chances of dying from heart disease". They can also help us lead a longer life.

Our social network may in fact influence your health as much as your exercise routine. Social connection has therefore been called a "global health priority" by a World Health Organization Commission on Social Connection.

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One simple tip to socialise more is connecting with others over shared interests, perhaps trying a new hobby, a language course or a running group could help. My colleague Molly Gorman tried this out herself, if you want to read about how she got on. I certainly benefit from my weekly local 5km (3.1 miles) run – even a brief hello to regular faces energises me, as does the exercise itself.

It can be difficult to know how to build deeper connections with strangers or acquaintances, but as we explored earlier this year, there is a shortcut to doing so. Research shows that we can become better friends with those around us simply by asking the right questions as well as disclosing more personal information about yourself, known as "reciprocal self-disclosure".

A mindset change

As we strive to live well, we might assume we need to make significant changes. But as I pointed to earlier, research shows that small, consistent changes are key to greater physical and mental wellbeing, rather making radical overhauls to your life. The first step is understanding that we can enact meaningful changes ourselves, and we can do so immediately.

As Gow tells me, "If people don't believe change is possible, it's very unlikely that they're going to be open to an intervention… Increasing the knowledge of what we can do to protect and promote brain health, whatever age we are, is fundamental". For instance simple actions could be trying a new exercise, finding a new hobby or joining a book group.

And for anyone ready to take these steps, combining changes in diet, exercise, cognitive training and cardiovascular health have been shown to have a significant improvement on brain health for older adults at risk of dementia.

This was shown in the landmark Finger (Finnish Geriatric Intervention) study, which involved 1,260 participants aged 60 to 77 who were randomly assigned into either an intervention group, where they underwent a two-year programme of lifestyle interventions, or a control group, who simply received regular health advice. The study found that compared to the control group, participants in the intervention group showed up to 25% greater improvement in overall cognitive function, as well as improvements in memory and problem solving.

And finally, when I ask Gow what his suggestion is for how to think about making lifestyle changes, he says it's about making "marginal changes today" and that there's no magic bullet. It's therefore clear that improvements across different areas of our life all add up and will provide us with lasting benefits, now and into the future.

* Melissa Hogenboom is BBC Global's Senior Health Correspondent.

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