The Save Your Brain quiz promoted by the Iowa Department of Public Health is a learning tool to help you make wise decisions to lower your risk of a decline in thinking ability. Such a decline could be memory problems, dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, which are all types of reduced brain function.
Once you are over the age of 65, your risk of decreased brain function is 23 percent, which means one out of every four persons in your community who is over age 65 has some cognitive decline.
You can keep your brain healthy by choosing some habits now to stop your brain decline. Many of these healthy choices will also lower your risk of other problems, such as heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer.
There is definitely a relationship between healthy habits and our overall health, including brain function.
The four areas to work on to save your brain are:
- Eat well
- Get moving
- Learn something new
- Be social
Try the quiz online and then, based on your score, make the recommended changes in your lifestyle that will help you maintain your brain function. This research-based quiz is designed primarily for persons ages 60 to 75, although there are certainly benefits for persons either younger or older to follow the guidelines to maintain brain health.
The research for the dietary recommendations comes from a study done at Rush University involving more than 900 older adults who were followed four-and-a-half years. The participants who followed the recommended diet for the most part had a 35 percent lower incidence of brain decline than the group who did not make changes to their diet. The participants who were very careful about following the diet had a 53 percent lower incidence of brain function.
Ann Cochran is the health navigation coordinator for the Dallas County Public Health Department.
