On a separate note, it turns out brain health benefits from some of the same attention that is needed for strong bones!

Quick Takes

🧠 Not all brain function necessarily declines with age! A three-year study out of UT Dallas followed nearly 4,000 adults, ages 19 to 94, and found something surprising: brain health scores can continue improving over time, in every age group, including many people past 65. This reflects an updated definition of “brain health” that includes some functions we have been neglecting, and focuses on recommendations for supporting them.

🧩 "Brain health" involves not only memory. The study's BrainHealth Index breaks things into three buckets:

• Clarity (how sharp your thinking is)

• Connectedness (your social ties and sense of purpose)

• Emotional Balance (mood, stress, resilience)

Real brain health touches all three, and our capacity to carry these out can be enhanced.

🎯 Three cognitive habits matter more than "brain games." 

• Strategic attention (single-tasking)

• Integrated reasoning (finding the big picture)

• Innovation (generating multiple options)

These were the trainable skills tied to improvement — and they take minutes a day, not hours. Details on how to train them are in the Deep Dive.

🩸 Your glucose control is a brain intervention. Chronically elevated blood sugar quietly damages the blood vessels and neurons that keep your mind sharp. If you haven't checked your hemoglobin A1c this year, that's your nudge. Overachievers can also wear a continuous glucose monitor for 2 weeks to “see” glucose spikes.

🏃 Movement is still undefeated. 150 minutes a week of moderate cardio plus 2–3 strength sessions remain the most reliable brain-protective habits we have — better blood flow, better insulin sensitivity, better sleep, better mood.

Favorite Finds

A few tools worth having in your brain-health toolkit:

• Article that inspired this newsletter: Cook LG, et al. Measuring and increasing the brain health span across adulthood: a public health imperative. Sci Rep. 2026

• BrainHQ — Computerized cognitive training exercises (attention, speed, memory, decision-making) built on decades of neuroscience research. Good for structured, gamified practice once you've got the basics down. Also a place where you can compare yourself to peers and track your progress.

• Lumosity — The most recognizable name in brain training apps; a lighter, more casual option if BrainHQ feels too clinical. Nicer graphics, similar “games,” less research. Also tracks progress and compares you to peers.

• Oura Ring or Whoop for sleep tracking

• Sleep Cycle (free app on your phone!) for sleep awareness: will not give you accurate stages of sleep but gives good total sleep time. Works best if you sleep alone.

• Cronometer for tracking micronutrients in your diet; or an AI that is based on standard nutrient tables like Perplexity, and enter quantities of food. Don’t rely on photos or general descriptions. The models need detailed inputs.

• Insight Timer for a free meditation/stress library

• Continuous Glucose Monitor from Stelo or Lingo for continuous glucose monitoring if you want to get concrete about the hemoglobin A1c pillar.

• Eli Health may help you see how effective your wind-down routine is, or whether specific situations cause unexpected levels of stress. Work too late in the day may raise cortisol even though you fall asleep and feel subjectively well-rested. When cortisol is too high at bedtime, this disrupts heart rate variability and even memory formation through the night.

Deep Dive: A New Way of Thinking About Enhancing Brain Health

A new study offers a genuinely hopeful reframe on aging and cognition. Researchers at UT Dallas followed 3,966 adults from age 19 to 94 for three years, using an online "BrainHealth Project" that combined cognitive testing with self-reported measures of social connection and emotional balance — together forming a composite BrainHealth Index (BHI). Rather than comparing people to age-based norms, the study tracked people against their own baseline. The finding: across every age group, scores went up and stayed up — and a follow-up report found many people's scores kept climbing well past age 65, challenging the assumption that cognitive decline is inevitable.

What actually moved the needle wasn't dramatic. It was a handful of small, repeatable habits. Here are the five pillars worth building into your own routine.

Pillar 1: SMART Thinking Habits

The differentiator in this research wasn't generic "brain games" — it was a specific trained skill set called SMART (Strategic Memory Advanced Reasoning Tactics), built around three core habits:

• Strategic attention — Pick two high-impact tasks per day and protect at least one 25-minute block with no notifications or multitasking. Follow it with a 5-minute break: walk, breathe, look outside — no scrolling.

• Integrated reasoning — Once a day, take something complex (an article, a conversation, a podcast) and distill it into 3 big ideas and 1 next action, instead of trying to hold onto every detail.

• Innovation — When you're stuck on a problem, generate at least 5 different options or perspectives before deciding. Think of it as “reps” for your prefrontal cortex.

This week's experiment: pick one SMART habit and do it daily for a week. Notice what changes in your mental clutter and decision-making.

Pillar 2: Sleep as Brain Restoration

Sleep isn't optional maintenance — chronic sleep debt erodes attention, mood, and metabolic health all at once. Concrete targets:

• Aim for 7–9 hours of “protected sleep opportunity” most nights, with a consistent bedtime and wake time.

• Build a 30–60 minute wind-down ritual: dim lights, no email or social media, something calming like reading or stretching.

• Get daylight within 1–2 hours of waking, and keep bright screens away from bedtime.

• Get a sleep apnea test if there is any question about fatigue, snoring, waking easily, etc.

Reflection: on a scale of 1–10, how protected is your sleep right now? What's the smallest change that would move you one point higher?

Pillar 3: Metabolic Brain Health (HbA1c and Colorful Produce)

Your brain sits downstream from your blood sugar. Chronically elevated glucose and insulin damage the blood vessels, neurons, and glial cells that support cognition — so protecting your A1c is protecting your cognitive future.

• Know your numbers. Get hemoglobin A1c checked at least yearly (and learn practices that lower it if it's elevated — not just supplements). A common target for otherwise healthy adults is roughly 5.2–5.6%, individualized to your context.

• Do something about it. Center meals on non-starchy vegetables, quality protein, and healthy fats; treat refined starches and sugar as occasional extras. A 10–20 minute walk after meals can blunt glucose spikes.

• Make vegetables the default. Aim for "half your plate vegetables" at two meals a day, with diverse colors — leafy greens, crucifers, tomatoes, beets, onions.

• Get your protein: Not usually a problem for younger men, but often an issue for postmenopausal women and vegans.

If your A1c is higher than you'd like, start with your plate and your post-meal walk. That combination is powerful.

Pillar 4: Nutrient Status Checks

We ask a lot of the brain — it's reasonable to occasionally check whether the raw materials are actually available.

Worth asking your clinician about:

• B12, folate, and homocysteine; magnesium, zinc, vitamin D, kidney function

• Testosterone at least for men

• Depending on context: ferritin/iron, or a thyroid panel if there's clinical suspicion

• Omega-3 index (a marker of anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective lipid status) can be obtained online. On sale July 15-31, 2026!

Testing only matters if it leads to action — diet changes or supplementation when indicated, with follow-up to confirm levels improve.

Pillar 5: Regular Physical Exercise

Exercise is still the most reliable brain-enhancing practice we have — it improves blood flow, neurotrophic factors, insulin sensitivity, mood, and sleep, all at once.

• Baseline movement: aim for at least 150 minutes/week of moderate aerobic activity (brisk walking, cycling, swimming, hiking), plus some vigorous work if appropriate. Look for small ways to fold movement into your day — walking meetings, stairs, short movement breaks.

• Strength training: 2–3 sessions a week targeting major muscle groups. Skeletal muscle acts as a metabolic buffer — think of this as brain-protective muscle work.

Try This Week

Pick one SMART thinking habit and one metabolic habit — say, a post-meal walk plus more vegetables at dinner — and commit to both for 7 days. Ask yourself:

• Do I get 7-8 hours of good sleep? Do I need to make my sleep/wake times more regular?

• Do I prioritize movement and engage in some strength training?

• How can I get baseline nutrient tests to make sure something isn’t trending low?

Small, repeatable moves — not overhauls — are what the data actually rewards.