The Bad Habits That Wreck Your Brain

Is your heart to blame for a declining brain?

Are poor health habits making you dumber? Brain function may decline as heart disease risk factors increase, according to new research in the journal Stroke.
Researchers studied cognitive function (planning, reasoning, and memory) in over 3,700 people and compared the results to their cardiovascular risk in years to come. People with the highest risk for heart disease—even as young as age 35—scored 50 percent worse on cognitive tests than people with the lowest risk.
What gives? “Our brain starts a long degenerative arc beginning around age 40,” says Eric Topol, M.D., the Men’s Health cardiology advisor. “And the factors that accelerate the brain function degenerative process—smoking, lack of blood pressure control, obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle—are the same that promote heart disease, and are critical to our blood supply and plenty of brain-heart interactions,” Dr. Topol says.

Since good (and bad) habits build over time, keep your brain—and your heart—healthy by keeping up with your workouts. Exercise boosts production of the proteins that stimulate brain-cell growth, says John J. Ratey, M.D., author of Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. “It also revs your heart to pump more blood to your brain, which brings glucose and oxygen to help your neurons work optimally,” Dr. Ratey says.
Another bonus: Breaking a sweat could help you quit smoking—which research shows is a big risk factor for cognitive decline (and cardiovascular disease). In a recent study in the journal Addiction, people who exercised when they craved cigarettes were more likely to overcome the urge to smoke.