Challenging your brain helps keep it healthy. Here’s how to do it

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“Exercise your brain,” experts advise people hoping to stave off dementia. But how? Stretching your brain might be the better description.

Do a crossword puzzle a day and you may just get good at crosswords. Instead, research increasingly shows that a variety of habits and hobbies are like a cognitive workout, building knowledge and skills that may beef up parts of the brain as we get older.

One recent study linked a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline to lifelong learning, meaning intellectually stimulating experiences — reading and writing, learning another language, playing chess, solving puzzles, going to museums — from childhood into retirement.

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Early Alzheimer’s increased connectivity lowered by cancer drug in the lab

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Published in Translational Psychiatry, the study then demonstrated that a cancer medication has the potential to reverse this early-stage hyperconnectivity.

The research, conducted in brain cells of rats, showed that low levels of the protein amyloid-beta could induce hyperconnectivity and this pattern closely resembled changes seen in the brains of people of people with Mild Cognitive Impairment. Amyloid-beta is thought to be instrumental in Alzheimer’s disease, where it creates plaques – or sticky clumps of amyloid-beta proteins – around the neurons.

These new findings suggest that low levels of amyloid-beta alone are enough to trigger early, disease-relevant changes in how brain cells connect.

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Researchers explore surgical treatment’s potential in Alzheimer’s

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Researchers are calling for more studies to determine whether lymphovenous anastomosis (LVA), a surgical procedure that helps clear molecular waste from the brain, might benefit people with Alzheimer’s disease.

“LVA represents a novel therapeutic strategy that may complement existing treatments, offering new hope for addressing the [disease biology] of [Alzheimer’s disease]. Through collaborative, long-term clinical trials, LVA may emerge not only as an adjunct to current [Alzheimer’s] therapies but also as a potential treatment avenue for other neurodegenerative diseases,” Khong Yik Chew, MD, a senior consultant at Singapore General Hospital, said in a press release.

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Scientists reverse Alzheimer’s in mice and restore memory

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Alzheimer’s has long been considered irreversible, but new research challenges that assumption. Scientists discovered that severe drops in the brain’s energy supply help drive the disease—and restoring that balance can reverse damage, even in advanced cases. In mouse models, treatment repaired brain pathology, restored cognitive function, and normalized Alzheimer’s biomarkers. The results offer fresh hope that recovery may be possible.

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