The Well Brain Health Challenge Is Coming SoonMark your calendars, and invite a friend to do it with you.
Get Ready to Boost Your Brain.Hi, Well Newsletter readers! I’m Dana Smith, a reporter for Well, and I wanted to let you know about our upcoming January challenge. It’s focused on brain health. And this time around, we’re encouraging you to do it with a partner. Your brain is amazing. Its 86 billion neurons enable you to dance and sing, read a book, solve an equation, fall in love, remember the name of your fifth grade teacher and learn the name of your son’s new girlfriend. Throughout your life, your brain never stops changing. It should come as no surprise that how you treat your brain is essential to your health, longevity and happiness. What may be surprising is that optimizing its health is relatively straightforward — and you can do it by adopting a few good habits. Like any healthy behavior, the earlier you start, the better. But it’s also never too late. A large study published this summer, called the POINTER trial, found that adults age 60 to 79 who had a high risk of developing dementia improved their cognition over the course of two years by making a few key lifestyle changes. That’s what this challenge is all about. From Jan. 5 to 9, in this very newsletter, I’ll lead you through daily activities designed to benefit your brain and explain the science behind why they work. And to help you get the biggest benefits from this challenge, we’re encouraging you to sign up with a buddy. They can be anyone — a friend, family member, co-worker, neighbor — so long as they’re supportive and committed to seeing the challenge through. Why you should recruit a partnerWhile doing these challenge activities once is great, in order to make lasting change, you need to commit to doing them long-term. And having an accountability partner increases your odds of sticking with the behaviors. Researchers who ran the POINTER trial attest to this. The study included regular support group meetings for the participants, which Laura Baker, a professor of gerontology and geriatrics at Wake Forest University School of Medicine who helped lead the study, called the trial’s “secret sauce.” The accountability and community those meetings provided were key to helping 89 percent of people stick with the trial for two years, she said. Social connection is another reason to buddy up. Research shows that people who have more social support tend to have greater cognitive resilience, a reduced risk for stroke and dementia and even healthier-looking brains. How your partner can sign upSince you’re already signed up for the Well newsletter, you’ll automatically receive the challenge emails starting on Jan. 5. If your partner does not already get this newsletter, just forward them this email and tell them they can sign up from here. Thanks for being a Well reader, and I look forward to seeing you in January!
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