The link between lifestyle and memory decline in older adults became even clearer thanks to a 10-year cohort study published in the BMJ in 2023 that followed 29,072 people (46 percent of whom identified as female). “Our results show that a healthy lifestyle was associated with a slower rate of memory decline in cognitively normal older individuals, including in people who are genetically susceptible to memory decline,” the authors report.
“We found that diet had the strongest association with memory, followed by cognitive activity, physical exercise, and social contact. Although each lifestyle factor contributed differentially to slowing memory decline, our results showed that participants who maintained more healthy lifestyle factors had a significantly slower memory decline than those with fewer healthy lifestyle factors.”
Among those the study followed were people who carried the so-called Alzheimer’s gene, APOE4. “This means that the gene is really less important than we had thought,” Perlmutter explains. “Carrying the APOE4 allele does not condemn an individual to cognitive decline; lifestyle is so important.”