Brain and Cognitive Health Archive

Communicating with someone with dementia can be tricky, since their ability to understand others and express themselves fluctuates and declines. Certain communication strategies can help smooth interactions between caregivers and dementia patients. They include being an active listener, avoiding confrontation, agreeing with the patient's reality, removing distractions, using shorter sentences and smaller words, asking yes-or-no questions, using written lists and schedules, and incorporating touch.

Eating a traditional Mediterranean diet or green Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes more foods high in plant foods, including green tea and duckweed, may help reduce brain shrinkage, a 2024 study suggests.

A 2024 study of more than 10,000 dementia-free people found that fitting the recommended amount of weekly exercise into one or two sessions was associated with a similar reduction in dementia risk as exercising throughout the work week.

About three million American adults have epilepsy, which is marked by recurring seizures. But far more people will have a seizure that strikes for another reason. Seizure triggers include high fever, head injury, extreme lack of sleep, blood sugar fluctuations, alcohol or drug misuse, certain medications, brain infections, stroke, and eclampsia. People can help someone having a seizure by moving them away from hazards, preventing choking, and tracking details. Most seizures are not a medical emergency.

A 2024 study suggested that closely following the MIND diet, which emphasizes plant-based foods and limited animal products and saturated fats, may slow cognitive decline compared to other eating patterns.

In a 2024 study of 900 dementia-free older adults, those who developed mild cognitive impairment had lower levels of life purpose and personal growth years before a diagnosis, compared with those whose thinking skills remained sharp.

A 2024 study involving more than 149,000 people, middle-aged and older, found that those who had shingles were 20% more likely to notice signs of cognitive decline years later, compared with those who didn't have shingles.

When ADHD persists through early adulthood into middle age, it presents many of the same challenges it does in childhood, but with added pressures from the busier pace of life and expectations from work and family. Fortunately there are strategies that can help you navigate this condition.