Choose 10 physical tasks you want to be able to do at 100 – then reverse engineer the necessary actions now to achieve that future. “For example, to lift some luggage into an overhead locker,” says Mr Jonathan Williams, director at Mindwork and Centenarian Decathlon advocate. “Choosing to do squats, deadlifts and shoulder presses now means you’ll be able to complete these tasks in years to come when your strength, coordination and confidence is needed most.”

“We all know the healthy diet mantra RE: brain health; leafy greens, nuts, fish and some oils are absolutely key to keeping the grey matter moving forward,” Williams says. “So much so a Harvard study published in 2022, which followed 92,000 people from 1990 to 2018, found that those who consumed olive oil daily reduced their risk of death from neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, by a whopping 29 per cent.”

Drink at least 2.5l of fluids a day – ideally of the non-alcoholic variety. Staying hydrated prevents brain shrinkage, research shows, which in young people can trigger fatigue and headaches, but in older populations can lead to a decline in cognitive performance.

“Early hearing loss, difficulties hearing spoken words in a noisy pub, for example, causes people to withdraw from conversations and then later from social interactions altogether,” says Professor Zoltán Sarnyai, Harvard-trained neuroscientist and chief scientist at Ally. “Such withdrawal will cause a dramatic decrease of cognitive stimuli and social isolation.”

“After waking up, get outside in natural light for about 10 to 15 minutes,” says Dr Marc Milstein, author of The Age-Proof Brain. Japanese research concludes that sunlight exposure can effectively prevent dementia.

Peanut butter is known for its muscle-building qualities and since the brain is a muscle of sorts, it’s a, erm, no-brainer that this will be good for the noggin. Don’t like peanut butter? Well, research shows that the element which boosts brain function in later life – vitamin E – can be found in plenty of other foods, such as avocados, fish and red peppers.

Researchers in Germany found that people who report using two languages daily from a young age not only scored higher on tests of learning and memory, but also backed up findings in the Neurobiology Of Aging, which show how being “duo lingo” can protect against cognitive decline in older people.

Researchers at the University of California Davis found that extroverts or even just those with a more positive outlook on life were less likely to develop dementia. Those who are more neurotic or prone to feelings of anger, guilt or anxiety were at a higher risk.

“Resistance training – lifting weights or your own body weight – has been shown to significantly improve cognitive functions and protect against brain degeneration,” says Mr Dan Fallon, health and wellness consultant with the Wholeman Mission. “One study, involving 100 participants over 18 months, showed how high-intensity resistance exercise not only enhances cognition but also guards vulnerable brain areas against Alzheimer’s-related atrophy.”

The piano is particularly associated with a better brain in those 40 and older – a study of more than 1,000 adults carried out by the University of Exeter has found.

Scientists from the US Stanford Memory Laboratory investigating brain health found that people who frequently engage with multiple types of media at once perform worse on simple memory tasks, according to a decade-long study.

“One study found that exercising at a moderate intensity for just two hours per week increased oxygen volume in the parts of the brain that control memory and thinking,” says Ms Debbie Hampton, educational writer about brain health and founder of The Best Brain Possible. Don’t have a dog? Walk someone else’s via a dog walking volunteer group.

The non-rapid eye movement phase of deep sleep is vital to the body’s recovery process, clearing of toxins and maintaining the neural connections involved in memory formation. “Skimping on sleep can make you sick, fat and stupid,” Hampton says. “After just one night of reduced sleep, reaction times, glucose levels, mood, memory and hormone balances can be affected. Most adults need seven to nine hours of sleep each night, although the exact amount varies.”

“The more regularly people engage with puzzles such as crosswords and sudoku, the sharper their performance is across a range of tasks assessing memory, attention and reasoning,” says Professor Anne Corbett of the University of Exeter Medical School. The research supports previous findings that indicate regular use of word and number puzzles helps keep our brains working better for longer.

“You have a ‘second brain’ in your gut, which communicates with the brain in your head,” Hampton says. “What you put in your mouth directly affects what goes on in your brain – and to get the most brainpower from your diet, eat lots of lean protein.” It’s full of the brain cells’ chewy bits of choice – amino acids – that support neurotransmitters in the brain.

Or join a choir – or just sing in the shower. Scientists in a joint study at Harvard and Yale Universities found that singing could reduce the risk of dementia by helping to lower blood pressure and improving circulation and brain health.

“Walking within a half hour before eating can lower the amount of fat and sugar in the blood,” Milstein says. Research from the University of Limerick found that a short walk after each meal could help regulate blood sugar levels and stave off type-2 diabetes. “Unmanaged diabetes is one of our single significant risk factors for developing dementia.”

That’s not just a case of taking notes so you don’t forget stuff – eg, shopping lists, meetings, wedding anniversaries, etc. Actually journalling your everyday activities, along with writing letters, was show to reduce the risk of developing dementia by 11 per cent in study of 10,000 Australians over the age of 70, recorded by the Monash University in Melbourne.

Anyone who’s tried to keep up with the family trees of the EastEnders characters will tell you that following fiction is a challenge. “Like following a recipe, keeping track of fictional plots is an exercise of working memory,” says Dr Richard Restak, professor in neurology and author of The Complete Guide To Memory. “Working memory is what we use to ‘work with the information we have’.”

Weirdly, your brain tends to remember interrupted tasks better than the stuff that you got done. “It’s best therefore to take a short break before you finish reviewing material to be memorised,” Restak says. The thinking goes that by momentarily switching to a relaxing diversion, you will wind up with a stronger memory for the material than you would have if you ploughed on to completion without a break.

If you’re going to break off from a task, try a bit of meditation, too. “Studies have shown mindfulness meditation improves cognition, specifically in older adults across multiple domains including attention, executive functions and self-awareness or meta-cognition,” says Dr Gaël Chételat of the University of Caen-Normandy.

Having a diet high in sugar and processed foods is known to disrupt many of the brain’s functions, as it generates persistent inflammation. This can reach the mind through the bloodstream, found a study published in The Journal Of Prevention Of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Dark chocolate – of the 70 per cent-plus cocoa variety – enhances episodic memory in healthy young adults, according to research published in the journal Nutrients in 2020.

Nature’s low-hanging harvest has been keeping mankind’s minds sharper for eons and has created cleverer humans throughout evolution. Research published in Nature Ecology & Evolution found that the primates that feast upon fruit have brains that are about 25 per cent bigger than those primarily eating leaves.

“Men who take drugs such as Viagra may reduce their risk of Alzheimer’s disease,” says Dr Avinash Hari Narayanan, clinical lead at the London Medical Laboratory. A study of more than 260,000 men found that those taking the little blue pills were 18 per cent less likely to develop the dementia-causing condition, the journal Neurology reported February 2024. “And the more they used it, the more effective it may have become.”

The method of loci, an ancient mnemonic technique, links information to familiar locations like homes or parks. Visualising a walk through these places can aid recall – small-scale studies at the Shoham Geriatric Medical Center in Hanna, Israel, showed that this technique improved memory and cognitive function in elderly adults.

Switch to non-alcoholic drinks to ensure those little grey cells stay sharp. Exceeding the recommended dosage (for men: 21 units of alcohol per week) over a long term can cause a specific alcohol-related dementia called Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome (WKS).

“High cholesterol levels in middle age can increase the risk of developing progressive brain conditions by 40 per cent,” Narayanan says. “Research has found that the LDL – so-called ‘bad’ cholesterol – aggregates a protein called ‘tau’ between neurons, which cross the blood-brain barrier and can lead to dementia. The study’s authors claim up to 40 per cent of a person’s dementia risk can be attributed to modifiable risk factors such as diet.”

“We are social creatures and if there’s one thing that we’ve all learnt since the pandemic, it’s that isolation isn’t good for our health and most certainly our brains,” Williams says. “To set yourself up for the day, interact with others as soon as possible – if you live alone, then get down to the café or onto your morning calls asap. You’ll feel the oxytocin release and subsequent mood benefits when you do.”

Try ballroom or Latin dancing several times a week to lower your risk of cognitive decline in years to come. That’s the conclusion from research carried out among 984 participants by a research team from China’s Fujian Medical University. Dance beats many other forms of exercise because you must perform a series of complex motor sequences to music – testing memory, spatial awareness, balance, coordination, attention and emotional expression.

“Limit the number of weekly servings of red meat, sweets, cheese, butter and margarine, and fast or fried foods you have,” says Mr Peter Cobby, fitness expert and founder of Couture Body Workouts. “These foods have been associated with inflammation and diets high in foods associated with inflammation accelerate brain ageing, studies suggest.”

“Physical exercise, specifically aerobic exercise (at least 20 minutes of increased heart rate) has been shown to reduce the cognitive decline associated with dementia,” Cobby says. “The recommended dosage of 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise per week was sufficient to be cognitively protective.”

“About 40 per cent of dementia risk across lifespan is preventable,” Sarnyai says. “We can’t do much about the passing of time or our genetic inheritance, but we can work on the preventable risk factors by avoiding early hearing loss, head injury and the development of high blood pressure, drinking less than 21 units of alcohol per week and staying within in a healthy weight range.”