A new study suggests that a handful of everyday routines might help your brain function as if it were up to eight years younger than your actual age. The findings are especially interesting for people living with chronic pain, a condition often linked with changes in thinking, memory, and focus. Instead of pointing to one magic fix, the research highlights a cluster of habits and social factors that seem to work together. The takeaway is simple, small choices may add up in a big way over time.
The study, published in the journal Brain Communications, followed more than 100 adults between the ages of 45 and 85 for two years. Participants were already part of broader research looking at pain and sensitivity related to osteoarthritis, so the researchers were able to examine how daily life might interact with long term discomfort. Alongside measuring the intensity of chronic pain, the team also tracked lifestyle details like smoking habits, waist size, and sleep quality. They also looked at psychological traits, including stress levels and optimism.
Using that mix of information, researchers calculated what they called a protective score. People with a higher protective score tended to have a brain age that looked younger, in some cases by as much as eight years compared with their chronological age. On the flip side, those with lower protective scores showed signs of an older brain age. Even more notable, participants who kept the healthiest routines over the two year period continued to show the same younger brain age pattern.
So what went into that protective score. The study highlighted five key factors, keeping good sleep habits, maintaining a healthy body weight, avoiding tobacco, using effective stress management strategies, and staying connected through positive social relationships. The researchers emphasized that these are modifiable parts of daily life, which makes them practical targets for real world support and intervention. In other words, while chronic pain may be linked with broader brain changes, lifestyle and psychosocial habits may still play an important role.
This lines up with earlier research connecting similar factors to long term brain health. A well known study published in The Lancet identified 14 lifestyle related factors that could potentially influence dementia risk in a significant share of cases, including smoking, obesity in midlife, and social isolation later on. Other factors included lower education early in life, hearing loss, high cholesterol, depression, traumatic brain injury, physical inactivity, diabetes, hypertension, heavy alcohol use, air pollution, and vision loss.
Which of these five habits feels most realistic for you to focus on right now, and which one is the hardest to maintain. Share your thoughts in the comments.
