3 Ways To Lower Your Mental Age & Keep Your Brain Young

The cliché you're only as old as you feel holds some truth. Most adults report feeling younger than their actual age1 by up to 20%. While signs of aging (like creaky joints or wrinkles) remind us that time is indeed passing, keeping a positive self-perception of aging and viewing yourself as young is related to brain health.

Researchers of a 2018 study used a survey to evaluate people's subjective age and an MRI scan to objectively measure brain aging. They found that elderly folks who felt younger than their actual age showed fewer signs of brain aging2 than those who felt older. 

Aging impacts the size of the brain (with the organ's weight declining around 5% each decade after 403), blood flow to the brain, and overall cognition. 

"While there's no test you can take at home to definitively say how 'old' or 'young' your brain is, we can think of a young and healthy brain as being at peak function," brain researcher Marc Milstein, Ph.D., writes in his book The Age-Proof Brain.

Peak function for different aspects of mental capacity occurs at different times throughout your adult life. For example, research shows short-term memory seems to peak4 around age 25 before starting to drop off around 35. But vocabulary abilities can continue to increase well into your 60s.

Milstein notes that balance and memory are key determinants that are tied to how "old" your brain is. Additionally, research points to social connections as a driver of brain resiliency with age.

Balance (aka your overall stability) protects the brain in multiple ways. 

First, having stellar balance helps prevent falls5. Falling from a seemingly routine activity (like walking or getting out of the shower, can lead to significant injuries that impact your mobility, how you go about your day-to-day life, and your mental health (it's often linked to depression).

It can sway your self-perception of aging in an older direction while accelerating aging processes in the brain.

Second, balance training enhances neuroplasticity (aka the brain's ability to change and adapt to new experiences) and cognitive functioning. 

Occasionally, forgetting where you put your keys or a friend of a friend's name is normal at any age. However, memory loss is not a normal or unavoidable part of aging. 

The brain doesn't hold on to information it doesn't find important, so you can actually train your brain to help retain information better and improve long-term brain health. This can include playing research-backed brain games like Brain HQ or Cognifit or doing crosswords or Sudoku. 

The power of sleep, meditation7, and giving your brain enough breaks also shouldn't be overlooked and can help improve your memory ASAP. 

What you eat also impacts brain health. Diets that focus on fiber, fruits, and vegetables (therefore antioxidants), and healthy omega-3 fats can help protect the brain from inflammation8 and early cognitive damage. But most people don't get the nutrients they need from diet alone. 

Multivitamins are used by many people to help fill the gaps in what their diet may be lacking. Researchers of a study published in 2023 found that taking a daily multivitamin helped older adults enhance their memory recall and maintain better cognitive health overall. 

In this study, over 3,500 adults over 60 were randomly assigned to take either a standard multivitamin or placebo for three years.

Research shows that long periods of loneliness are linked to accelerated memory aging (especially in women). On the other hand, maintaining strong social connections helps promote brain health and decrease the risk of cognitive decline and dementia. 

Feeling younger is linked to fewer signs of brain aging, and slowing brain aging likely contributes to feeling younger (at least mentally).