A cognitive neuropsychiatry professor at the University of Copenhagen, Kamilla Miskowiak, suggests incorporating simple exercises into daily routines to strengthen brain health and potentially prevent age-related diseases like dementia. Miskowiak, who has researched brain health for 25 years, advocates for prioritizing cognitive fitness throughout life.

Miskowiak highlights three specific exercises: shopping without a list, learning something new, and navigating without GPS.

To train memory while shopping, Miskowiak suggests creating mental images of needed ingredients instead of relying on a written list. For example, when shopping for chicken in curry, one could visualize a chicken bathing in coconut milk in a rice field, with baby corn, peppers, and curry powder raining from the sky. This technique leverages the brain’s tendency to remember information better when organized as images rather than words.

Miskowiak emphasizes the importance of continuous learning to challenge the brain. She recommends activities such as trying a new, complex recipe, starting a language course, or learning to knit. The specific activity is less crucial than the act of challenging oneself to solve new tasks.

To exercise memory and spatial navigation, Miskowiak advises navigating without GPS. She notes that dementia often affects the hippocampus, a brain region vital for memory and spatial navigation. A study suggested that taxi and ambulance drivers had a lower proportion of deaths with Alzheimer’s, potentially due to their daily hippocampus training from navigating cities and making quick decisions. Miskowiak encourages challenging oneself to remember routes without relying on navigation systems.