If you’re trying to figure out how to stay sharp as you age, I’m guessing you aren’t lacking advice. You’ve probably read dozens of articles telling you specific things you can do to reduce your risk of cognitive decline — work a sudoku every morning, learn Mandarin Chinese, eat seven servings of kale each week, join a book club, get up at 5 a.m. and meditate. There’s so much advice out there you may be confused. Or ready to just give up and let nature take its course.
If that’s you, then Laura Baker has some good news for you: It’s not that complicated. Baker, a gerontology and geriatric medicine professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, has studied aging and cognitive decline for many years. Currently, she’s one of the principal investigators on the U.S. Pointer Study, the world’s largest ongoing clinical trial looking at the effects of lifestyle interventions on cognitive function in older adults who are at increased risk for cognitive decline.
So yes, she can get into the weeds on this. But you don’t need to. The basics really are surprisingly simple.
