Healthy Aging & Brain Health: How to Keep Growing
What current research reveals about supporting the brain through movement, nourishment, sleep, learning, relationships, and stress.
I first met Father Bede Griffiths when I was eighteen, the same year I began my undergraduate studies in mathematics. Father Bede was a British-born Benedictine monk who spent much of his life in India and became internationally known for bringing Eastern and Western spiritual traditions into dialogue. To me, however, he was more than a respected spiritual teacher. He was a beloved mentor whose presence helped shape the direction of my life.
It was at his Christian ashram in South India that I also met my future husband, Russill, who was then a twenty-one-year-old monk. I could not have known how profoundly those relationships—or that place—would influence the life that followed.
Four years after I first met him, Father Bede experienced a stroke in 1990. He recovered sufficiently to resume an unusually engaged life. For three consecutive years, he travelled from India to the United States and stayed with Russill and me for approximately three months at a time. During those visits, I watched a man in his eighties continue to teach, contemplate, travel, learn and form meaningful relationships. Physical vulnerability had entered his life, but it had not extinguished his curiosity or his willingness to keep growing.
Caring for him also changed my relationship with food and health. The everyday questions of what we ate, how we rested and how we supported the body were no longer abstract. That period became part of the path that led me, in 1995, to begin studying nutrition and to understand food as one dimension of a much larger ecology of wellbeing.
Father Bede would experience a major stroke near the end of 1992 and pass away several months later, at the age of eighty-six. I do not share his story to suggest that any habit can protect us from every illness or determine how long we live. His life taught me something different: growing older does not require us to stop developing. Even as the body changes, our relationship with life can remain curious, purposeful and deeply engaged.
That memory returns to me whenever I consider one of the most common fears associated with aging: the fear of losing our memory.
Memory Matters—but It Is Not the Whole of Cognitive Wellbeing
Memory is precious. It helps us recognize the people we love, draw upon experience, maintain independence and preserve continuity between who we have been and who we are becoming. Concern about losing it is understandable.
Cognitive wellbeing is broader than recall. It includes our capacity to think, learn, pay attention, solve problems, adapt and participate meaningfully in daily life. Some forgetfulness can accompany normal aging, but dementia is not considered an inevitable part of it.
When changes in memory or thinking interfere with familiar tasks, conversation, judgment, navigation, finances or everyday functioning, they deserve evaluation by a qualified healthcare professional. An informed perspective helps us remain attentive without interpreting every forgotten word as evidence of decline.
A Hopeful Picture—Without False Promises
The science of cognitive aging is still evolving, and no lifestyle can guarantee that a person will avoid cognitive impairment or dementia. Genetics, medical conditions, injuries, environmental exposures and circumstances beyond individual control all matter.
At the same time, brain health is not entirely fixed. The World Health Organization’s updated 2026 guidance identifies potentially modifiable factors associated with cognitive decline and dementia, including physical inactivity, tobacco, harmful alcohol use, social isolation, air pollution, high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol.
These population-level findings are not promises to individuals. They offer something more useful: evidence that appropriate medical care, supportive environments and everyday choices may influence risk and quality of life without giving us complete control over the future.
7 Actionable Steps to Support Your Brain & Healthy Aging
Here are 7 evidence-based, actionable steps to support cognitive health through everyday choices:
1. Support the Heart to Support the Brain
The brain depends upon an extensive network of blood vessels to deliver oxygen and nutrients. This is one reason cardiovascular and cognitive health are so closely connected. High blood pressure, diabetes, elevated cholesterol, smoking and stroke can affect not only the heart and circulation but also the brain.
The phrase ‘what is good for the heart is often good for the brain’ carries an important shift in perspective: cognitive health is influenced across decades, not only after forgetfulness appears.
Regular medical care remains essential. Blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, hearing, vision, medications and sleep concerns all belong in conversations with qualified healthcare professionals.
Appropriately trained health and wellness professionals can also help people translate healthy-aging principles into sustainable everyday practices, while working within their professional scope and alongside appropriate medical care. Lifestyle education can complement healthcare; it should not replace diagnosis, treatment or prescribed medication.
2. Move in Ways That Keep You Participating in Life
Movement supports circulation, cardiovascular health, mood, sleep, strength, balance and independence. Research also associates regular physical activity with benefits for thinking and learning and with a lower risk of cognitive decline.
This does not require an intense regimen. Walking, dancing, gardening, swimming, cycling, yoga, household activity and appropriately designed strength and balance work can all contribute. The right approach depends upon health, mobility and medical circumstances.
What kind of movement can I practice safely and consistently enough to remain strong, capable and involved in my own life?
Movement is not merely a task we complete for future health. It is one of the ways we maintain access to the people, places and experiences that give life meaning.
3. Nourish the Brain Through the Pattern of Everyday Eating
Nutrition research often attracts bold headlines about a single food, nutrient or supplement. But the more responsible conversation is usually about dietary patterns rather than miracle ingredients.
Eating patterns that emphasize vegetables and fruits, beans and other legumes, whole grains, nuts, seeds and other minimally processed foods can provide fiber and a wide range of nutrients while supporting cardiovascular and metabolic health. Individual needs vary, and some people require personalized clinical guidance.
It is also important to acknowledge the limits of the evidence.
The MIND diet is one of several dietary patterns studied in relation to cognitive health. Yet nutrition is rarely served by treating any named diet as a universal prescription. What matters more is developing a nourishing, flexible way of eating that can be practiced consistently within the realities of one’s life.
Observational research has linked Mediterranean-style and related eating patterns with better health outcomes, but trials do not show that one named diet can guarantee protection from cognitive decline.
A three-year randomized trial of the MIND diet found improvement in both the intervention and comparison groups without a significant difference between them.
Promising patterns should not become promises.
The 2026 WHO guidance cautions against using vitamins B and E, omega-3 supplements or multivitamin/mineral products specifically to reduce cognitive decline or dementia risk without a diagnosed deficiency. Supplements may be appropriate in some circumstances, but ‘more’ is not automatically better. Decisions about beginning or changing them should be confirmed with an appropriate healthcare professional, particularly when medications or medical conditions are involved.
For me, cooking turns health knowledge into a repeated act of care. Choosing ingredients, preparing a meal and eating with pleasure and attention to taste bring nourishment out of theory and into daily life.
4. Treat Restorative Sleep as Foundational
Sleep supports attention, learning, memory, emotional regulation and physical restoration. Persistent disruption may have wider consequences, although researchers continue to study the complex relationship between sleep problems and cognitive decline.
As we move through midlife and beyond, restorative sleep remains essential, even though sleep patterns may change. Many people continue to need approximately seven to nine hours. Consistent sleep and waking times, a calming evening routine, regular daytime movement and a quiet, comfortable sleep environment may help support sleep quality.
Ongoing insomnia, loud snoring, gasping during sleep, pronounced daytime sleepiness or other persistent concerns are signals from the body that warrant discussion with a healthcare professional. Pain, medications, mood changes, sleep apnea and other conditions can disrupt sleep and may require assessment.
Rest is not the opposite of a productive life.
It helps us remain present to it.
5. Continue Learning—But Let Learning Remain Alive
The brain retains the capacity to adapt throughout life. Continual learning can challenge attention, memory, language, coordination and problem-solving. But lifelong learning is not limited to puzzles or formal cognitive exercises.
Learning a language, preparing an unfamiliar dish, playing music, reading deeply, developing a creative skill or entering a thoughtful conversation can all engage the brain in new ways. The most sustainable learning is often connected to genuine interest rather than fear-driven self-optimization.
Father Bede embodied this spirit of continual learning. Even in his eighties, he remained intellectually and spiritually curious—meeting new people, encountering new ideas and continuing to refine his understanding. Learning was not something he practiced to preserve his brain. It was part of how he remained engaged with life.
Do not learn only because you are afraid of decline. Learn because there is still more life to discover.
6. Protect the Relationships That Help Life Remain Meaningful
Cognitive wellbeing does not exist in isolation from human connection. Relationships engage memory, language, empathy and attention while giving us reasons to participate in life beyond ourselves.
Research associates social isolation and loneliness with poorer health outcomes, including greater risk of cognitive decline and dementia. Yet someone can live alone without feeling lonely—or feel lonely in a crowded room. The quality and meaning of connection matter.
As circumstances change, sharing meals, volunteering, joining an interest group or staying in regular contact with people we value can keep connection woven into everyday life.
Relationships are not an optional addition to healthy aging. They are part of the environment in which a human brain and a human life continue to flourish.
7. Recognize the Cognitive Weight of Chronic Stress
Stress helps us meet short-term challenges. But when pressure becomes unrelenting and recovery is repeatedly postponed, concentration, sleep, memory and emotional balance may all be affected.
The answer is not to demand perfect calm from ourselves. A healthier aim is to build a greater capacity to return—to rest after effort and recognize when the body has been carrying too much for too long.
Meditation, nature, breathing practices, movement, cooking, creative activity, supportive relationships, appropriate therapy and clear boundaries may each play a role. Persistent symptoms or changes in functioning deserve professional support.
Cooking has often served this purpose in my own life. Because I spend so much of my time engaged in mental work, handling ingredients gives me a welcome visceral connection to color, aroma, texture and the foods that nourish us. It brings my attention out of abstraction and back into the body.
Healthy aging asks us to consider the internal atmosphere in which the body is living.
Healthy Aging Is Not a Performance
Together, these elements can begin to sound like another demanding wellness checklist. That is not the intention.
Health is not built through perfection, and illness is not a personal failure. Access, income, culture, caregiving responsibilities and social support shape what is possible.
Healthy aging is not a performance of perfect habits. It is a continuing relationship with the body, mind and life we are living now.
Preserving Our Relationship With Life
Many people understandably worry about preserving memory as they age. But perhaps healthy aging is not simply about preserving memory. It is also about preserving our relationship with life.
Father Bede’s final years included real physical vulnerability. Yet I also remember his presence, his continued inquiry, his capacity for relationship and his willingness to remain engaged with a changing world.
We cannot know exactly how aging will unfold. But we can participate with greater knowledge and compassion—nourishing ourselves, protecting sleep, continuing to learn, tending relationships and recovering from stress.
Healthy aging is the continuing cultivation of vitality, clarity, connection and meaning within the years we are given.
Time will move, as it should. A more empowering question may be:
How will I continue to grow within the life that is still unfolding?
Bringing Healthy Aging to the Heart of the Home
From a very early age, I would rather spend hours doing algebra than be caught chopping vegetables. My mother and my in-laws worried about my complete lack of interest in cooking, and when I finally began preparing meals, they found it difficult to believe that I could really cook. For years, I became the affectionate subject of their jokes.
My interest in cooking did not arise because I suddenly discovered a hidden culinary talent. At twenty-five, I was experiencing deteriorating health. An MD I consulted emphasized the importance of nutritional health and strongly encouraged me to begin preparing simple, wholesome food at home. That advice became one of the most valuable recommendations I had ever received from a medical professional.
It has stayed with me for thirty-three years. Home cooking became a priority because I experienced how differently I felt when nourishing meals were consistent. As I studied integrative health and moved through perimenopause and post-menopause, my relationship with cooking deepened. It eventually contributed to my cookbooks and the work I now share.
I understand why so many women and men now in their fifties and beyond were drawn away from home cooking. It was portrayed as time-consuming, unglamorous or incompatible with modern life. Packaged foods, inexpensive fast food and takeout promised convenience while careers, caregiving and family responsibilities demanded more of us. This is not a reason for judgment. It is an invitation to reconsider what may have been lost.
Cooking can be reclaimed not as domestic drudgery or another wellness obligation, but as knowledge, autonomy, creativity and care. It asks us to plan, remember, organize, sequence, adapt and use our senses. It can also restore a direct relationship with the ingredients that nourish us and with the people who gather around our tables.
Emerging research makes this connection especially interesting. In a 2026 Japanese cohort study of nearly 11,000 independently living people aged sixty-five and above, cooking a meal from scratch at least once a week was associated with a 23 percent lower incidence of dementia requiring long-term care in men and a 27 percent lower incidence in women, compared with cooking less often. Because this was an observational study, it cannot establish cause and effect. Nevertheless, the findings invite us to consider home cooking as a complex, cognitively engaging part of daily life—not merely a means of producing food.
This is the deeper purpose of the Cooking Club. It is more than a collection of recipes. We prepare both simple everyday dishes and more elaborate meals while learning about ingredients and their relationship to digestion, energy, bone health, vitality and overall wellbeing. Just as importantly, we cultivate confidence, pleasure and a more thoughtful relationship with eating.
If home cooking has gradually disappeared from your life—or if you want to make it more nourishing, enjoyable and sustainable—I invite you to return to the heart of the home with us. The Cooking Club offers practical guidance, ingredient education and the shared experience of learning through cooking, so that caring for your health can become something you practice with greater confidence and joy.
Reclaim the Heart of Your Home—and Support Your Cognitive Health
Cooking isn't just about preparing food; it's an active, daily practice that nourishes your mind, supports your vitality, and connects you to life. But you don't have to navigate it alone or treat it as another demanding task on a checklist.
Inside the Cooking Club, we turn healthy aging principles into practical, everyday habits:
Nourishing Culinary Skills: Learn step-by-step, whole-food recipes designed for everyday vitality.
Ingredient Education: Understand how whole foods fit into a balanced, supportive lifestyle.
A Supportive Community: Build confidence and pleasure in the kitchen alongside others on the same journey.
Educational Note:
This article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. It does not replace individualized medical advice. Please consult a qualified healthcare professional regarding concerns about memory, cognition, sleep, stroke risk, medications, supplements or other health conditions.
Selected Sources:
National Institute on Aging. Cognitive Health and Older Adults
National Institute on Aging. Memory Problems, Forgetfulness, and Aging
World Health Organization. Risk reduction of cognitive decline and dementia: WHO guidelines, second edition (2026)
The Lancet. Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2024 report of the Lancet standing Commission
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Physical Activity Boosts Brain Health
National Institute on Aging. What Do We Know About Healthy Aging?
Barnes et al., New England Journal of Medicine. Trial of the MIND Diet for Prevention of Cognitive Decline in Older Persons
National Institute on Aging. 6 Healthy Sleep Habits for Older Adults
National Institute on Aging. Loneliness Linked to Dementia Risk in Large-Scale Analysis
Tani, Fujiwara and Kondo, Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. Home cooking, cooking skills and dementia requiring long-term care: a population-based cohort study in Japan