RE-UP YOUR BRAIN - 7 Tips to Building Neuromotor and Cognition Healthspan

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]What's the name of that person we met the other day? Oh, you mean Jan? Proper name recall is usually the first sign of an aging brain. It's a signal, but is it a red flag? Welcome to episode two of a six-part series on the five domains of functional health span that looks at our brain's neurom motor and cognition, what's normal, what's not, and things to keep it sharp.

[00:00:27]Stay tuned for a really important gamecher tip for everything we'll cover in this episode.

[00:00:34]Thanks for the great input on the last episode. Please keep it coming. I love it.

[00:00:40]Neurom motor and cognition both rely on neural signaling, but are different in important ways. Cognition is how our brain processes information and makes decisions. Neuromot is how our brain controls our body. They work together but are measured separately. We'll take a look at both. As our memory accumulates more and more information over the years, it starts pushing back and by necessity, it gets more selective. As we age, we apply filters to things like names to first decide if it's worth remembering. In our youth, our filters were low. Our brains were like a sponge. With age, however, relevance starts to matter more because it's not just about recall. It's also about priority. As our memory library gets bigger and bigger, we often skip over bookmarking the name, waiting to establish a clear value for who they are and then have to backtrack and try to replay the introduction. We've changed the habit over time, creating a longer path to lock in that name. We also tend to remember positive information more than negative known as the Kstensson effect because positive information intuitively contributes to our well-being. It's another form of filtering and selective memory priority.

[00:02:00]Both our adaptation independent of decline, but normal decline only makes it more challenging. I'm Scott Fulton, professor of health span and aging. My courses go out to adults at over 50 colleges and I'm the author of the number one bestseller function and wealth span. Memory is what many of us associate with an aging brain. But neurom motor plays a critical role as well because it resides in our ability to do all the things we want to do. The things we typically describe as health span and independence.

[00:02:31]Small coordination hiccups like minor stumbles in footing, narrowly averting a fall, and hesitations in our movements are all signs of slowing neuromot signaling. Even for the super fit age group athlete with ample muscle and cardiovascular capacity, they can't completely escape neuromot decline. A Nicolata study of over 387,000 marathoners between 2008 and 2018 nicely illustrates how predictable functional performance is as we age. Both for men and women, males typically peak in their 30s at about 4 hours and slow to about 5 hours in their late7s marathons.

[00:03:14]Everything still works, just not quite as fast. It's one of the reasons we see things like walking speed and stair climbing slow with age and why so many everyday activities are so strongly predictive of functional health span.

[00:03:28]Thankfully, there are many things we can do to slow decline and even recover lost neuromoter function that I'll get into in a moment. We'll get into it even more in an upcoming mobility and balance episode. I like to describe aging as a signaling issue because signaling is at the core of everything we do as well as the thousands of systems the body relies on to build, maintain, and repair itself. Neural signaling is what enables neuromot and cognitive function. It's what's enabling you to take in this information right now, filter it, analyze it in the context of other information you've already learned over your lifetime, and deciding which bits to take note of that might bridge a gap or reinforce other information. Neurons are the active pathways to neuromoter and cognition. They are highly specialized cells in the body, also called nerve cells. Unlike other cells, they have an axon to send signals and dendrites that act as listening devices to receive chemical signals. Roads are a helpful metaphor to explain the many factors that influence neural signaling.

[00:04:35]We can think of myelin sheath thinning like a worn road surface. As the road surface declines, we naturally drive slower. The electrical neural signal along the axon slows as well. Synapses.

[00:04:48]The gap between neurons where the chemical signals are passed weakens over time and are accelerated by lack of use.

[00:04:55]Even seemingly permanent surfaces decline with lack of use. Neurogenesis, the creation of new neurons, naturally slows with age. Just as we see fewer roads in established communities, the body also produces fewer signaling molecules known as neurotransmitters resulting in declining signal as well.

[00:05:16]Cortical thinning, the gradual loss of gray matter tissue in the brain's outer layer, also strips away safety nets, requiring exhaustive concentration and further slowing. These are just some of the changes that occur slowly over several decades as part of normal aging.

[00:05:32]They're also malleable, meaning the rate of change can be influenced by many factors and even reversed in some cases.

[00:05:39]As age related changes become evident, I'm frequently asked about the difference between normal aging and early signs of dementia. Understandably, it can become a source of anxiety as it's not something anyone wants to fall behind. In normal aging, the networks show evidence of aging decline.

[00:05:57]Everything still works, just not as quickly. Repairs still occur, but the rate of repair can be challenged by the rate of decline. We can look to the heart for a terrific example of the body's ability to manage damage and repair rates. Heart disease slowly restricts blood flow into the arteries that feed the heart muscles. But given regular exercise activity and time, the body grows new blood vessels and collateral pathways to help offset the losses in process called angioenesis and arteriogenesis.

[00:06:29]It's one of the main reasons fit people are more likely to survive a heart attack than unfit people. Their bodies have developed alternate routes for blood flow. Issues recalling names where this episode started. By the way, do you recall the name? Recalling names and where we left the keys are perfectly normal and should not be a cause for alarm. We can go deeper into this in a future episode if you like. But for now, the main distinction between normal aging and dementia is not recognizing someone we've known for years. Losing awareness of where we are, or an inability to trace steps to where we might have left the keys, unable to recall what we did an hour ago. These would be signs to seek expert medical advice. I recall the story of a gentleman pulling off the road on a 500-mile road trip when he realized he had no idea why he was driving or the intended destination.

[00:07:24]Part of memory is training. A practical memory exercise is to start writing down the names of as many neighbors as you can think of. Some will come quickly, others will take more time, and some may require a little help from others.

[00:07:38]That's fine because the act of writing them down and then saying them aloud helps. encode the names back into the memory more than just recalling the names alone. The other area of cognitive decline has to do with executive function. Our ability to process information and make logical decisions.

[00:07:56]It can naturally require a bit more time with age partly because our neural signaling speed is a bit slower and also because we may draw on and must process more information before making a decision. With age, the consequences of some decisions can be greater than in years past, making it easier to get stuck. A decision to move for a job at age 25 is a lot less complicated than a decision to relocate in later years for a host of very complex and legitimate reasons. The conscious awareness of hundreds of decisions involved in driving a car can become unsettling, but is often simply an awareness of slower processing and reaction time relative to those around us. Ultimately, executive function comes down to making sound judgment under pressure or fatigue as these situations can result in significant consequences.

[00:08:49]A standard cognition test for this is trailmaking B. This simple self assessment involves connecting the dots for a series of 10 increasing numbers and letters, switching back and forth between numbers and letters. It starts at one, followed by A, then two, then B, until finishing at letter J. Math and language operate in different regions of the brain, and switching requires more decision-making. If you're following on YouTube, you can pause the video here and time how long it takes you to follow the alternating number letter path.

[00:09:21]Thankfully, dementia rates have been on the decline in recent years for many reasons, not the least of which is by being more aware and proactive. People are less willing to risk cognitive function when they feel they can meaningfully influence their outcomes, making the things I'm going to speak to next particularly relevant. Experts don't agree on the order of which next seven points are most important. And that's fine because there's abundant evidence for all of them. They are all actionable and help maintain neuromoter and cognition. On that, we all agree.

[00:09:54]Applying many of them can reduce our dementia risk by more than half. Number one, aerobic activity has long topped the list of strongest single interventions. It drives BDNF or what some call miracle grow for the brain. It supports the survival, growth, and maintenance of neurons and hippocample volume, processing speed and vascular health. simultaneously. It does a lot of good things. Number two, the Mediterranean diet and diets closely resembling it are most consistent in longitudinal data. What we eat directly influences inflammation, myelin integrity, and glucose regulation. Under diet, we could also include supplements like B12 for myelin integrity. Low levels of D3 are consistently associated with accelerated cognitive decline. and creatine has a long safety record and known to aid processing speed and working memory in older adults. There are many more potentials, but it will take some time until there's sufficient data to raise those up. Number three, social engagement and purpose are wellproven dementia protective factors.

[00:11:01]Challenging conversation and defined social purpose both add independent beneficial effects. Number four, dual tasking are things that place demand on the heart and brain simultaneously or what is termed a hermetic stress.

[00:11:16]Increased blood flow and cognitive stimulation foster neuroplasticity, creating new neurons, more signaling molecules, and more communication pathways in the brain, increasing its cognitive reserve. It's possibly one of the most underutilized repair mechanisms at our fingertips. Activities like dance, raetball, tai chi, martial arts, and brisk walking while talking are common examples. Number five, stress management is important to keeping cortisol levels in a healthy range and to protect hippocample volume.

[00:11:48]Activities like mindfulness and meditation have specific evidence for attentional control and inhibitory function. Number six, quality sleep helps preserve prefrontal cortex, most vulnerable to sleep debt. Sleep has high mechanistic importance but lower controllability than other interventions. Number seven, resistance training was long underrated and underrepresented brain health, but there is emerging strong evidence for executive function and processing speed specifically. You're likely doing several of these things already. If so, that's great and keep at it. If not, there's an opportunity. It's the things we're not doing that have opportunities waiting. Arguably, it's the things we find uncomfortable that have the most to offer, as they are the very things that get us out of our comfort zone. And that's usually the lowhanging fruit, where the biggest gains can be made for the least effort. Here's the most important tip from all we've touched on.

[00:12:46]Preserving neuromot requires us to get outside our comfort zone, change things up, upset the routine from time to time. Knowledge changes nothing.

[00:12:58]Actions change everything.

[00:13:00]When I wrote function, it was the neurom motor and cognition opportunities within dual tasking activities that excited me the most. We need the physical baseline to perform them, but dual task training is where some of the best magic is hiding. And it's often more fun than exercise because they lend themselves to a game format. I'll drop a link to the book in the show notes if you don't already have your copy. Stay tuned for the next episode of the five domains of functional healthspan where each episode is dedicated to one domain. Drop your questions below and we'll try to answer them here or in an upcoming episode.

[00:13:38]Great spending time with you again today and until next time, take good care of you and those you love.