Researchers at the University of Florida report that lifestyle factors such as optimism, good-quality sleep and strong social support are linked to brains that appear as much as eight years younger than expected for a person’s age. The effect was observed even among adults living with chronic pain, underscoring how everyday behaviors may influence brain health over time.
A new study from the University of Florida suggests that everyday habits can significantly influence how quickly the brain appears to age.
The research followed 128 middle-aged and older adults, most of whom had chronic musculoskeletal pain associated with, or placing them at risk for, knee osteoarthritis. Over two years, participants underwent MRI scans that were analyzed with a machine-learning model to estimate each person’s "brain age" and compare it with their chronological age. The difference, known as the brain age gap, was used as a single measure of whole-brain health.
Stressful factors such as chronic pain, lower income, lower educational attainment and other social disadvantages were associated with brains that appeared older than a person’s actual age. According to the University of Florida team, these associations weakened over time in the study. In contrast, several protective behaviors showed a stronger and more lasting link with younger-appearing brains, including getting restorative sleep, maintaining a healthy body weight, managing stress, avoiding tobacco use and having supportive relationships.
Participants who reported the highest number of these protective behavioral and psychosocial factors started the study with brains that looked up to eight years younger than their chronological age. Their brains also appeared to age more slowly over the subsequent two-year follow-up.
"These are things that people have some level of control over," said Jared Tanner, Ph.D., a research associate professor of clinical and health psychology at the University of Florida who helped lead the study. "You can learn how to perceive stress differently. Poor sleep is very treatable. Optimism can be practiced."
The findings, published Sept. 11 in the journal Brain Communications, add to evidence that brain age is relevant for long-term health. Older-appearing brains are more vulnerable to problems such as memory loss, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, and the brain age gap offers a whole-brain snapshot of how pain, stress and life experiences may be affecting neural systems.
"The message is consistent across our studies, health promoting behaviors are not only associated with lower pain and better physical functioning, they appear to actually bolster health in an additive fashion at a biologically meaningful level," said Kimberly Sibille, Ph.D., an associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at UF and senior author of the report.
Although the research focused on people living with or at risk for chronic knee osteoarthritis pain, the authors and outside commentators note that lifestyle factors such as reducing stress, strengthening social support and maintaining quality sleep are likely to benefit brain aging more broadly. As Sibille put it, "Literally for every additional healthy promoting factor there is some evidence of neurobiological benefit," supporting the idea, often cited by the researchers, that lifestyle can function as a form of medicine.