Improve Your Brain Health with a New Brain Care Score
Maintaining a healthy brain is important for doing your best in various aspects of life, including your job, relationships, and daily activities. It improves your ability to think clearly, make decisions, and solve problems easily. More importantly, maintaining a healthy brain can help protect against serious health conditions.
To address the growing concerns of brain health, Mass General Brigham researchers developed the McCance Brain Care Score™ (BCS), a tool that measures efforts to protect brain health and offers guidance on how to improve it. They previously validated the Brain Care Score for helping patients and clinicians identify lifestyle changes that may help people reduce their risk of dementia and stroke.
Recent findings published in Neurology further demonstrate that improving your Brain Care Score can significantly reduce the risk of stroke, dementia, and depression, even for people at increased genetic risk for these conditions. A study published in Frontiers in Psychiatry also showed that a higher BCS score is associated with a lower risk of late-life depression.
“Our research provides compelling evidence that raising your BCS is not only likely to make your brain healthier and more resistant to diseases like dementia and stroke, but that it also offers the hope of protection from depression,” says Jonathan Rosand, MD, MSc is co-founder of the McCance Center for Brain Health at Massachusetts General Hospital and the lead developer of the Brain Care Score.
Corresponding author Christopher D. Anderson, MD, MSc, chief of stroke and cerebrovascular diseases in the Department of Neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, adds, “Dementia, stroke, and depression are leading causes of human suffering as we age. This research highlights an extraordinary opportunity to prevent these conditions from developing in the first place.”
The alarming rise of dementia, stroke, and depression
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), dementia affects millions of people worldwide, with as many as 5.8 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease in 2020, a number projected to nearly triple to 14 million by 2060.
Research from the American Heart Association also shows a troubling rise in stroke rates among Americans aged 18 to 45. Rates of stroke patients needing hospital care also increased more than 40% in the past several decades, despite a decline in the general population. Similarly, mental health is a growing concern. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), an estimated 14.5 million U.S. adults aged 18 or older had at least one major depressive episode with severe impairment in 2021.
As these conditions become more common, it's important to find and change risk factors early to help lessen their impact. The Brain Care Score is a useful tool that helps you understand brain health. It can help you and your health care provider focus on important areas you can change to help lower the risk of these serious health problems.
What factors does the brain care score evaluate to help improve brain health?
"The Brain Care Score is a simple tool designed to help anyone in the world answer the question, ‘What can I do to take better care of my brain?’" says Dr. Rosand.
The Brain Care Score evaluates 12 modifiable factors that influence brain health:
Physical factors
Blood pressure
Hemoglobin A1C
Body mass index (BMI)
Lifestyle factors
Social or emotional factors
Stress
Relationships
Life purpose
A higher score on the 21-point scale indicates a lower risk of brain disease.
Impact of the brain care score on depression, stroke, and dementia risk
Using data from more than 350,000 participants in a U.K. Biobank study, Mass General Brigham researchers made an important discovery. The Frontiers in Psychiatry study found that a 5-point increase in baseline BCS was associated with a:
33% lower risk of late-life depression
27% lower risk of late-life depression, stroke, and dementia over a median follow-up period of 13 years
The research team also found a strong connection between baseline BCS and risk of depression in people younger than 50 years of age. This suggests that improving brain health early in life may have long-term benefits.
The new Mass General Brigham research published Neurology, builds on these findings. It shows that even people with a higher genetic risk for stroke, late-life depression, and dementia who improve their BCS can lower their risk. The study found that a 5-point increase in BCS was linked to a:
- 30% lower risk of stroke
- 35% lower risk of late-life depression
- 18% lower risk of dementia
These results show that making healthy lifestyle changes can help people lower their risk of developing these conditions, even those with genetic risk factors. The study highlights how important it is to take care of your brain to keep it healthy as you get older.
Tips to improve your brain care score
To help reduce your risk of dementia, stroke, and depression, consider improving your Brain Care Score. Here are some tips to help you get started:
Monitor your physical health.
Here’s what you can do:
Achieve your target blood pressure. Lowering your blood pressure can help reduce risk of stroke, improving your Brain Care Score.
Aim for healthy hemoglobin A1C and cholesterol levels. Look for foods that are low in sugar, fat, and cholesterol, and learn how to control blood sugar with diet by balancing your meals with proteins, whole grains, and healthy fats.
Maintain a BMI in a healthy range. Your doctor can calculate your body mass index (BMI) using a formula involving height and weight measurements.
Adopt healthy lifestyle habits.
These tips can help you improve your health:
Eat a balanced diet. A Mediterranean diet that’s high in vegetables, fruit, and grains can improve brain health. This approach includes many foods that improve memory and may help against cognitive decline.
Stop smoking. Avoid being around people who are smoking, or other triggers that may induce a craving.
Limit alcohol. Even moderate consumption of alcohol can increase risk of cognitive decline over time and negatively impact your body.
Stay physically active. Exercising 150 minutes a week can improve heart and brain health. Finding exercise you like and getting started is a great first step.
Prioritize better sleep. Put away your phone at least 15 minutes before bed, as screen time can affect your ability to sleep better and wake up rested. If you need to start small, try just five minutes and work up to longer.
Enhance social and emotional well-being.
Here’s what you can do:
Manage stress. Meditation for stress can improve your mental health overall and reduce risk of Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
Build strong relationships. Research has demonstrated that having people you can talk with and learning new things are good for brain health.
Find a sense of purpose in life. Having a sense of purpose can improve brain health at any age. Identifying activities that help you feel connected to your community can help you find and maintain meaning and purpose.
Achieve your optimal brain health
Your health care providers can work with you so that you improve your score slowly, at your own pace. Achieving your highest score and keeping your highest score month after month, year after year, helps ensure you take the best care of your brain as you grow and thrive.
Your Brain Care Score can guide you on how to improve your brain health and reduce your risk of neurological diseases. By understanding and managing your brain health, you can make informed decisions to protect your mental well-being and reduce your risk of dementia, stroke, and depression.
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