As we've heard on today's program, early detection is key to fighting off the progressive symptoms of Alzheimer's.

And while certain factors such as age, genetics, and family history can increase a person's risk of Alzheimer's, there's growing evidence that lifestyle changes can help keep the brain active and healthy well into our later years.

Joining me now with more tips on all of that is Dr. Shaye Moskowitz.

Neuroscience medical director at Broward Health.

Doctor, great to see you, thanks for being with me.

Thank you very much, Pam.

Alright, so let's just dive right in.

According to the Alzheimer's Association's list on their website, they have 10 tips for brain health.

So let's go over some of them.

One of the biggies, obviously, physical activity, so talk about that.

What we've learned is that exercise is critical for maintaining brain health.

It does not involve running marathons, although it doesn't exclude it.

It does not involve very aggressive exercise, but even as short a walk as 30 minutes on a daily basis improves functional outcome and improves memory and brain health.

So it doesn't involve a lot, but it certainly requires a vested interest in being mobile, being active, being physical.

And that can look like a lot of different things for a lot of different people.

The key is to move, that really is the take home message.

Not necessarily to focus on a specific sport.

Cardiac risk factors are improved by exercise too.

So is it really a surprise that brain functions in the same way?

Of course it's not.

That is the key piece.

And as we age, we have a tendency to become less active.

All the more reason to really remember that and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

So move the body, go for a walk, maybe get in the pool and just move around a little bit.

So that's a good one, that's easy to do.

Education, talk about that.

Are we talking about reading more books, maybe taking a class?

Elaborate a little bit on education for us.

Reality is, is that we exercise our body to maintain its stamina, its health, and its durability.

We exercise our brain to maintain its stamina, its strength, and its durability.

And in many ways, that really comes in many different flavors.

Education taxes the brain, keeps you thinking, keeps you focusing in different directions, besides the mood element and the interest that it creates for folks.

Just because you are at risk does not mean that you can't learn something.

In fact, the more you try, the better off you are.

So education is critical.

There are risk factors overall when you look at population spreads, that those who are in a lower socioeconomic state, those who have a lower educational degree all are at increased risk of developing neurocognitive disorders.

So independent of that, we're not talking about a population study, we're talking about a person, not a statistic.

So what can an individual person do?

The answer is be intellectually active.

Puzzles, games, books, television, classes, learn a new skill.

That doesn't mean necessarily you'll achieve a new educational degree, but that's not the point.

The whole point is to keep your brain working.

And by using your brain, education is just an expression of the same.

You strengthen it and you keep it healthy for as long as you possibly can.

Yeah, if you don't use it, you'll lose it.

Let's go back to playing games.

That's one of the things that's on the list, challenging games.

So what do you mean, do Sudoku do a crossword puzzle?

Elaborate for us a little bit.

Yes, exercise your brain.

Puzzles are easy, because in many ways, it's the kind of thing that you can do on our mini screen.

It's the kind of thing you can do, and I don't know if they print newspapers anymore, but maybe I remember--.

[Pam] On Sunday at least.

Maybe I remember the early age of crossword puzzles on the Sunday paper and then every day of the week.

I mean, games are games, exercising the brain is the key.

So any puzzle that strikes your fancy and really causes you to focus, to think, to process.

It could be math games and word games.

It could be processing skills that you're really taxing.

These are just obviously fun ways to do that.

[Pam] Yeah.

It's much easier and more pleasant to do a short puzzle than it is to sign up for a class.

Obviously, quitting smoking, that's goes without saying.

Heart health, we kind of talked about that earlier.

Talk about things like mental wellness, self-care, getting enough sleep.

The mental wellness part, and we hear so much about that, why is that so important?

Mental health, I'm going to bundle a bunch of things together because, I think for many people, it's easier to understand the concept than it is to remember a list of 10.

We're talking about the emotional social wellness that we really ought to have.

Everybody should have in every aspect of their life.

But we're talking about interaction, social interaction, meeting other people, talking to other people, having dialogue with other people.

We're talking about mental health, meaning addressing issues like depression, which are often very common in an older at-risk population, and also often come hand in hand with dementias and cognitive issues.

Easily you imagine someone keeps losing their keys.

After a while, you start to wonder, are you losing your mind?

It creates mood issues.

So there's a circular problem of cognitive decline coupled with mood issues, so all of it goes hand in hand.

Being outdoors, being connected with other people.

So put that in a basket in and of itself.

When you do that, you realize what we're talking about is not just exercising the brain and processing, we're talking about exercising our social interactive skills.

Having friends, people who go out, being engaged with other people, perhaps other ideas, being open to other ideas.

Essentially, that is really the same thing when you think about it.

In many ways, this is really critical for at-risk populations because they have a tendency to want to shy away.

They have the tendency to want to, "I'm afraid of X, Y, or Z."

Getting lost, forgetting things, forgetting people's names.

They become more socially reclusive.

And in the end, that unfortunately feeds the process.

[Pam] Right.

That has to be broken by allowing a social interaction.

In many ways, that is really the spirit of what we're getting at.

Be engaged in every which way.

Dr. Moskowitz, great tips.

Thank you so much, we really appreciate it.

Thank you very much, Pam.