{"id":998587,"date":"2026-08-13T17:55:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T17:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/998587\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T17:55:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T17:55:20","slug":"im-a-neurosurgeon-the-top-brain-health-10-metrics-to-track-in-your-40s-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/998587\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m a neurosurgeon \u2014 the top brain health 10 metrics to track in your 40s and beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to maintaining brain health, daily brain games like Sudoku and crosswords aren\u2019t enough to protect the mind as you age.<\/p>\n

Dr. Randy D\u2019Amico<\/a>, a neurosurgeon at Lenox Hill Hospital, recommends paying attention to systems you may not necessarily think of when considering brain health.<\/p>\n

Keeping tabs on muscle strength, hearing and other aspects of overall health as you enter middle age can help reveal early signs that something is wrong while you there\u2019s still time to address them.<\/p>\n

When it comes to keeping your brain healthy, the most important things are quite simple. Warawan \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Vascular health tracking<\/p>\n

1. Blood pressure:<\/strong> D\u2019Amico says he always starts with blood pressure. With age, arteries lose flexibility and become more stiff, causing blood pressure to rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bottom line is that it\u2019s probably the most underappreciated threat to the brain,\u201d D\u2019Amico told The Post. \u201cIt increases your risk of stroke. It increases your risk of dementia. It causes silent brain injury.\u201d <\/p>\n

Tracking blood pressure is the best way to catch high blood pressure before it affects the heart or brain. About half of US adults have high blood pressure, or hypertension.<\/p>\n

2. Cholesterol: <\/strong>High cholesterol adds fuel to the fire when a patient has high blood pressure, and people often have both conditions.<\/p>\n

Cholesterol can be tracked with a routine blood test. D\u2019Amico notes that recently doctors have been paying more attention to ApoB, which is a more specific test that more accurately predicts heart disease risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe same arteries that nourish your heart also feed your brain, which is why cholesterol matters so much,\u201d he said. \u201cYou want to take care of your cardiovascular health because when you\u2019re taking care of your blood vessels\u2019 health, you\u2019re also taking care of your brain\u2019s health.\u201d<\/p>\n

The best way, he says, is to manage cholesterol through diet, exercise and sometimes medicine, which can help reduce the risk of stroke and vascular disease.<\/p>\n

Dr. Randy D\u2019Amico shared the most important things to track to help maintain brain health. Courtesy of Randy S. D\u0092Amico, MD<\/p>\n

3. Blood sugar: <\/strong>Blood sugar can also be measured with a routine blood test for HbA1c, which reflects average blood sugar levels over the past few months.<\/p>\n

\u201cType 2 diabetes, if you have it, roughly doubles your risk of dementia. And so, if you care about brain health, you really should be caring about your metabolic health. This is absolutely critical,\u201d D\u2019Amico said.<\/p>\n

Activity tracking<\/p>\n

4. Minutes of movement a week<\/strong>: \u201cExercise is basically a brain-protective drug,\u201d D\u2019Amico said. \u201cIf you think about what you\u2019re doing, you\u2019re ramping up blood flow, circulation, and cleaning out waste product.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shoot for 150 minutes a week, which could look like two one-hour sessions with one half-hour session over seven days.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something near and dear to my heart because I think it\u2019s paramount to getting healthier,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

5. Strength training:<\/strong> Strength training goes beyond muscle mass. This exercise releases myokines, which help neurons connect and play a role in memory and mood.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we see muscle wasting, we call that frailty,\u201d D\u2019Amico said. \u201cFrailty predicts cognitive decline. And so, muscle and brain aging go hand in hand. You have to maintain your muscle, which means that you have to prioritize strength training without a doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n

6. Body composition<\/strong>: This is how much fat and lean muscle is contributing to your overall weight. You can measure this with tape measure around the waist, to get an idea of visceral fat.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour brain metabolism and your body metabolism are very deeply connected,\u201d he said. \u201cPaying attention to that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Exercise and social activity are easy to track and play a major role in brain health. Monkey Business \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Recovery<\/strong> tracking<\/p>\n

7. Sleep: <\/strong>Make sure you\u2019re getting somewhere between seven to nine hours of sleep a night.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re basically preserving your brain\u2019s ability to housekeep while you\u2019re sleeping. When you\u2019re sleeping, you are getting rid of waste products, consolidating memories, regulating emotions and learning,\u201d D\u2019Amico said.<\/p>\n

Chronic sleep deprivation can affect memory, mood and long-term brain health.<\/p>\n

8. Mental health: <\/strong>Keeping track<\/a> of mood, activity and social activity over time can help identify specific problems and patterns.<\/p>\n

\u201cDepression, anxiety and chronic stress can influence sleep, cognition, attention and quality of life,\u201d D\u2019Amico said. \u201cTaking care of your mental health is part of taking care of your brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keeping track of your mood can help identify patterns and address problems early. Daniel \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Connection<\/p>\n

9. Purposeful and new activities: <\/strong>To protect the brain, \u201cyou have to challenge yourself. You have to learn things. Your brain thrives on new experiences and challenges,\u201d D\u2019Amico said.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no baseline requirement here, but all challenges are good for the brain \u2014 from reading and learning an instrument to traveling and speaking a new language.<\/p>\n

10. Social connection:<\/strong> Humans are social creatures, and being social is \u201cone of the most overlooked aspects\u201d of keeping our brain healthy, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegular, meaningful relationships are associated with better physical and cognitive health,\u201d he said. \u201cLoneliness is probably just as dangerous to health as smoking and has been linked to increased risks of depression, cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline and mortality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hearing<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Yes, even your ear health affects your brain.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can\u2019t hear and no one\u2019s helping you treat that, you\u2019re increasing your risk of dementia,\u201d D\u2019Amico said. \u201cSo having your hearing checked, especially as you get older \u2026 is absolutely paramount to wellness and brain health without a doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When it comes to maintaining brain health, daily brain games like Sudoku and crosswords aren\u2019t enough to protect…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":998588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[35],"tags":[14400,632,6335,210,1141,1142,1691,1079,67,132,68,3149],"class_list":["post-998587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-brains","tag-dementia","tag-exclusive","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-heart-disease","tag-sleep","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wellness"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117089490322437338","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/998587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=998587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/998587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/998588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=998587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=998587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=998587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}