Top 5 Lifestyle Changes and Top 5 Supplements to Support Brain Health

People often ask us what they can take for brain health. We understand the interest. A capsule is easier to think about than the collection of habits and medical risks that develop over decades.

Most of what we know about preserving cognitive health points back to the same fundamentals we see throughout longevity medicine: blood pressure, cardiovascular health, metabolic health, physical activity, sleep, nutrition, hearing, vision and social connection.

Supplements can still be useful. We use them. We also try to be clear about what they can reasonably be expected to do.

No supplement on this list has been shown to make someone immune to Alzheimer's disease. Some have useful nutritional, metabolic or cardiovascular roles, and a few have encouraging cognitive data. Their place depends on the patient, diet, laboratory findings, medications and health goals.

Five Lifestyle Priorities for Brain Health

1. Keep Moving, and Keep Your Strength

Physical activity affects nearly every system that supports the aging brain. It improves cardiovascular fitness, insulin sensitivity, blood-pressure regulation, mobility and physical function. Resistance exercise also helps preserve the muscle that becomes progressively harder to maintain with age.

Exercise research and cognition are not as simple as saying that a certain number of workouts will prevent dementia. Long-term randomized trials have produced variable cognitive results, while observational research consistently links physical inactivity with greater dementia risk.

We encourage both aerobic activity and resistance training because their benefits reach well beyond a cognitive test score.

Muscle itself is metabolically active tissue and an important site for glucose disposal. Preserving strength also helps protect mobility, balance and independence, all of which become increasingly important later in life.

Read DEXA, Muscle Mass, and Brain Longevity.

2. Take Sleep Problems Seriously

Years of poor sleep should not automatically be accepted as part of getting older.

Sleep supports memory consolidation, attention, mood and normal daytime function. Obstructive sleep apnea adds another problem because repeated airway obstruction can fragment sleep, reduce oxygenation and activate the sympathetic nervous system.

OSA frequently overlaps with hypertension, insulin resistance, atrial fibrillation, obesity and cardiovascular disease. Those relationships are especially relevant when we are thinking about the brain over decades rather than how rested someone feels tomorrow morning.

Loud snoring, witnessed pauses in breathing, morning headaches, daytime fatigue, resistant hypertension or repeatedly unrefreshing sleep deserve a closer look.

Read Sleep Apnea and Brain Health.

3. Know Your Blood Pressure and Metabolic Health

Some of the most important brain-health work happens outside the brain.

Hypertension can injure the small vessels that supply brain tissue and is associated with stroke, white-matter disease, cognitive impairment and dementia. Diabetes is also associated with higher dementia risk, while insulin resistance, excess visceral fat and metabolic dysfunction often develop years before diabetes appears.

We would rather find these problems while there is time to change their trajectory.

That may mean looking at blood pressure collected properly at home, glucose and A1C, lipid risk, body composition, visceral fat, sleep and physical activity rather than relying on one annual fasting glucose result.

More on these connections:

• Hypertension and Longevity
• How Insulin Resistance Affects the Brain
• The Link Between Heart Disease and Dementia

4. Eat for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Health

We favor a Mediterranean-style, plant- and protein-forward eating pattern rather than a diet built around a long list of prohibited foods.

That usually means vegetables, fruit, legumes, nuts, seeds, extra-virgin olive oil, fish, adequate protein and minimally processed foods making up most of the diet.

The MIND diet combines features of Mediterranean and DASH eating patterns with additional emphasis on foods such as leafy greens and berries. Observational research has repeatedly associated greater adherence with better cognitive outcomes, although clinical trials have been less uniform.

A 2024 systematic review found favorable associations between MIND diet adherence and dementia in seven of ten cohorts, while results for rates of cognitive decline were less consistent.

Food patterns also affect blood pressure, glucose, triglycerides, body composition and cardiovascular disease, which gives us plenty of reason to care about diet without presenting one eating pattern as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

5. Keep Using the Brain, and Stay Connected

Cognitive health develops within a social life as well as a biological one.

Learning, reading, problem solving, music, conversation, new skills and other mentally demanding activities help keep the brain engaged. Social interaction adds another layer, and infrequent social contact is one of the potentially modifiable dementia risk factors identified by the Lancet Commission.

Hearing and vision deserve more attention here than they often receive. Hearing loss and untreated vision loss can make it harder to communicate, participate socially and remain mentally engaged. Both appear on the current Lancet dementia-risk list.

A hearing aid or updated vision treatment may not look like longevity medicine, but preserving a person's ability to interact with the world is very much part of healthy aging.

Five Supplements We May Consider for Brain Health

We do not consider these a universal five-supplement brain protocol. Each has a different evidence base and a different reason someone might use it.

1. Omega-3 Fatty Acids: EPA and DHA

DHA is an important structural component of neuronal membranes, while EPA and DHA have established effects on triglycerides and several aspects of cardiovascular physiology.

The cognitive supplementation literature is mixed. A 2024 meta-analysis of 24 randomized trials involving 9,660 adults without dementia found signals of benefit in executive function under some dosing and duration conditions, although the findings do not support describing omega-3 supplementation as a proven dementia-prevention therapy.

Fish intake remains part of the Mediterranean and MIND dietary patterns we favor. Supplemental EPA and DHA may be considered when dietary intake is low or when there is another clinical reason to use them.

2. Creatine Monohydrate

Creatine has become one of the more interesting additions to the healthy-aging discussion because its established role in muscle overlaps with emerging work in brain energy metabolism.

A 2024 meta-analysis of 16 randomized trials involving 492 participants found modest improvements in memory and some measures of attention and processing speed. The certainty of evidence was moderate for memory and lower for several other cognitive outcomes.

Another 2024 systematic review reached a more cautious conclusion and described the cognitive findings as equivocal.

We are comfortable with that uncertainty. Creatine already has a strong rationale for supporting strength, training and muscle preservation in appropriate patients. Possible cognitive benefits are interesting without needing to turn creatine into a dementia supplement.

3. B12, Folate and Other B Vitamins

Vitamin B12 deficiency can cause neurologic and cognitive symptoms, making adequate B12 status important before we ever get to the question of supplementation for healthy aging.

Folate, B12 and B6 are also involved in homocysteine metabolism. Elevated homocysteine has been associated with cardiovascular and cognitive risk, although lowering homocysteine has not consistently translated into large improvements in cognition.

A 2025 meta-analysis of 17 randomized trials involving 5,275 older adults found a very small improvement in global cognitive function after B-vitamin supplementation once statistical outliers were addressed.

We are more interested in correcting an actual deficiency, evaluating unexpectedly high homocysteine and using B vitamins in the appropriate clinical context than giving everyone high-dose B vitamins indefinitely.

Long-term excessive vitamin B6 can itself cause neuropathy, another reason dose matters.

4. Magnesium

Magnesium is required for hundreds of biochemical reactions and participates in normal nerve signaling, muscle function, blood-pressure regulation and energy metabolism.

Its importance as an essential nutrient is well established. Evidence that magnesium supplementation broadly improves cognition in otherwise well-nourished adults is not.

A 2024 systematic review found only three randomized trials and concluded that evidence was insufficient to determine the cognitive effects of magnesium supplements.

Newer trials of magnesium L-threonate have generated interest, but results from a specific magnesium formulation should not be applied automatically to other forms of magnesium.

Our linked UltraMag product is not magnesium L-threonate. We may use magnesium for its established nutritional and clinical roles without borrowing cognitive claims from a different formulation.

5. Curcumin

Curcumin has been studied extensively for its effects on inflammatory and oxidative signaling. Human cognitive research is considerably smaller than the laboratory literature.

Recent systematic reviews have found encouraging results in some randomized trials, including measures of memory and attention, while differences in formulation, dose, absorption and study populations make broad conclusions difficult.

We consider curcumin a potentially useful adjunct in selected patients rather than a treatment for cognitive decline or Alzheimer's disease.

Why There Isn't a Dementia-Prevention Supplement Stack

The biology of cognitive decline is too complex for a universal five-product solution.

An older adult with B12 deficiency needs something different from a patient with uncontrolled hypertension. Someone with untreated sleep apnea has a different problem from someone who is physically inactive and losing muscle. A person with high ApoB, diabetes and progressive atherosclerosis needs those risks addressed whether or not they are also taking fish oil or curcumin.

We use supplements where they fit. We do not allow them to crowd out medical problems with a stronger relationship to long-term outcomes.

The Broader Prevention Picture

The 2024 Lancet Commission identified 14 potentially modifiable factors associated with dementia across the lifespan:

• Lower educational attainment
• Hearing loss
• High LDL cholesterol
• Traumatic brain injury
• Physical inactivity
• Smoking
• Excessive alcohol use
• Hypertension
• Obesity
• Diabetes
• Depression
• Infrequent social contact
• Air pollution
• Untreated vision loss

The Commission estimated that these factors collectively account for about 45% of dementia cases worldwide at the population level.

That number should not be interpreted to mean that an individual can eliminate 45% of his or her personal dementia risk. Population-attributable risk and individual risk are not the same calculation.

It does show how much of the modern brain-health conversation sits within ordinary preventive medicine.

How We Think About Brain Health at HormoneSynergy®

We may look at cognition alongside blood pressure, metabolic health, cardiovascular risk, sleep, body composition, exercise, hormones, nutrition and family history.

For some patients, supplementation will be part of that plan. For others, improving sleep apnea, lowering blood pressure, treating diabetes, rebuilding strength or addressing cardiovascular risk will carry more weight.

Most people will have more than one area worth working on.

That is the nature of prevention. We are rarely handed one cause and one solution.

Selected References

1. Livingston G, Huntley J, Liu KY, et al. Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2024 report of the Lancet standing Commission. Lancet. 2024;404(10452):572-628. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01296-0.
2. van Soest APM, Beers S, van de Rest O, de Groot LCPGM. The Mediterranean-Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) Diet for the Aging Brain: A Systematic Review. Advances in Nutrition. 2024;15(3):100184. doi:10.1016/j.advnut.2024.100184.
3. Xu C, Bi S, Zhang W, Luo L. The effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive function in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Nutrition. 2024;11:1424972. doi:10.3389/fnut.2024.1424972.
4. McMorris T, Hale BJ, Pine BS, Williams TB. Creatine supplementation research fails to support the theoretical basis for an effect on cognition: Evidence from a systematic review. Behavioural Brain Research. 2024;466:114982. doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2024.114982.
5. Jiang X, et al. The influence of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids on cognitive function in individuals without dementia: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis. 2024. PMID: 38468309.
6. Efficacy of B Vitamin Supplementation on Global Cognitive Function in Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. 2025. PMID: 40966571.
7. Magnesium and Cognitive Health in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. 2024. PMID: 39009081.
8. Francis AJ, et al. Curcumin and Cognitive Function: A Systematic Review of the Effects of Curcumin on Adults With and Without Neurocognitive Disorders. 2024. PMID: 39318960.

This article is for educational purposes and is not intended to diagnose, prevent or treat Alzheimer's disease, dementia or another medical condition. Supplements can interact with medications and may not be appropriate for everyone. Individual use should be based on medical history, diet, laboratory findings and other clinical considerations.