Exercise, healthy diet can prevent risk of dementia, expert says

A neuroscientist from MIT Professor Li-Huei Tsai has said that if people wish to keep their brain's healthy and want their memory to function properly, they need to follow a certain healthy discipline to slow the decline of their mental abilities.

Professor Tsai focuses on mental health diseases such as Alzheimer's and is also the director of the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory.

She maintained while talking with Insider that people are cognizant about what they should do to keep their mental health steady, it's no hidden secret from anyone.

"People are better aware of this," Tsai said.

She said that people should remain socially and intellectually active, exercise and eat healthily. However, she noted that the hardest part is to be consistent with that routine.

A recent study that was published in the BMJ stated: Those who maintain a nutritious diet and keep a healthy lifestyle, their memory relative to their age declined more slowly than those who were not carrying out such practices.

The factors which Tsai called out were also looked at by the researchers of the study: healthy diet, refraining from smoking and alcohol, socialisation, daily workout and mindful activities.

Currently, Professor Tsai aims to build a medical device which could slow Alzheimer’s disease.

She said that maintaining the routine is crucial even though there's no favourable time to do so.

"I just have to really discipline myself," Tsai noted.

"For instance, exercise in the winter: it's really painful when you look at an outside temperature below zero and there's ice and snow on the ground. I just try to discipline myself," she added.