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Indian Express
2 days ago
- Health
- Indian Express
Both Covid-19 and lockdown aged your brains 5.5 times faster, whether you got infected or not, says study: What it means for you
Whether or not you were infected by Covid-19, the pandemic experience made our brains age faster, according to a new study published in Nature Magazine. This is significant because it shows that it is the cumulative stress of lockdown rather than the virus alone, the sense of vulnerability, isolation and loss which have impacted brain health. The scans showed that pandemic-era brains aged about 5.5 months faster compared to the brains of those studied before the pandemic. The impact seemed to be greater in men, the elderly and people with more compromised health, lower educational status and income. Researchers used serial neuro-imaging data from the UK Biobank (UKBB) study and brain scans from before the pandemic and after. 'This study highlights the importance of monitoring brain health and promoting healthy lifestyle habits to support cognitive well-being in the long run,' says Dr MV Padma Srivastava, chairperson, neurology, Paras Health, Gurugram. The study found that brain ageing sped up during the Covid-19 pandemic — even in people who were never infected. This means the changes weren't just caused by the virus, but also by the stress, isolation and disruption to daily life that everyone experienced. It shows how strongly our mental and emotional environment can affect brain health. And how we should build resilience to deal with any crisis. While the study observed signs of accelerated brain ageing during the pandemic, it does not confirm any long-term brain health issues. However, it highlights the importance of monitoring brain health and promoting healthy lifestyle habits to support cognitive well-being in the long run. While the study did not directly test whether these changes can be reversed, existing research suggests that maintaining a healthy lifestyle — including managing stress, staying socially connected, engaging in regular physical activity and keeping the mind active — can be beneficial for overall brain health and may help support recovery over time. Looking after brain health involves managing stress, staying physically active, getting enough sleep, maintaining social connections, eating a balanced diet, taking small breaks and keeping the mind engaged through learning and mental activities. Foods rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants and vitamins can help improve brain health. Exercises boost cognitive function. Give your brain a workout by engaging it through puzzles, reading and learning new skills.
Scientific American
7 days ago
- Health
- Scientific American
The Pandemic Aged Everyone's Brain—Even in Healthy People
The brains of healthy people aged faster during the COVID-19 pandemic than did the brains of people analysed before the pandemic began, a study of almost 1,000 people suggests. The accelerated ageing occurred even in people who didn't become infected. The accelerated ageing, recorded as structural changes seen in brain scans, was most noticeable in older people, male participants and those from disadvantaged backgrounds. But cognitive tests revealed that mental agility declined only in participants who picked up a case of COVID-19, suggesting that faster brain ageing doesn't necessarily translate into impaired thinking and memory. The study 'really underlines how significant the pandemic environment was for mental and neurological health', says Mahdi Moqri, a computational biologist who studies ageing at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. It's unclear whether the pandemic-associated brain ageing is reversible, because the study analysed scans taken at only two time points, adds Moqri. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. The findings were published today in Nature Communications. Pandemic effect Previous research has offered clues that SARS-CoV-2 infections can worsen neurodegeneration and cognitive decline in older people. But few studies have explored whether the pandemic period — a tumultuous time marked by social isolation, lifestyle disruptions and stress for many — also affected brain ageing, says study co-author Ali-Reza Mohammadi-Nejad, a neuroimaging researcher at the University of Nottingham, UK. To find out, Mohammadi-Nejad and his colleagues analysed brain scans collected from 15,334 healthy adults with an average age of 63 years in the UK Biobank (UKBB) study, a long-term biomedical monitoring scheme. They trained machine-learning models on hundreds of structural features of the participants' brains, which taught the model how the brain looks at various ages. The team could then use these models to predict the age of a person's brain. The difference between that value and a participant's chronological age is the 'brain age gap'. The team then applied the brain-age models to a separate group of 996 healthy UKBB participants who had all had two brain scans at least a couple of years apart. Some of the participants had had one scan before the pandemic and another after the pandemic's onset. Those who'd had both scans before the pandemic were designated the control group. The models estimated each participant's brain age at the time of both scans. Nearly six months more The models predicted that the brains of people who had lived through the pandemic had aged 5.5 months faster on average than had those of people in the control group, irrespective of whether those scanned during the pandemic had ever contracted COVID-19. 'Brain health is shaped not only by illness, but by our everyday environment,' says Mohammadi-Nejad. Pandemic-related brain ageing was most pronounced among older participants and men, who are known to be more susceptible to neurological changes when they are stressed than women are. The brains of those experiencing hardship, such as unemployment, low income and poor health, also aged faster than did those of other participants, suggesting that these lifestyle stressors have a detrimental impact on brain health. Form and function Next, Mohammadi-Nejad and his colleagues assessed participants who had completed cognitive tests both times they were scanned. They found that only those who had a SARS-CoV-2 infection in the interval between the scans showed signs of cognitive decline, such as reduced mental flexibility and processing speed. This suggests that physical brain ageing might not have been severe enough to affect mental acuity during the pandemic. 'Some changes do not trigger symptoms, and some others take many years for any symptom to be manifested,' says Mohammadi-Nejad. Although the findings are 'compelling' evidence that brain ageing accelerated during the pandemic, more work needs to be done to investigate a causal link, says Agustín Ibáñez, a neuroscientist at the Adolfo Ibáñez University in Santiago. He adds that future studies should include data on factors such as mental health, isolation and lifestyle to clarify the mechanisms underlying the brain-ageing effect and how it plays out in people from different backgrounds. The next steps for Mohammadi-Nejad and his colleagues are to unravel some of these mechanisms and explore whether the effects are long-lasting.
