Dr. Jeffrey GladdenFounder & CEO of Gladden Longevity

5 Surprising Lifestyle Habits That Can Actually Shrink Your Brain 😱

10 Mar 2026 · 1 min

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In this short informational segment, Dr. Jeffrey Gladden outlines five lifestyle factors that can lead to brain shrinkage and cognitive decline: a sedentary lifestyle, poor nutrition, sleep apnea or insomnia, chronic stress, and a lack of mental challenge (a "lazy brain"). He emphasizes that many people assume cognitive decline is inevitable with age, but controlling these risk factors can preserve brain health. Gladden proposes that a healthy lifestyle can limit age‑related cognitive loss to just 2‑5% and introduces the "5 pillars of brain health"—regular exercise, adequate sleep, proper nutrition, stress management, and brain training—to counteract these harmful habits.

Chapters

There are many things that shrink the brain, and these factors are often lifestyle-related. There are at least 5 things that can shrink the brain: sedentary lifestyle, poor nutrition, sleep apnea or insomnia, too much stress, and having a lazy brain—people who don't challenge their brain. Most people think that as they get older, cognitive decline, the cognitive functions will decline, and they just get, you know, weaker and weaker and just die. What we have come to appreciate is that if you control these negative risk factors, then you're able to maintain your cognitive functions for a long time. With aging, there may be 5% or 2% or 3% decline in cognitive function if you have a healthy lifestyle and do the 5 things that I recommend. And these are the 5 pillars of brain health: exercise, sleep, nutrition, stress management, and brain training.