The Little Things: Dr Ginni Mansberg with tips on how to delay dementia and repair cognitive decline

Beer - drinking - alcohol. Photo / Josh Olalde, Unsplash

Retiring early and spending your nights sipping a few drinks on the beach may sound like the Kiwi dream, but you might want to think twice about imbibing too much and leaving the workplace behind if you intend to keep thinking clearly in your later years.

Dr Ginni Mansberg, an Australian doctor and television personality, is the author of the new book Save Your Brain, looking at how to reduce your cognitive decline as you get older. Speaking to Francesca Rudkin and Louise Ayrey for the season finale episode of their podcast, The Little Things, Mansberg says research in this area is growing, particularly around dementia.

“While we have no real 100 per cent understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and exactly what is happening, so we have no treatment, no cure, what we do know is that we can prevent the other forms of dementia from combining with it and bringing it on. And we think that we can prevent as much as 50 per cent of dementia altogether, and at least delay it by five years, which is a lot.”

Mansberg says that drinking too much can exponentially increase your risk of dementia later in life. She says the risks associated are largely contingent on how much you are drinking.

“If you draw with your finger in the air the letter J, that would represent a diagram of what happens with alcohol and your brain,” Mansberg says.

“What that shows is that having one alcoholic drink a day, preferably something like red wine, would be better for your brain than having zero. However, once you get to three alcoholic drinks a day, the risk of dementia just goes up like a rocket. And then, any more than that is just an absolute disaster.”

Dr Ginni Mansberg is the author of Save Your Brain. Photo / Supplied

Mansberg says moderation is absolutely key when it comes to our drinking habits.

“If you like wine, don’t feel like you need to give it up. Just moderate it – and moderate your own pours. A hundred millimetres is a standard drink, whereas most of us pour 200 millimetres.”

Getting the balance right with alcohol is only one of the many steps Kiwis can take to ensure cognitive decline is kept at bay for as long as possible.

Dr Mansberg says research shows we need to really start paying attention to our cognitive decline and brain health once we hit our forties. She says one thing she learned from talking to brain experts was that people shouldn’t consider retiring early.

“I spoke to 22 [brain] experts from around the world. All of them were planning to stay at least in the workforce, even if it wasn’t in the paid workforce, for as long as possible,” she said, citing reasons such as the social benefits of seeing people every day, and that going to work forces you to stick to a circadian rhythm that is good for your mental health.

“New Zealanders just are obsessed with getting a bach, right, and then just they see that as ‘I’m gonna retire here’ and this is just the New Zealand way of life, which I completely get. But you are very isolated there. It’s hard to socialise ‘cause you are quite far away from other people. It sounds amazing when you’re in the rat race, but just really think about it before you actually commit to that.”

Listen to the full episode of The Little Things to learn what other simple steps you can take to ensure your mind stays crystal clear for as long as possible.

The Little Things is available on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes will return later in 2023!