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- Bill Nye the Science Guy says his brain-health routine comes down to two simple habits.
- Whether it’s solving puzzles or cycling, Nye says he rarely sits still: “I like to keep busy.”
- Scientists say learning new things and regular exercise can enhance brain health.
Bill Nye the Science Guy has a brain-health routine that’s simpler than you might expect.
“I do crossword puzzles,” Nye, 69, told EatingWell in an interview published Friday. “And as an engineer, I’m always designing and making little things.”
For instance, he enjoys building model trains, he said.
Physical activity also plays a big role in his routine. Just as he keeps his mind busy, Nye says he makes time to move his body too.
“I’m a longtime bicyclist,” Nye said. “My goal is to ride at least three times a week, but I’ve been traveling this week, so it’s been difficult. I like it. I am not an indoor cyclist, I’m not a Pelotonian — but if you are, more power to you, Peloton your brains out, but it’s just not my thing.”
Riding a bicycle allows him to enjoy the freedom of being “out on the road.”
Whether it’s solving puzzles, cycling, or tinkering, Nye says he rarely sits still. “I like to keep busy,” he added.
Nye says his commitment to brain health is shaped in part by his personal experiences. His grandmother, father, siblings, and other family members have lived with a rare, genetic neurological disorder called Spinocerebellar ataxia, which causes loss of muscle control, coordination, and balance.
In an interview with Parade, published on Wednesday, Nye shared that growing up with a family history of ataxia motivated him to lead an active lifestyle early on.
“I became very active,” Nye told Parade. “I tried every physical sport I could find. I learned to ice skate as a teenager. I ride my bike all the time. I go swing dancing all the time. I work out almost every day.”
He acknowledged that there’s no guarantee that exercise can prevent the disease, but the overall benefits to his health were enough reason for him to continue.
“The hypothesis when I was a kid was that you could develop alternative neural pathways,” Nye said. “So I did all these physical activities with the belief that this would help stave it off. And it’s not clear that it does, but physical activity has other benefits, and that was a big motivator for me.”
A representative for Nye did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.
Exposing yourself to new experiences, including people, places, and challenges, can keep your mind sharp, Jason Shepherd, an associate professor of neurobiology at the University of Utah, told Business Insider in 2023.
“I think a lot of us get into routines and habits where we’re doing the same old thing each day,” Shepherd said. “But learning new things helps with brain plasticity, and if you are able to keep using your brain in new ways, you can have better mental outcomes as you age.”
Regular exercise can permanently alter the brain and make it more resilient even as you get older, Wendy Suzuki, a professor of neural science at New York University, told Business Insider in 2022.
“With regular exercise — the longer you do it throughout your lifetime — you’re building a big, fat, fluffy hippocampus, a big, fluffy prefrontal cortex. And you’re not curing dementia or you’re not curing aging, but you’re making these two susceptible brain areas as strong and powerful as you can. So it literally takes longer for aging to have its effect,” she said.
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