Last week, we kicked off 2026 by featuring the 5-Day Brain Health Challenge: a set of activities from our colleagues on the Well desk designed to be good for your brain, and to tee up healthy habits for the year ahead.
I know that self-care advice can sometimes sound a little off-key. There’s a lot happening. President Trump attacked Venezuela. Iran might be next. … Eat more berries?
But maybe the crazier the world feels, the more important it becomes to look after yourself. As my colleague Dana Smith, who designed the challenge, put it: “Regardless of what’s going on in the world, when you or your family has a health crisis, everything stops.” So, in some ways, there is nothing more important. Today I talk to Dana about how to keep your brain healthy.
Healthy body, healthy brain
Dana, you do a Well challenge at the start of every year. What made you focus on brain health this year?
We wanted to focus on brain health because it’s a topic that touches all of us, and it’s one that can feel pretty scary and out of our control.
Many people I know, myself included, have someone in their family who’s experienced dementia or a stroke. And there are a lot of headlines that are very doom and gloom: A million people will develop dementia every year, for example.
But that doesn’t tell the whole story. I think what is less known is that there are actually things you can do to maintain your brain health. And while the number of people with dementia is rising because we have a large aging population, the rates of dementia are actually declining.
And that is due to lifestyle?
It’s almost entirely due to that. Our genes haven’t changed, our brains haven’t really changed, but our lifestyles have changed.
The No. 1 thing is fewer people smoke, and that has had a really dramatic effect on people’s physical health and brain health. The other main contributor is better heart health. Your heart health and your brain health are closely linked. And so more people controlling their blood pressure, especially, has also made a big difference.
That’s what we really wanted to get across with the Well challenge: There are clear, actionable steps that people can take to benefit their brain health.
Let’s talk about those steps. In some ways your recommendations are very familiar, right? Eat well, sleep well, exercise. Why remind people?
One thing we try to do at Well is explain the science behind this type of lifestyle advice. It’s easy to kind of roll your eyes and say, “Yeah, yeah, I know.” So we want people to understand why these things help your brain stay healthy for longer.
The reason exercise is so good for your brain, for example, is that there are these amazing molecules called exerkines that your muscles and other organs release. Some of them go up to your brain where they actually help to heal damaged neurons and create new connections between neurons. They can even protect your brain from shrinking with age. I mean, these are incredibly cool mechanisms that underpin this simple advice of “get some exercise.”
(Feeling inspired to get moving? Read this story on the best sports for longevity, and watch the video below.)
Physical health to me is quite intuitive. Like if I exercise and I eat well, I can feel it and maybe even see it in my body. What does a healthy brain look and feel like?
I think the clearest example of this is sleep. If you get a good night’s rest, you feel great the next day. If you have a poor night’s sleep, you feel terrible. You feel sluggish, you’re irritable, you can’t perform at your best. That, to me, really encapsulates a good brain day versus a bad brain day.
I think that people also kind of intuitively can feel a bad brain day versus a good one. And I think what usually contributes to a good one are those small self-care steps, like going outside for a walk, that often are also the ones that benefit our physical health.
So is maintaining brain health any different from just maintaining overall health?
A healthy body includes a healthy brain. I really think that they’re one and the same.
TOP NEWS
Israel and Arab countries asked Trump not to attack Iran
President Trump appears to be backing away from a potential U.S. attack on Iran, which he had been weighing for days. On Wednesday, the president spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who asked him to postpone any plans for an American military attack on Iran, according to a U.S. official.
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Egypt have also asked the Trump administration to stand down, warning that U.S. military action could lead to a wider regional conflict.
Israel’s caution about a U.S. attack on Iran is well justified, experts said. The risks of blowback against Israel — including a new war — are too great. And the chances are remote that anything short of a major offensive could topple Iran’s clerical rulers.
Iran appeared yesterday to backpedal on previous threats to execute protesters, even as the government continues a brutal crackdown after weeks of demonstrations. Here’s what Iranian officials are saying.
OTHER NEWS
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People in Greenland are fearful of what might come next after a meeting with the Trump administration ended in an impasse. Several NATO countries announced plans to send troops to Greenland.
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Four astronauts returned home to Earth after a medical evacuation from the International Space Station. Watch them splash down.
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Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, which authorizes the president to use the military inside the U.S., to quell protests in Minneapolis.
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María Corina Machado, the Nobel laureate and Venezuelan opposition leader, met with Trump after offering to share her prize with him.
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Uganda held a presidential election, with Yoweri Museveni, 81, widely expected to extend his rule of nearly four decades.
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Social networks in Australia removed or deleted nearly five million accounts belonging to teenagers, one month after a ban went into effect.
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At least two people were killed when a crane collapsed on an expressway in Thailand — the second fatal episode involving cranes this week.
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Harvard, once the world’s most productive research university, has dropped to No. 3 as Chinese universities climb the rankings.
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The social media platform X said it would block Grok, the A.I. chatbot created by Elon Musk, from generating sexualized and naked images of real people in some locations.
SPORTS
Football: Morocco faces Senegal on Sunday in the Africa Cup of Nations final.
Tennis: The Australian Open begins this weekend. Here’s what to watch for.
WEBSITE OF THE DAY
MTV Rewind
— Do you remember sitting in front of the television, devouring music video after music video on MTV? This website recreates that experience. With channels arranged by era or genre, it can take you back to the days of hair metal and heartland rock, or grunge and goth, or ’90s hip-hop and R&B. Read more.
MORNING VIDEO
After nearly two weeks of delay, my colleague Chang W. Lee, a New York Times photographer, was finally able to launch his drone to capture images of Antarctica from the air. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time,” he said. Take a look.
Chang and Raymond Zhong, a climate reporter, are traveling with a scientific expedition to study Antarctica’s fastest melting glacier. You can follow their progress here.
AROUND THE WORLD
This Chinese video game will trap you
A new video game by a Chinese developer taps into fears felt by many: scams and human trafficking.
In one part of the game, called “Blood Money: Lethal Eden,” a woman you met online drugs you and takes you to an office where a boss promises your freedom — but only if you can scam enough money out of unsuspecting victims.
People around the world have been kidnapped and forced to work in scam compounds in Southeast Asia. Scenes in the game look a lot like the images of real scam compounds, including an abandoned one that New York Times journalists recently visited in Myanmar. Read more.
RECIPE
L’affogato al caffè, a dessert of gelato drowned in espresso, is a delectable Italian treat. The ice cream can be fior di latte, chocolate or whatever you like. The magic of affogato is that you get two pleasures in one: a spoonable dessert sauced with coffee, and a cream-blushed drink to chase it.
WHERE IS THIS?
Where is this city?
BEFORE YOU GO …
I love a good hustler movie. I’d been hearing all this breathless praise for “Marty Supreme,” a new movie directed by Josh Safdie about a table tennis-playing, serial-hustler-gambler-rambler in 1950s America, played by Timothée Chalamet.
The consensus in podcast interviews and countless articles seemed to be: Chalamet is totally amazing. The table tennis scenes are insane. This movie is going to blow you away. It will win every award on the planet, guaranteed.
I finally watched “Marty Supreme” last Saturday, a day before the Golden Globes. Chalamet was amazing. The table tennis was insane. But the movie didn’t blow me away, despite the incredible hype — an example of successful hustling! (Our critic liked it more than I did, calling it electrifying.)
A friend of mine described “Marty Supreme” as a B-minus compared with “Uncut Gems,” a 2019 movie by Safdie and his brother, Benny. It is, well, a gem of a movie. The first time I watched it I had to stop because it was so stressful. (My muscles ached from all the clenching.) The second time I loved it so much that I watched it a third time. It may be the most exhilarating movie I’ve ever seen. Check it out: That’s my recommendation this week.
And if you need to lower your pulse afterward, listen to “Spinning Away,” a Brian Eno collab with John Cale. Dreamy and soothing. Definitely not suitable for the soundtrack of a Safdie movie!
Have a great weekend! — Katrin
TIME TO PLAY
Here are today’s Spelling Bee, Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Find all our games here.
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Katrin Bennhold is the host of The World, the flagship global newsletter of The New York Times.
The post A Healthy Brain appeared first on New York Times.
