2026 September 8 Walking away from dementia

Hi, this is Jim Cranston from 7EveryMinute and 7EveryMinute.com, the podcast and website about reimagining your life. Thanks for joining me today to talk about doing some walking for brain health. If you like what you hear today, please leave a like, subscribe, tell your friends, send me a message.

This week we're going to be talking about taking basically a brisk walk to help your brain. This ties into the five pillars for life and aging — remember two of our five pillars are body, which is all things related to physical health, and mind, which is not only how we think but also how well our brain is able to function. So there's the cognitive side, which is the actual thinking part, and then kind of the physical side of the brain, which is a bit of a crossover between our body and our brain itself.

I was recently listening to Dr. Courtney Conley — she's a chiropractic doctor who specializes in feet and movement — on Diaries of a CEO with Steven. Love that podcast, great guests, I just came across this episode and thought it was really interesting. She threw out some statistics, quoting studies from Harvard and others, showing that walking can have a significant positive effect on brain health — providing up to a 50% reduction in the risk of developing dementia. That's the statistic that should catch your attention: 50% reduction.

Even more notable is that it's only about 9,800 steps a day — generally required to reach that level of improvement. That's about four to four and a half miles, depending on your stride. So depending on what you're doing around the house and around the yard, plus some dedicated walks, it's conceivable you can get that amount in. And it should be a brisk pace — not leisurely, but not running or anything like that either. Just walking like you had somewhere to go.

But even more amazing: less than half that number, about 3,800 steps a day — about one and a half to one and three-quarter miles — will give you half that benefit. So your risk of developing dementia falls by about 25%.

It gets even better. If you're doing your steps in a social situation — walking and chatting with someone, or any group activity — that benefit occurs faster and comes with more wide-ranging physical and mental health benefits, like lowered inflammation, lower blood pressure, and other benefits related to metabolism.

But there's an interesting twist to the story. If those steps, that physical activity, happen as part of work — especially demanding physical labor in a job where you have little control over your activities — that same amount of physical activity turns into a negative, and your risk of developing dementia actually increases.

Now, all these figures come from various studies and meta-studies, and they're observational — not yet proven — though there are some clear trends. As far as the negative benefit when the exercise is job-associated labor, there are a few possible explanations. One is that physical jobs are often done under more demanding conditions — extreme temperatures, dusty environments, things like that. But two other big factors: working in an environment where you don't have direct control over your activities tends to be more stressful, and stress causes more inflammation, which raises the risk of dementia. Another possible explanation is that many manual labor jobs still require a fair amount of concentration, but it tends to be non-creative thinking, and that lack of cognitive challenge also raises the risk of dementia.

Now, the flip side — social walking and movement — when you take away all those negative aspects of a job-related activity, completely reverses those negatives. In most cases, if there's a social aspect to the activity, your mind is active — either listening, imagining, or thinking about how to reply. Either way, your mind is active, and in particular, active on new and novel tasks. Plus, your physical activity is being done for both health and enjoyment. So if one person in the group says, "I'm getting a little tired," you can all take a five-minute rest, and there's no real pressure to continue. That ability to control your own actions has value both physically and mentally, because you have a moment to rest and heal, and your mind and body don't have to get stressed out pushing through discomfort to finish a task.

As always, remember: your mind wants to keep you safe. And if there's a conflict — say, needing to keep yourself safe by working to get money for food, which directly competes with keeping yourself safe by resting and letting your muscles heal — that immediately causes stress and inflammation. So the social, low-pressure side of relaxing exercise is a big part of the healing benefit.

So now we know one way to reduce the risk of dementia — are there others? It turns out there are plenty of physical activities with significant health benefits that aren't necessarily just walking. Dancing is an obvious one — all the same benefits of being in a group, being able to control what you're doing, being free to rest when you want, doing it for fun and relaxation. Plus there's music, so it occupies your brain too. It's just a very healthy, encouraging atmosphere. Swimming is another activity with similar benefits and causes. Even strength training can be beneficial if it's scaled to match your physical conditioning and approached as something fun rather than a chore you need to complete.

All these activities — and any others that include movement and social interaction — tend to provide more blood flow to the brain, and typically more oxygen. And for most types of exercise, the relaxing aspect also helps build cognitive reserve. Willpower can only get you so far, and thinking takes a lot of energy. When you push too hard for too long, your brain just gets kind of full. In college, we used to talk about reaching that point during all-nighters, cramming for exams, where the words on the page just kind of bounced off your eyes and you couldn't learn anything new. That's kind of what happens — your brain just doesn't have the available energy to receive, categorize, and associate more information.

But when you engage in physical activity in a social environment, that also supports your brain with increased oxygen and blood flow. Your inflammation markers tend to drop. The increased blood flow and nutrient exchange work with your other brain systems to help clear some of the damaged proteins and plaque, which is good for your brain health overall. Your blood pressure tends to decrease, reducing stress on your brain. Your metabolic markers tend to improve — and more. All of this is available with a little planning and some regular time, and consistency really matters. As with most physical activities, working out like a mad person one or two days a week is nowhere near as beneficial as working out at a reasonable rate four or five days a week.

So I hope you find this as exciting as I did when I first heard about it and started researching the underlying studies. They're all positive. For something with such significant benefits, the cost, time, and effort required is pretty low. Even more encouraging: even if you don't reach the full goal every time, even 40% of the effort gives you about 50% of the benefits — kind of a bonus win to reward you for starting off. Plus, I can tell you from personal experience — if you do things that keep you even somewhat physically active, you'll feel better in pretty much everything you do.

So tomorrow, if you aren't already, call a couple of friends and start out with just a short walk together, getting used to moving regularly. Once you're feeling good at that level, increase it slightly week by week until you're walking maybe a mile or even a little more — and you'll be on your way to not only a healthier life, but one where your risk of dementia gets smaller with every single step.

Remember, there are five pillars of life and aging, and we have a short video where I explain how our lives are shaped by five major influences and how the balance between them works — and how you might want to adjust that balance as we age. It's all available at 7everyminute.com/5-pillars-freebie. Hope to see you there.

Remember, one of the best ways to care for yourself is to always care for others. Remember UKR7.com and WCK.org — two great sites for international aid. UKR7.com has links to other sites that assist the people of Ukraine. WCK.org is World Central Kitchen, a worldwide organization that works in disaster areas — they're usually one of the first on-site to help people get back on their feet. Two great organizations, but local charities are always looking for help too. And if you're not in a position to give anything right now, even a simple smile can change someone else's day for the better in ways you can't imagine.

As always, thank you for stopping by. If you found something interesting or useful, please pass it along, subscribe, and hit that like button. Drop me a comment — let me know what else you'd like to hear. Have a great week. Remember to live the life that you dreamed of, because that's the path to true contentment. Love and encouragement to everyone. See you next week on 7EveryMinute and 7EveryMinute.com.