Speaking another language may help the brain resist aging and disease, staving off Alzheimer’s disease by as much as five years. A new study shows that bilingualism offers protection by enhancing the brain’s resilience against the cognitive decline linked to the disease.

The study included 364 older adults, ranging from healthy people to those with subjective cognitive decline, mild cognitive impairment, or Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers assessed the thickness and volume of participants' brain regions associated with language and Alzheimer’s progression.

They found that while bilingualism did not appear to boost the thickness or volume of language-related brain regions, bilingual participants with Alzheimer’s disease did not show the same hippocampal volume loss seen among monolingual participants. The hippocampus is a crucial brain area affected early in Alzheimer’s.

These findings suggest that bilingualism helps maintain brain structure, particularly in regions vulnerable to Alzheimer’s. The researchers posited that early language learning might play a role in this protective effect, potentially contributing to brain resilience across the lifespan. Exercise and fasting help preserve hippocampal volume, too. Learn more in this clip featuring Dr. Mark Mattson.