Julie Andrews is one of the most famous actresses in the world, and at 91 years old, she is still working creatively.
The long-celebrated star of Mary Poppins And The sound of music may not be on screen anymore, but she’s still voice acting for Bridgerton and she just released a new children’s book with her daughter.
In a recent interview with InStyle, Andrews said she mainly continues to work and create to keep her brain alive.
New evidence suggests she’s on the right track.
In 2021, an international team of researchers examined the association between cognitively stimulating work and later risk of dementia.
They gathered data from more than 100,000 people across the UK, Europe and the US.
After adjusting for other risk factors, they found that participants in cognitively stimulating jobs had an 18% lower risk of dementia.
These findings are supported by a range of other studies, which suggest that staying cognitively stimulated later in life could be important for the aging brain.
In 2023, for example, scientists found that immediately after retirement, cognitive functions decline at an accelerated rate.
This is not to say that the decline is due to retirements; it’s just an association. But the timing is suspect.
It could be that more cognitively capable people work later in life, or that mentally stimulating work can help keep the brain fit and healthy.
After all, learning is known to support brain function in our younger years. Why not also in our last years?
Rachel Wu is a psychologist at the University of California, Riverside, who studies how learning can boost cognition even in old age.
In an interview with the American Psychological Association earlier this year, she said that “there seems to be a societal expectation that adults are not supposed to learn as much as children.”
She wondered, “What if adulthood was a very long summer slide, similar to what college students experience during summer vacation?”
She and her colleagues published a study in 2023 in which older adults learned at least three new skills, such as Spanish, drawing or musical composition, in three months.
At the end of the trial, participants showed improved cognitive performance. In fact, their scores were comparable to those of a separate cohort of much younger adults.
“Our multiskill intervention may provide broad cognitive gains, similar to benefits experienced earlier in life,” the study authors concluded.
The findings suggest that challenging yourself cognitively in old age, as Julie Andrews does, could help keep the brain young.
“I probably feel like I’m in my 50s, honestly to God,” Andrews told Julia Louis-Dreyfus on her Wiser Than Me podcast at 88 years old.
“As long as the brain holds up, I’m fine.”
During the podcast, Andrews explained that his father was also a lifelong learner. She gets her love of books and writing from him.
He studied a whole new language at age 76.
Alexandra Touroutoglou is a neurologist at Harvard University who studies super-aged people, or those who remain cognitively alert even into very old age.
“Anecdotally, in talking with our participants, super-aged people say they really like to challenge themselves,” she said in an interview with the Harvard Gazette earlier this year.
“They don’t want to stay behind; they want to learn new things.”
Getting older is inevitable, but that doesn’t mean a person has no control.
The Lancet 2024 Commission estimates that approximately 45% of dementia cases worldwide can be prevented or delayed through changes in certain lifestyle habits, medical conditions or environmental factors.
Working with language, such as reading or writing books, seems particularly interesting for the aging brain.
A recent study, published in Neurology Earlier this year, nearly 2,000 elderly people in Illinois in the United States who did not initially have dementia were followed.
After almost eight years, 551 people had developed Alzheimer’s disease.
Those who reported engaging in cognitive activities more frequently throughout their lives, such as reading books, visiting libraries and museums, learning foreign languages, or using dictionaries, showed better cognitive outcomes later in life.
In fact, a higher lifetime cognitive enrichment score was associated with a 38% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, a 36% lower risk of mild cognitive impairment, and a delay in the onset of cognitive decline by up to 7 years.
It also led to better cognitive function later in life.
“Our results are encouraging, suggesting that systematically engaging in various mentally stimulating activities throughout life can make a difference in cognition,” co-author and neuropsychologist Andrea Zammit said in February.
These results support the idea of a “cognitive reserve”, which is in some way similar to a muscular reserve.
According to this concept, as a person ages, the more they have exercised their brain in previous decades, the more protected it is from decline.
In 2024, for example, a Norwegian study found that people with a history of cognitively stimulating occupations in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s had a lower risk of mild cognitive impairment and dementia when they reached their 60s.
Julie Andrews has spent her entire life stimulating her brain and pushing herself creatively.
Even at age 90, she chooses to continue learning to keep her brain fit and healthy.
As she explores her passion for writing, Julie Andrews takes her medicine with a spoonful of sugar.
This article was fact-checked by Fiona MacDonald and edited by Fiona MacDonald. Although we are proud of our process, we are only human. If you spot an error, please let us know.
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