Would you like to your brain to keep working at top capacity, especially as you get older? Two new studies both suggest that playing a musical instrument can help. And—good news—you can start at any age.

In the first study, a research team from the University of Toronto and the Chinese Academy of Sciences used MRIs to scan the brains of 50 older adults and 24 younger adults. Half the older adults had played an instrument for decades; the other half had no musical experience.

During the scans, they challenged participants’ brains by asking them to hear what a single voice was saying with 50 other voices speaking in the background. All subjects were able to perform the task. But the MRI revealed that the older non-musicians had to work their brains extra hard to hear that specific voice. The 20-somethings were able to do it with less brain effort. But so were the older subjects who were musicians. “Our studies show that this musical experience builds cognitive reserve,” Du Yi, one of the study’s authors from the Chinese Academy of Sciences told BBC Science Focus.

Meantime, scientists at Kyoto University in Japan followed up on some earlier research about music and older adults. Four years ago, they recruited 53 people with an average age of 73, and had them learn to play an instrument. In that experiment, subjects’ brain function changed very little after four months of musical study.

Featured Video

An Inc.com Featured Presentation

More recently, the researchers decided to do a follow-up study of those same subjects. Thirteen had kept on playing music, and the rest had not. When researchers gave them all the same memory test, the results were astonishing. The non-music-playing subjects performed less well on that memory test than those who had kept on with their new hobby. Not only that, the MRI showed that the putamen, the part of the brain responsible for motor function, learning, and memory, had shrunk in the non-music players. But it had not shrunk in those who continued playing their instruments. It’s astounding to think that regularly playing a musical instrument can keep your brain from shrinking, but that’s what this second experiment seems to be telling us. Playing music is well worth the time you invest.

How can you use this knowledge to promote your own brain health? First of all, if you currently play an instrument, good for you! No matter how busy you are, it’s well worth keeping up with that habit. If you used to play but stopped, this research might give you the impetus to start again, either by reacquainting yourself with your former instrument or by starting fresh with a new one.

What if you’ve never played an instrument or considered playing one? As the Japanese researchers point out, it truly never is too late to start. Pick up an instrument, or try out a few until you find one that suits you. And remember, there’s nothing in the research that suggests that you need to be good at playing your instrument. The point is that you’re playing it. Extra points if you play with other people–you’ll get the brain benefits of social interaction as well.

There’s a growing community of Inc. readers who get a daily text from me with a micro-challenge or thought-provoking question. (Want to learn more? Here’s some information about the texts and a special invitation to a two-month free trial.) Many are entrepreneurs or company leaders and they understand the importance of doing everything you can to boost and preserve your brain function throughout your life. Playing music is a fun way to do just that.

I really like the town where my family lives, and I sometimes joke that there’s only one way I could think of to improve it.

That would be to pick the whole thing up and move it about 30 miles to the southeast, so that we’d be on the beach. While that’s really just my personal preference — and if you knew me in real life, you’d know it’s a pretty deeply felt one — it turns out there might be a significant benefit if we could ever pull it off.

Writing in the journal Environmental Research, researchers from the college of public health at The Ohio State University said they studied population data from 66,000 census tracts around the United States, and compared the life expectancy of people in each tract. Bottom line: Live near the beach

Then, they correlated the data based on how far each tract was located from “blue space,” which is the term used in urban planning to refer to areas dominated by surface water bodies (lakes, oceans, bays, etc.) or watercourses (rivers, streams, etc.).

Here’s what they found:

People who lived in urban areas near inland bodies of water — things like lakes and rivers — actually had lower life expediencies than those who weren’t near water at all.
People who lived in rural areas near inland bodies of water had a life expectancy benefit over those who lived in urban areas.
But people who lived within 30 miles of an ocean or gulf — regardless of whether they lived in urban or rural environments — had longer life expediencies than those who didn’t.

“Overall, the coastal residents were expected to live a year or more longer than the 79-year average, and those who lived in more urban areas near inland rivers and lakes were likely to die by about 78 or so,” lead researcher Jianyong “Jamie” Wu was quoted as saying in a statement accompanying the research. ‘Coastal residents tend to have longer life expectancy’

Theories as to why people who live near the coast live longer include:

Milder temperatures and better air quality than those who live inland.
Better transportation options which is an advantage both in day-to-day living and in the ability to get medical attention quickly when needed.
Less susceptibility to drought, which, along with very high rainfall, is associated with worse health in previous studies.
Higher incomes. “Extensive research has consistently demonstrated the significant positive impact of higher income levels on life expectancy,” according to the study, “which effectively explains why coastal residents tend to have longer life expectancy.”

I acknowledge, of course, that the last cause — higher incomes — is a bit more problematic in terms of finding cause and effect; it’s likely that wealthy people are more likely to be able to afford to live near the coast than those who aren’t.

(I invite you to do a little bit of dream-searching on Zillow to see for yourself.)

“On the other side,” said Yanni Cao, a postdoctoral researcher who also worked on the study, “pollution, poverty, lack of safe opportunities to be physically active, and an increased risk of flooding are likely drivers of these differences.” Guess where we’re going?

We should point out here that the health and life expectancy differences between living near an inland body of water and living on the beach, so to speak, were something the researchers hadn’t expected to find.

“We thought it was possible that any type of ‘blue space’ would offer some beneficial effects, and we were surprised to find such a significant and clear difference,” Wu said in the same statement accompanying the research.

Also, we’re talking about one year of life expectancy, which is significant for statistical purposes but maybe not enough to prompt a stampede toward the shore.

Still, I’m glad I found the study — and that maybe not coincidentally, that I managed to come across it just before heading out on summer vacation.

Three guesses where we’re going.

After years of hectoring by health experts, we all know we’re supposed to eat a healthy diet, with lots of fruits and veggies and minimal highly processed junk food. But when researchers analyzed how many Americans maintain a healthy lifestyle a few years back, they found a measly 2.7 actually met basic health recommendations.

Why are we so bad at making healthy choices when we know better? There are many answers to this question, from inflation to less than walkable neighborhoods that offer limited food choices. But you can sum up many of these factors simply. Many Americans just don’t live in an environment that makes it easy to live a healthy lifestyle, including eating a healthy diet.

You can’t single-handedly lower prices at the grocery store (though you can shop strategically) or convince PepsiCo to please make Cheetos less tempting. But according to a new study conducted by marketing professors conducted by marketing professors from Southern Methodist University and INSEAD, the European business school headquartered in Paris, there is one simple way you can make it just a little easier to eat healthier with minimal effort.

And as an added bonus to entrepreneurs in the food business, it can also help you sell more healthy options too.

More trees help you eat healthier

Health conscious consumers want to eat healthily, of course. But companies that sell healthier food options would also like to sell more of their wares. Pierre Chandon, a professor of marketing at INSEAD, and his collaborators recently set out to help them do just that. They designed research to test what messages and approaches nudge consumers to pick healthier products.

If you are a health food brand, check out his recent appearance on the INSEAD Knowledge podcast to learn much more about his findings. But one particular discovery will be of interest not just to those selling healthy foods, but all of us trying to eat more of them despite our busy modern lives.

The studies that led to this discovery came about when one of Chandon’s collaborators, Maria Langlois, an assistant professor of marketing at the Cox School of Business at SMU in Dallas, noticed something odd when she was out on long bike rides. When she was riding through the city, she would often be tempted to stop off for fast food or other unhealthy snacks. But when she rode through the countryside, she would crave healthier options like fruit. Does our environment influence what foods we choose to eat? Langlois began to investigate.

Together with Chandon she devised a series of studies to find out. Sure enough, “a natural view makes people more willing to trade off taste for natural healthy food,” Chandon reports on the podcast.

For instance, iIn one study the team showed people either pictures of natural, green landscapes or a pleasant city environment. Then they let the volunteers freely choose what to take from a buffet of more and less healthy foods. Those that looked at nature chose healthy options 73 percent of the time. Those that looked at city streets opted for a healthy choice just 33 percent of the time. Different environment, different choices

In the podcast, Chandon points out the implications for restaurants and food retailers. If you want to nudge people to buy healthier choices, adding some potted plants or images of nature will make your job instantly easier.

But he stresses the same is true for individuals and business leaders too. Change the decor of your kitchen or office break room to remind people of green natural settings (snowy landscape, it seems, don’t have the same effect) and they’re likely to subconsciously opt to eat a bit healthier. No effort required.

You could even opt to go for a quick walk in a local park before sitting down to eat on your lunch break and reap double the health rewards. Not only will it be easier to choose to eat something healthier but you’ll get all the research-backed benefits of a little outdoor exercise. Healthy eating: a science-backed benefit of nature

And the happiest part of this research is that the benefits of adding more greenery to your environment will likely go beyond just nudging you to eat healthier.

Amazon included tens of thousands of plants in its Seattle office because it was aware of all the research showing that just looking at nature lowers stress and boosts productivity. Creativity experts insist adding natural elements to your space helps you come up with more and better ideas. And if you manage to find awe in the natural world too (even in just the rainbow swirl of a single drop of dew), a stack of psychology studies says it will boost your happiness and mental health.

So take a look around your kitchen or your break room? Is there anything there that reminds you of a leafy green landscape? If not, consider adding a touch of the great outdoors. Just being closer to nature is likely to offer you a host of health benefits for next to no effort, including the urge to eat healthier.

TikTok is generally a terrible place to find advice of any kind, including health advice. Which is why when I saw headlines announcing that something called “Japanese walking” was trending on TikTok, I pretty much ignored them.

But even TikTok influencers’ dubious hacks and sometimes outright dangerous suggestions can be right once in a while. According to actual exercise scientists, the viral trend of Japanese walking, a trendy term for intentionally varying your speed and sometimes picking up your pace, actually combines two science-backed hacks entrepreneurs can use to squeeze more health benefits out of their daily walks. The healthiest way to walk, according to science

If there is one thing I know about entrepreneurs after writing about them for 15 years, it’s that they’re almost all super busy. Which means I am always on the lookout for research-backed advice on how to exercise and generally stay healthy more effectively and efficiently. Over the course of the last year, I stumbled across two studies that both suggested small tweaks to your daily walk can significantly boost its health benefits.

First, a study published in the reputable UK biological sciences journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, showed that simply varying the speed at which you walk nudges your heart to work a little harder as you accelerate. Stopping and starting as you stroll leads to meaningfully larger impacts on fitness.

“When we walk for shorter bouts, we use more energy and consume more oxygen to cover the same distance,” Francesco Luciano, a researcher at the University of Milan and first author on the study, told the Guardian. “It’s like having a car that consumes more fuel during the first few kilometres than it does afterwards.”

The second study analyzed the walking habits of 450,000 Brits and came to a less than shocking conclusion — walking faster is healthier than walking slower. The more surprising finding was just how much upping the pace even a little mattered.

“A lifetime of brisk walking reduces biological age by up to 16 years compared with a lifetime of slow walking,” commented Thomas Yates, a professor who studies lifestyle and chronic disease at the University of Leicester. “An inactive 60-year woman or man was modeled to gain around an additional year of life expectancy through simply introducing a 10-minute brisk walk into their daily routine.” A catchy name for this approach? Japanese walking

To recap, varying your pace makes your walk more effective for boosting health and fitness. And so does increasing the speed you walk. (Though not to extreme speeds — the researchers are talking about a brisk but doable pace of three to four miles an hour.) Thanks to viral social media, there’s another name for combining these two insights — Japanese walking.

“Developed by Professor Hiroshi Nose and Associate Professor Shizue Masuki at Shinshu University in Matsumoto, Japan,” explains University of Hull exercise physiologist Sean Pymer on ScienceAlert. “It involves alternating between three minutes of walking at a higher intensity and three minutes at a lower intensity, repeated for at least 30 minutes, four times per week,”

Pymer insists the program isn’t just backed by influencers in gym clothes, but real research. “Participants who followed the Japanese walking approach experienced notable reductions in body weight. Blood pressure also dropped — more so than in those following the lower-intensity continuous walking routine,” he writes.

Leg strength also improved more for those who followed the Japanese walking program. While another study suggested this approach to walking might help keep people strong as they age. Time to switch?

It’s not something I write often, but TikTok actually seems to be on to something with this one. If you’re an entrepreneur with limited time for fitness, Japanese walking might just help you squeeze more benefits from the same number of minutes spent walking each day.

All you have to do to realize them is alternate between a more sedate speed for a few minutes with bouts where you pick up the pace. It seems like a small change, but real science suggests it will make your daily walk even better for your overall health.