What do I do now?

In Beating the Dementia Monster, I described eight domains in which I proactively work to maintain my cognitive health.  I established habits in most of these when I was about 66 years old.  But I'm five years older now, and my habits have evolved some to accommodate my aging body.  For example, my aerobic exercise was ambitious, and I can't keep up that pace anymore.  Nevertheless, it seems my recent cognitive test scores show that it's all still working for me.

So what am I doing now?

1. I'm on the treadmill six days a week with very few missed days.  But I now go 3.5 mph with an incline of 12 degrees.  I monitor my heart rate, and when it exceeds 65% of my maximum heart rate, I start bringing the incline down to regulate it.  I ensure it doesn't approach my maximum heart rate.  I may end up at 8 or even 6 degrees.  To calculate my maximum heart rate, I subtract my age from 220.  That gets me to 149 BPM.  65% of that is 97 BPM.  So I vary the incline to regulate my heart rate between 97 and 149 BPM, but well below the 149.
2. I continue to work at the food bank, conduct activities with the Alzheimer's Association, serve in my church, participate with my photography club, and do other things that maintain social engagement.
3. I continue to eat the MIND diet.
4. I have now been fasting intermittently for more than 18 months.  I fast daily for 20 hours, confining all eating to a four-hour window.  I have had very few deviations from the regimen.
5. I take Theracurmin and another turmeric supplement twice per day.
   
6. I continue to struggle with sleep.  This is my toughest area.  The sleep meds that have seemed to work have either caused an allergic reaction (rash), caused me serious problems with balance, or both.  I follow the recommended strategy for sleep hygiene, and I use a white noise machine.
7. I have been trying to maintain intellectual activity.  I read and converse in Spanish every day, and I read both fiction and non-fiction books.
8. I've tried to maintain my stress-level on the low side.  Only problem is, whenever I back away from a commitment, another one seems to take it's place.  My wife is tired of me complaining about that...

I know these sound hard, especially the diet and exercise items.  But I think of what's at stake.  I remember how desperate I was in 2015 and 2016, and it gets a lot easier.