New guidelines highlight what athletes do off the field of play can be just as important as what occurs on it for their long-term brain health and cognitive reserve.
The AIS Promoting Lifelong Brain Health Position Statement highlights the role of everyday factors including physical activity, social connection, lifelong learning, nutrition, alcohol, mental health and cardiovascular health, alongside continued efforts to prevent and manage concussion and repeated head impacts.
Developed in partnership with the UNSW Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA) and 2026 Senior Australian of the Year Professor Henry Brodaty AO, University of Sydney and University of Canberra, the Position Statement builds on the AIS’s existing work to prevent and manage concussion and repeated head impacts, while broadening the focus to a range of factors that can influence brain health throughout an athlete’s life.
AIS Chief Medical Officer Dr David Hughes AM said just like with any other injury, it’s important to take a holistic approach to brain health.
“Concussion and repeated head impacts are an important part of the brain health conversation in sport, but they are not the whole story. Brain health is influenced by multiple factors across our lives,” Dr Hughes said.
“Improving understanding of the neuroscience of healthy brain ageing provides opportunities to inform decisions athletes can make to positively influence their future brain health.
“Research into cognitive reserve shows how lifelong physical, cognitive and social engagement can help support the brain’s ability to maintain cognitive function despite changes or damage.
“Athletes often have a good understanding of how to develop their aerobic or anaerobic reserve but have not considered that they can also enhance cognitive reserve.
“For athletes, this is a message of hope and agency. We cannot change every factor that may influence our future brain health, but we can make choices throughout our lives that greatly reduce the risk of poor brain health or dementia.
“The guidelines are about giving athletes the knowledge that their future brain health is not predetermined by events of the past and that future brain health can be influenced by simple lifestyle decisions, during their sporting careers and long after they finish competing.”
Professor Brodaty said the broader approach reflects growing understanding that brain health is shaped by multiple factors across life, many of which can be influenced through everyday choices.
“We are becoming more aware about how lifestyle behaviours can prevent dementia. These include physical activity, Mediterranean-style diet, blood pressure control, defeating depression and avoiding smoking and excess alcohol, avoid or treat diabetes. It’s important that elite athletes continue living a healthy lifestyle after their careers have peaked,” Professor Brodaty said.
This work builds on the AIS Concussion and Brain Health Position Statement, which provides contemporary, evidence-based concussion advice and return-to-sport guidelines for athletes, coaches, parents and health practitioners across elite, community and youth sport.
It has also been backed by a host of leading athletes including former Wallaby Ben Alexander, former Brumbies Sevens captain and Paralympic rowing champion Nikki Ayers and ex-Melbourne Storm and Maroons forward Christian Welch, who have endorsed the importance of holistic health during and after their sporting careers.
Read the AIS Promoting Lifelong Brain Health Position Statement
Read the open-access manuscript Promoting lifelong brain health: A review of risk factors and protective opportunities for athletes
CHeBA research authors: Henry Brodarty, Perminder Sachdev, Matt Lennon
