Speaking more than one language may help the brain stay younger

Speaking more than one language can slow down brain aging and reduce the risks of accelerated aging.

In a new study, researchers analyzed the biobehavioral age gap (BAG) – a person’s biological age using health and lifestyle data, then compared it to their actual age – of more than 80,000 participants aged 51 to 90 in 27 European countries. They found that people who speak only one language are twice as likely to experience accelerated aging as multilingual people.

The researchers suggest that the protective effect could result from the constant and ongoing mental effort required to master more than one language. The results of this study are published in Natural aging.

Understanding the aging population

The world’s population is aging faster than before as people live longer thanks to better healthcare systems. The WHO estimates that by 2030, one in six people will be aged 60 or over.

The aging population leads to an increase in disorders such as cognitive decline and dementia. A better understanding of their causes and what could help prevent them has become more crucial than ever.

Studies have shown that age-related problems cannot be blamed solely on biology, as several lifestyle factors also play a role in influencing how quickly or slowly aging occurs. The ability to speak multiple languages ​​has emerged as a factor with a positive impact on brain health. Some reports suggest that being multilingual helps protect against faster aging.

However, many of these studies were conducted in clinical populations who already had signs of cognitive decline, such as people with Alzheimer’s disease or mild cognitive impairment. This means that we lack long-term data on healthy individuals in large populations, which significantly limits the scope of these findings.

To address these gaps, researchers in this study used a new and reliable computational tool, BAGs, to measure faster or slower aging in a large group of 86,149 healthy adults from across Europe.

This model combines positive factors (such as good thinking skills, education and exercise) and negative factors (such as heart problems, being female and sensory issues) to estimate a person’s biological age and compare it to their chronological age. A BAG greater than zero or positive means that a person is aging faster and their biobehavioral profile appears older than your actual age. A negative score means the person is experiencing delayed aging, which is actually a good thing even if the number is negative.

The brain gets an intensive workout

The study found that people who speak only one language or who speak monolingually were more likely to age faster than people who speak multiple languages.

In a cross-sectional study in which researchers assessed the BAGs of all participants at the same time, they found that multilingual people were half as likely to show signs of aging faster. From a long-term perspective (people were followed over time), the study also showed that monolinguals were 1.4 times more likely to develop accelerated aging.

The team found that the protective effect was dose-dependent, meaning that the more languages ​​a person spoke, the stronger the protection against aging. They attributed this to the fact that even when a person does not use all languages, their brain remains active. Each additional language increases the demand on attention, executive functions and memory, which builds cognitive resilience over time.

The researchers hope these findings will encourage policymakers to consider multilingual learning not only as a communication skill, but also as a tool to keep the brain agile and healthy.

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