Maintaining a heart-healthy lifestyle in young adulthood could help prevent brain shrinkage decades later, according to a new study by researchers at Northwestern University in Chicago.

The study, published July 19 in the journal Neurology, found that eating healthy foods while controlling blood pressure and cholesterol had an effect on how healthy the brain was in old age. Research was led by Michael Bancks, PhD, a fellow at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

"We know that when people take certain steps like exercising and eating well, they have healthier hearts," Bancks said in a statement. "The American Heart Association created seven simple steps everyone can take to improve heart health called Life's Simple 7 and recent research has shown that people who score higher on that assessment also score higher on thinking tests. We wanted to see if maintaining a healthy heart, as defined by these seven factors, affected the physical make-up of the brain as well."

The Life’s Simple 7 includes maintaining a healthy blood pressure, controlling cholesterol, reducing blood sugar, being active, eating better, losing weight and smoking cessation.

Bancks study was based on data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study, which followed more than 500 people for 30 years, who were an average age of 51. They were originally screened for height, weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, diet and exercise. For the next 25 years, they were assessed every two to five years.

Investigators then scored patients based on how well they followed the Life’s Simple 7 guidelines. At the beginning of the study, just 5 percent had poor adherence, 62 percent were intermediate and 33 percent were ideal. After 25 years, 26 percent had poor adherence, 58 percent were intermediate and 16 percent were ideal.

Based on the scores, people who had better heart health at the beginning of the study had a higher brain volume after 15 years.

"These findings are exciting because these are all changes that anyone can make at a young age to help themselves live a long and healthy life," Bancks said. "This may mean that heart health may have an impact on brain function in early life, but more study needs to be done to confirm this theory."