Participating in engaging mental activities in middle age or later in life may delay or prevent memory loss, according to one study by the Mayo Clinic. The study involved 197 people between the ages of 70 and 89 with diagnosed memory loss, and 1,124 people with no memory problems. Both groups answered questions about their daily activities within the past year and when they were between 50 and 65 years old.

The study found during the subjects’ later years, reading, playing games, participating in computer activities, and doing craft activities such as pottery or quilting led to a 30 to 50 percent decrease in the risk of developing memory loss, compared with people who did not do those activities.

People who watched television less than seven hours a day in their later years were 50 percent less likely to develop memory loss than people who watched more than seven hours a day.

People who participated in social activities and read during middle age were about 40 percent less likely to develop memory loss than those who did not do those activities.

Any diet works—as long as you eat fewer calories, according to a report published in The New England Journal of Medicine. In other words, it doesn’t matter if you count carbohydrates, protein, or fat, as long as you cut calories, according to a study of more than 800 adults who were assigned to one of four diets that reduced calories through different combinations of fat, carbohydrates, and protein.

After two years, every group had lost an average of 13 pounds at six months and maintained about 9 pounds of weight loss.

“It really does cut through the hype,” says Frank M. Sacks, M.D., the study’s lead author and professor of cardiovascular disease prevention at the Harvard School of Public Health. “It gives people lots of flexibility to pick a diet they can stick with.”

Financial incentives triple the rates of smoking cessation, according to a study by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia, which included a large group of Americans who were offered up to $750 to give up smoking.

After a year, nearly 15 percent of the group that was offered money were still smoke-free, compared with just 5 percent of those who weren’t paid to kick the habit.

According to Thomas Glynn, M.D., director of cancer science and trends for the American Cancer Society, quitting is very difficult, but smokers should know it’s not impossible.

“It’s not rare for people to quit smoking,” he says. “But it is a process. It’s usually not a single act, and most people do it over a year or two.”

Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S.

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