Written by Erika Watts — Fact checked by Jill Seladi-Schulman, Ph.D.
Many people live with chronic pain, and previous research has shown there is a connection between chronic pain and poor brain aging.
A new study took a closer look at this by exploring whether daily habits impact brain agingTrusted Source in people with chronic pain.
The researchers found that people who had healthy lifestyle behaviors had a younger brain age. In some cases, participants’ brain age was up to 8 years younger than their actual age.
The findings suggest that while chronic pain was associated with accelerated brain aging in earlier studies, healthy behaviors may help protect the brain as people get older.
The study is published in Brain Communications.
Chronic pain: How does it affect the aging brain?
As people age, their chances of developing chronic pain increase. This can happen due to wear and tear on joints, muscles, and connective tissue.
Conditions such as osteoarthritis and spinal disc degeneration contribute to chronic pain. While treatments such as physical therapy, medication, or surgery can help, recovery tends to be slowerTrusted Source in older adults, and pain may not fully resolve.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)Trusted Source, data from 2023 showed that 24.3% of United States adults reported having chronic pain. Additionally, 8.5% of adults had chronic pain that affected their daily life and work.
Chronic pain can also contribute to poor sleep and depression.
Aging is also associated with changes in the brain. Studies using MRI scans have indicated that aging is associated with the shrinking of some regions of the brain, as well as with changes in gray and white matter, which are linked to slower processing speed and memory deficits.
Ideally, a person’s brain age would match or appear younger than their chronological age. However, in conditions such as dementia, the brain often appears older than expected.
The researchers behind the new study further explored chronic pain and brain age by analyzing data from more than 100 adults ages 45 to 85 who were tracked for 2 years.
The participants were part of a larger observational study on pain and osteoarthritis risk. The scientists assessed each participant’s chronic pain stage on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being little to no chronic pain and 5 being severe chronic pain.
Some factors that they considered to determine the pain stage included:
- pain frequency
- pain intensity
- how long the pain has lasted
- number of pain sites in the body.
The team also evaluated the participants’ lifestyle habits and psychological traits, including tobacco use, waist size, sleep quality, stress levels, and optimism.
They used this to determine a “protective score,” and people with healthier lifestyles and stronger emotional and social well-being had higher scores.
5 simple lifestyle factors may keep the brain younger
At the start of the study, people with a higher protective score, including those with chronic pain, had brain ages that were up to 8 years younger than their chronological age.
People with lower protective scores, however, had a brain age that was older than their actual age.
After 2 years, participants with the healthiest lifestyle profiles continued to show younger brain ages, which suggests that positive habits can have a lasting effect on brain health.
Some of the most important protective factors, which were associated with a younger brain age in people with chronic pain, were:
- maintaining a good sleep hygiene
- maintaining a healthy body weight
- avoiding tobacco
- good stress management strategies
- maintaining positive social ties.
The researchers said their results show lifestyle and social habits matter more than pain severity alone.
They emphasized that many of these factors can be changed, and people should speak with their healthcare providers about how to develop healthier habits.
For example, they could speak with their providers about improving sleep, stopping tobacco use, and finding ways to improve social support.
A ‘compelling’ study
Dung Trinh, MD, an internist with MemorialCare Medical Group and Chief Medical Officer of Healthy Brain Clinic, discussed the study with Medical News Today.
“It’s a compelling practical study linking chronic pain and everyday lifestyle psychosocial factors to an MRI-based ‘brain age’ measure,” Trinh who was not involved in this research, told us.
He added that one of the study’s strengths is using multiple brain scans.
Trinh emphasized that brain age is “a biological risk marker, not a direct guarantee of better memory or dementia prevention,” and said that because the study is observational, it does not prove cause and effect.
Still, he noted that modifiable factors such as sleep, stress, smoking, and social connection can add up over time.
“Even if we can’t change age or genetics, we can influence sleep quality, stress load, physical activity pacing in the presence of pain, smoking status, and social connection,” Trinh explained.
Hanul Bhandari, MD, a neurologist and Chief Medical Officer at Vistim Labs, likewise not involved in this research, also spoke with MNT about the study.
Bhandari said the study stands out for showing that brain aging is shaped by daily habits:
“This study is compelling because it reframes brain aging as a dynamic process shaped by daily behaviors, psychosocial context, and chronic health stressors rather than as an inevitable consequence of time alone.”
He noted that the study did not focus only on what harms the brain, but highlighted protective factors, which he said aligns with how neurologists increasingly view aging.
“Preserving brain health supports not just memory, but independence, adaptability, and overall lifespan quality,” Bhandari emphasized. “Studies like this remind us that the brain is responsive, measurable, and worth protecting early, consistently, and deliberately.”
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