Doctors Reveal Whether Eating With Your Non-Dominant Hand Has Brain Benefits

Without thinking about it, most people default to using their dominant hand when picking up a fork or mug, as they do when picking up a pen or pencil.

Recently, though, chatter on social media suggests that using your non-dominant hand (for example, using your left hand if you’re right-handed) when eating or doing other tasks can be a way to challenge your brain. In turn, this may lower your risk of dementia.

Research shows learning new skills is good for your cognition. But can simply eating with your non-dominant hand impact dementia?

Here’s what experts say:

When it comes to using your non-dominant hand as a way to lower dementia risk, “the brass tacks is that there is no direct evidence,” said Dr David Gonzalez, a neuropsychologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

Dr Benjamin Rosenstein, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School, agreed. “There’s no evidence that using your non-dominant hand for activity is going to help prevent dementia.”

But that doesn’t mean this habit is all bad. Staying engaged in hobbies and interests and learning new things can help lower dementia risk, Rosenstein noted, which is where this idea likely comes from.

Gonzalez said he appreciates the idea of challenging your brain.

“There is some literature suggesting that individuals who have more lifelong challenge, whether that is challenging work, more challenging or intellectually stimulating hobbies, or being an autodidact and just learning and going through things, that there does tend to be a lower risk for developing dementia later in life,” he said.

Gonzalez explained that the evidence for this is weaker than for other lifestyle changes that can lower dementia risk. (More on that in a second.) The impact that learning new things has on dementia risk is a little more mixed.

Learning one specific new hobby or skill won’t in itself help lower your chance of developing dementia, according to Rosenstein. Instead, “it’s more that if you are learning something new, you are keeping yourself [engaged],” Rosenstein added. “If you’re trying to learn something new, you’re staying engaged with things, you’re challenging yourself, you’re keeping yourself active.”

More than even the learning itself, staying engaged and keeping your brain active are good for cognition.

According to Gonzalez, trying something new is good for the brain, but you need to consider the “quality and quantity of mental activity to have some sort of neuroprotective benefit.”

“When we talk about quality, what I mean is sort of like Goldilocks’ principle of not too easy … but not too hard towards frustrating,” he said.

You want the “just right” amount of challenge and novelty.

“In this case, for someone who is right-hand-dominant trying to use their left hand for a task, there is a smidge of truth there,” Gonzalez said, because you are challenging your brain to a new task.

“But it’s less about using the hand itself because once you are able to use it for a task, it’s no longer a challenge,” Gonzalez added. Meaning, you may teach yourself this skill over several days, but once you master the skill, it’s no longer a mental challenge and no longer has a protective effect on the brain.

Doing something different once or a few times isn’t going to do much for your brain, either. Instead, it’s the continual dedication to trying a variety of new things, Gonzalez explained, whether a new language, recipe, sport, hobby or leveling up a home improvement project.

“Individuals for whom doing a variety of challenging things is most protective are doing a variety. They’re not just doing one thing,” he said.

To learn something new, the brain needs to make new connections. This is good for our cognition.

“Our brains, more than any other organ, are reciprocal,” Gonzalez said. “They respond to our worlds.”

There isn’t one magic pill, food or activity that will prevent dementia. Instead, it’s “these whole entire practices that can be protective over time,” said Rosenstein, and can help lower your risk of developing the condition.

Again and again, the factors that protect your brain health as you age are regular exercise and a nutritious diet such as the Mediterranean-diet-inspired MIND diet or the DASH diet, which aims to lower blood pressure, Rosenstein said.

“If we’re thinking about midlife … protecting your heart health, so things like managing blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, reducing smoking, trying to watch your weight,” Gonzalez said. Getting enough high-quality sleep is also important.

“And actually, we’re seeing a lot on social engagement. So individuals who are isolated or lonely … being disconnected from others or feeling disconnected is related to dementia, and the inverse of that, being connected, fostering connection, has been shown to help reduce that risk,” Gonzalez added.

If you are someone who wants to try out the non-dominant-hand eating habit, there is nothing wrong with that. But don’t let it be the only way you’re challenging your brain.

“What’s more important is approaching life with that zest, that curiosity and that spice,” Gonzalez said.

Be curious about new things; try new hobbies, make different crafts, learn an instrument, meet different people – all of these are great ways to keep your brain engaged as you age.