“People don’t realise that taking care of your brain isn’t about prolonging its life but avoiding the unhealthy habits that actively shorten it,” Dr MacSweeney explains. “Around 30% of the risk factors for diseases like vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are modifiable, meaning they’re things we can control.

“Most people are born with a very healthy brain – some people have better brains than others in the same way that some people are taller than others, but they’re still in a brilliant state. So, what influences your brain health as you age is not so much about making your brain healthy, because it’s healthy at the start. Instead, it’s about avoiding those things that will destroy your brain.”

This is, of course, the case for most health issues: looking after your heart is just as much about preventing rises in cholesterol and blood pressure as it is about working out the muscle, for example. The problem lies in the fact that we’re much more familiar with the idea of looking after our hearts, and aware that cardiovascular disease is an illness. However, when it comes to brain health, we’re much more likely to see cognitive decline as something that “just happens” as we age.

“I’m a brain doctor and these are the 5 unhelpful everyday habits I want you to stop doing right now”