Ibanez says he “definitely” would recommend learning a foreign language to protect the brain from accelerated ageing.

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“Learning and using another language is a powerful way to stimulate the brain,” he says. “It enhances attention, memory and executive control, building what we call cognitive reserve [the brain’s resilience against ageing and disease].

“Beyond the mental exercise, language learning opens new social and cultural experiences, which are also protective for brain health.

“Even if you live in a monolingual society, engaging regularly with another language may recreate many of the same benefits we observed at the population level.”

Professor Jason Rothman from Lancaster University and Dr Federico Gallo from the Arctic University of Norway co-wrote an article on the findings and called the results of the study “striking” and a “milestone” for linguistic research.

“The key takeaway is compelling: across diverse settings and rigorous controls, multilingualism consistently emerges as a protective factor for healthier ageing,” they write.

“This reframes language use as a modifiable behaviour that is relevant to public health.”

They add that multilingualism is “uniquely positioned as a low-cost, scalable lever for public health” and that encouraging and preserving it in society could be as important to long-term public health as getting people to exercise or to stop smoking.

The study is published in the journal Nature Aging.

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