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82-year-old Paddy Goldsmith and her husband Jeff are embracing a new way life.
The couple are cooking, and exercising their body and minds with the hope of preventing the onset of dementia.
"Unfortunately, we have a number of friends with dementia or caring for someone with dementia and seeing the way its impacted people its encouraged me to learn what I can and maybe we can prevent it in ourselves."
For three years, Paddy took part in an online lifestyle intervention program with personalised coaching, aimed at preventing cognitive decline.
"The way the course was presented, it made it possible to make it a way of life. It was very well presented."
Around 6000 participants from metropolitan, rural and remote Australia were involved in the trial.
All were aged between 55 and 77.
Professor Henry Brodaty - the co-director of the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing at the University of New South Wales - led the research.
"We know that 45 per cent of the risk of dementia is caused by environmental factors, things that we can do something about. These are things like physical activity, unhealthy diet, people who have had less education, less brain development or cognitive activities."
The Intervention group was asked to make changes in four areas.
They were, physical activity - including cardio, strength, and balance training; nutrition, with participants advised to follow a Mediterranean diet; 45-minute sessions of brain training - targeting cognitive domains, including visual and verbal memory; and lastly, peace of mind, with a digital mental health program aiming to reduce depression and anxiety.
Half the participants received online coaching and support, while the other half received publicly available information.
Professor Brodaty says the course resulted in better cognition in older adults for both groups.
"And at the end of year three we found both groups improved, but we found the group with coaching had improved even more than the active controls. We estimate that’s equivalent to delaying dementia for about a year. We can’t prove that yet, if we do a much longer follow up just yet, but with a much longer follow up we hope to prove that."
More than 421,000 Australians live with dementia.
Under current projections, it's expected to overtake heart disease as the leading cause of death in Australia.
Dr David Sykes is the head of Dementia Australia, the national peak body for dementia.
He says the research emphasises the need to boost community awareness.
"We've got good examples in this country of really health messaging and led the world in that in fact. And I think there's an opportunity to apply that in the dementia context around exercise, around diet, around brain training and cognitive function. We also need government to step up and take a greater responsibility in promoting greater public health awareness messages on this."
Paddy and Jeff say, while their efforts don't mean they're immune, they feel good about doing everything possible to reduce their risks.
"Growing old is not for the faint of heart. And i think if we can maintain the quality of life that we are.. that's the important thing."
