DR. WALLACE: I'm a teenage girl who has a wonderfully special, loving friendship with my paternal grandmother. She lives close enough to us that I can see her regularly, and we both bring a lot of joy, laughter and fun into each other's lives.

I'm aware that my dad's side of the family has a history of early dementia. Is there anything I can say, do or encourage my grandmother to do which may help her to avoid a similar fate? — Interested in Grandma's Longevity, via email

INTERESTED IN GRANDMA'S LONGEVITY: You may not find it surprising that I'll recommend a combination of exercise and healthy eating. However, there are some specifics which are interesting and relatively easy to build into your grandmother's dietary routine.

Researcher Claire McEvoy of the Center for Public Health at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, has discovered that plant-based diets create antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects that can protect against cognitive decline and dementia.

Researchers have discovered that brain-healthy foods, such as vegetable salads and grilled fish, are associated with individuals having a bigger hippocampus compared with "brain-shrinking" diets that involve lots of hamburgers, French fries and soft drinks, as well as other forms of red meat, potato chips and sausage.

I'm also aware of other studies that tend to back this up. Rush University in Chicago tracked about 1,000 people for nearly five years and discovered that their participants who ate just 1 1/3 extra servings of green leafy vegetables per day demonstrated cognitive abilities similar to those of people 11 years younger than their biological age.

To break that down a little bit, if your grandmother were to enjoy a large salad every other day and be sure to enjoy a few portions of carrots and broccoli for dinner every night as well as eating a few portions of fruit for snacks each day, she would place herself in the best possible position! Also encourage your grandmother to add in some exercise, which sends chemical signals to the brain telling it to grow via the absorption of additional oxygen and the extension of blood vessels, and you'll be doing all you can to give your beloved grandmother the best chance at a healthy, cognitively stable experience during her golden years!

SHOULD WE MARRY SOONER OR LATER?

DR. WALLACE: My boyfriend and I want to get married. We're both currently living with roommates near the university that I attend. I'm 19 and am wrapping up my freshman year of college, but I'm on an accelerated path and believe I can graduate in three years. I've taken some extra courses during this academic year, and I'm going to use the summers over the next few years to take additional courses that will keep me on track to graduate within three academic years.

My future husband has an excellent sales job, and I create some handmade craft items that sell pretty well online. Between the two of us, we have built up a nice nest egg of over $50,000 in savings, and we are already steaming toward what we hope will be $100,000 in savings before we get married.

He wants us to plan to get married within the next six to nine months, but I'm a bit hesitant. I'm not hesitant that he's the one for me; it's just that I would like to both have us build up more savings, and I want to concentrate on my degree before we tie the knot. Do you think it matters much with our background if we get married within a year or if we wait to get married about a few years from now, when I graduate? — On Track but No Date Set Yet, via email

ON TRACK BUT NO DATE SET YET: I side with you. I am steadfast that if one or both people who are planning to marry each other are attending college, it's better to allow the college degree to be completed first before entering into marriage, if all other things are equal.

Of course, there are exceptions, but you explained your situation. I highly recommend that the two of you hold off a couple more years until you achieve your degree.

Please also note that I feel you have enough of a nest egg now to get married, so my answer does not depend upon additional increments of monetary savings; it's purely based on sustaining the momentum toward a highly valuable college degree. And congratulations to you for being able to be on track to complete your studies so swiftly.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at rwallace@thegreatestgift.com. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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