With more than 55 million people worldwide now living with dementia, and nearly 10 million new cases occurring every year, finding effective and safe ways to maintain brain health is becoming an increasingly challenging global health problem. Currently approved pharmaceutical drugs for dementia neither cure nor halt cognitive decline; at best they simply delay the worsening cognitive impairment. Taking a different approach, a new review examines the effects of 21 different nutrients and phytonutrients on cognitive function. Promisingly, the researchers found particularly noteworthy benefits to memory, attention, intelligence, vocabulary, creative thinking, reaction time, comprehension, learning, and other critical measures of cognition.