“Brain shrinkage” sounds scary enough. Seriously, who wants a shrinking brain?

But in reality, all our brains shrink a little over the years — and in most cases it’s nothing to worry about.

Some brains, however, shrink faster than others — and since this rapid loss of gray matter is often a warning sign of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, you want to limit your own shrinkage as much as possible.

And the best way to do that is with the vitamins you should be getting anyway.

I’ve told you how B vitamins can help slow the shrinkage linked to dementia and stop or even reverse cognitive decline. Now, blood tests on 104 seniors with an average age of 87 finds that those with the highest levels of vitamins B, C, D and E have the biggest brains.

Not coincidentally, seniors with high levels of these key nutrients also did the best on tests that measured certain cognitive functions — specifically, the ability to think, plan and solve problems. They also did better on tests measuring visuospatial skills and global cognitive function.

In plain talk, that means these vitamins can help keep your brain sharp enough to chase dementia away.

Along with those nutrients, make sure you get your share of omega-3 fatty acids — because the same study found that seniors with the highest levels of these essential fats had better cognitive function and less damage to the white matter of the brain.

And don’t forget while omega-3s can protect the brain, there’s another type of fat than can rot it from the inside: the dangerous trans fats used in so-called “healthy” products like margarine.

Seniors with the highest levels of those trans fats, which you’ll find in everything from coffee creamers to snack cakes, had smaller brains and did poorly on cognitive tests.

Keep in mind that food makers are allowed to round “low” levels of trans fats down to zero — so don’t trust the ingredients panel. Any product that has partially hydrogenated vegetable oils will have trans fats — so avoid them, even if it says “trans fat free” on the label.

It’s not the first study to show that nutrients can slow or stop dementia. As I mentioned earlier, B vitamins have proven time and again to prevent shrinkage, reduce inflammation and boost brainpower.

And while a good diet will include most of the vitamins you need to keep your brain sharp the exception to the rule is those Bs. You’ll need more of those than what you’ll find in food, so be sure to add a quality B complex to your regimen today.

“Fish is brain food” is the kind of age-old folk wisdom that’s been proven time and again by cutting-edge science — and the latest research confirms that the best way to keep your brain swimming in gray matter is with a steady diet of fish.

I mean that literally: Seniors who eat fish at least once a week have more of that critical gray matter, giving them a lower risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

The biggest boost is in the frontal and temporal lobes — specifically the areas most closely linked to memory and learning, or exactly where you want your extra gray matter to be.

And if you think the benefits inside the brain are impressive, you should see how that translates out in the real world: Just 3.2 percent of the fish-eaters developed cognitive decline over five years, versus 30.8 percent of those who ate little to no fish, according to data presented at a Radiological Society of North America meeting.

If there’s one area where the researchers found no benefit, it was in fried fish — and I have to wonder if it’s because of the frying… or because of the oils people tend to fry things in.

Most people don’t fry their foods — fish or otherwise — in healthy oils. They fry them in the unhealthiest polyunsaturated oils of all, including blended vegetable oils, soybean oil and safflower oil.

Try a healthier oil — like peanut oil — and all your fried foods will get a health boost (and taste better, too).

But let’s get back to seafood, cooked however you like — because a diet rich in fatty fish will do so much more than protect your brain. Fatty fish can help prevent heart disease, protect your vision, beat depression and even improve your gums.

Yet despite all those benefits, some simply won’t eat fish to save their lives. Maybe it’s the smell… the taste… the texture… or all three.

Whatever the reason, you don’t have to actually eat any fish at all to get the benefits — because almost all of those benefits come from the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil, which you can find almost anywhere as a supplement.

Shop around before you commit to one — some brands will leave you with the “fish burps,” which is a little counterproductive if you’re taking pills to avoid the taste of fish in the first place.

Buy smaller sizes or sample packs first — it might take a little trial-and-burping, but eventually, you’ll find one that works for you.

Some nutrients, like vitamin D, always seem to be making headlines — while others, you just never hear about.

Take choline, for example.

When was the last time you heard about that one? Possibly never — but you might want to add it to your vocabulary, because this B vitamin found in egg yolks, liver, and chicken may have the power to protect your brain and keep dementia at bay.

Researchers looked at data on some 1,400 adults between the ages of 36 and 83 who were tracked for nearly a decade and given MRI exams along with tests to check both memory and cognitive ability.

You might want to stock up on eggs: The patients with the highest dietary choline intake did much better on those memory tests than those with the lowest. What’s more, the MRIs revealed fewer signs of “white matter hyperintensity” in the brain.

That’s a blood vessel problem that may be linked to both stroke and dementia.

Sounds great, right? But there’s just one catch: The choline levels were calculated based on food surveys, and food surveys simply aren’t good science. They rely too much on guesses, estimates, and memory.

That last one’s a little ironic given that memory tests were part of the study. Can those who did the worst on those tests really be relied on to give an accurate accounting of their food intake?

On the other hand, this study doesn’t come out of the blue, either — because choline is needed by the brain to make acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter involved in everything from muscles to memory.

Some studies have shown that Alzheimer’s patients lose the ability to turn choline into acetylcholine, and some promising experimental research has looked into finding ways to correct that — although if the problem is in the conversion, then choline supplements on their own won’t stop the disease.

But if they can prevent it, we’re on the right track — and earlier studies have shown that rats given choline in the womb go on to develop more powerful brains later.

Since choline is also essential for everything from your heart to your liver, you might want to add this to your supplement list. After all, it’s unlikely you’re getting enough from diet alone — unless you’re eating plenty of egg yolks.

By the way, choline isn’t the only B vitamin that can play a key role in stopping and even reversing cognitive decline: Seniors given a blend of B6, B12, and thiamine did significantly better on memory tests and had fewer signs of the brain shrinkage linked to dementia.

Learn more here.

It’s the biggest scandal — and the biggest swindle — you’ve never heard of: Dementia patients are being shipped back and forth between nursing homes and hospitals in a calculated attempt to raise their cash value.

And boy does it ever work.

State Medicaid programs usually pay an average of $175 a day for the long-term care of dementia patients.

Usually.

But when those patients are sent to a hospital and then returned to the nursing home, Medicare steps in and pays triple the fees — because the agency believes these patients now need skilled care to help with the recovery.

Ka-ching!

As you can imagine, nursing homes have caught onto this little game in a big way: A new study finds that a fifth of all advanced dementia patients are sent off for dubious hospitalizations in the final months of their lives.

The study labels these transfers as “dubious” because the end was clearly near for these late-stage patients and hospitalization wouldn’t have made a difference — and obviously didn’t, since the patients died anyway.

Instead, they’re shipped around and put through sheer torture, often suffering bedsores and needing feeding tubes. Many of them can’t handle the stress and the movement — making their conditions worse, not better.

What’s more, many of those hospital stays were for conditions nursing homes can and should handle on their own: pneumonia, urinary and other infections, swallowing problems and dehydration, for example.

“These are people who are unable to recognize their relatives, they’re bed-bound and they’re now usually having problems with swallowing. This is a population where the burdens of hospitalization often outweigh the possible benefits,” study co-author Joan Teno, a palliative care physician and health policy professor at Brown University, told the Associated Press.

“These patients actually do better when they stay in a nursing home,” she said.

And that’s exactly right, because the research on dementia care shows clearly that patients in all stages of the disease respond better to familiar surroundings, comfort and kindness than they do to the dangerous — not the mention zombifying — off-label meds they’re so often given.

The sad truth is that no one’s ever gotten rich by selling compassion — but it looks like there’s plenty of money to be made in swapping dementia patients.