Brain Science:
You do have a voice in controlling your risk for cognitive decline. Some of the most influential and modifiable factors related to decline are linked to lifestyle: physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, smoking, social isolation, poor sleep, lack of mentally stimulating activities and misuse of alcohol. Sanjay Gupta, in his book, Keep Sharp ( Build a Better Brain at Any Age), suggests five strategies to preserving your brain. In succeeding texts we will go through each one and develop the rational for the strategy.
Brain Facts:
· Age is the strongest known risk factor for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. We know that the incidence of Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia increases exponentially after 65, nearly doubling every five years. By the age of 85 and older about a third of people have dementia.
· Among most people who are 85 or older that have dementia, signs of brain decline began silently when they were between 55 and 65 years old.
· !0% or so of people who are 65 years old and have developed dementia started to degenerate when they were between 35 and 45 years old.
· Studies show that the most feared disease of older people is Alzheimer’s/ Dementia.
So What:
This is not brain science. The control you have over dementia is not earth shattering or surprising. As we have discussed I don’t come up with these things but get them from reading and research. (Sometimes you also send things to me.) What we are going to suggest is that you consider what Sanjay Gupta suggests as a strategy. That strategy makes sense to me and frankly represents what we call common sense. Trust me, I nor Gupta, are selling you on any kind of product. What we are selling is using your brain to preserve your brain.
The five pillars of brain health we will examine are:
· Move
· Discover
· Relax
· Nourish
· Connect
We will try to select a few interesting points on each one of these in the next few texts.
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