Preface xv
ity are present. The man with Alzheimer’s was able to grow
tomatoes and vegetables, the woman with Alzheimer’s was able
to cook and serve under supervision, and Robby is employed
and takes wonderful trips to other cities even though he has a
documented mental age of three. Ultimately, Robby has pro-
vided his entire family with a gift of humility and love, and a
reminder that with love from family, anything is possible. All of
these individuals provide loved ones the ongoing lesson of what
is really important in life, and they help us to prioritize our
“stuff” in meaningful ways. Neural plasticity, the brain’s ability
to be shaped by environment, is a miracle that gets nourished
with proper environmental input regardless of health or disease.
Understanding what that input is and applying it across the life
span is the challenge and purpose of a proactive brain health
lifestyle.
The Brain Health Lifestyle
Engage in something new and complex for you today, make a
new friend, eat a delicious meal that includes salmon, stop to
enjoy the moment or engage in prayer, and walk around your
block. Simple tips like these offer a few of the easy changes we
can make in our daily routine to begin the process of living a
proactive brain health lifestyle. The chapters that follow provide
more examples of brain-healthy behaviors for you to consider
and to add to your new brain health lifestyle.
Prefacexvi
The primary message of this book is that we should seek
the types of environments that promote brain health. It is from
these environments, rich in the novel and complex, that our
brains will thrive and build brain reserve to combat the poten-
tial presence of neurodegenerative diseases, such as dementia.
This underscores the importance of my proactive brain health
lifestyle to help the brain delay the onset of neurodegenerative
diseases like Alzheimer’s.
I have been witness to so many who have lost access to their
life stories and therefore have become disconnected from their
loved ones. It is from these experiences that my work on the
planet is now focused on helping everyone maintain as healthy
a brain as possible. This is the rallying call and the personal
message. This book is about you. I hope the message of this
book motivates you to love your brain and to begin the process
of caring for it from this day on.
1
Introduction
You have no greater asset than your life story. It must be shared with
your next great generation, the little ones in your life.
7
Sitting across the table from a person struggling to recall his
name can be an unsettling experience. Perhaps even more
diffi cult is the realization on the faces of the family members
that their father or grandfather is no longer capable of recog-
nizing them and in some ways has forever been disconnected
from them. Brain disease such as Alzheimer’s causes daunting
experiences. It is at these moments that we can understand the
sheer brilliance and, at the same time, the fragility of the human
brain. It is your brain, after all, that contains and expresses your
identity, enables your connection to others, creates and stores
your memories, and most important, tells your life story. This
book is written from the deep emotional reality that exists from
sitting at that table hundreds of times in my life. It represents
my attempt to provide a tangible guide for preserving access
to our identity, to our loved ones, to our life story. And while
the brain is fragile, it is also the most magnifi cent system ever
designed, capable of more than we can presently know and
deserving of a lifetime’s dedication to health.
Save Your Brain2
Watching a person who has been affected by a brain illness
or condition is both diffi cult and enlightening. It is not uncom-
mon to see a person suffering from a devastating brain illness
cope with amazing fortitude and courage. At the same time, the
signs and symptoms of brain disease can indeed be life-chang-
ing for the patient and those family members and friends who
surround the patient. In my work, I have helped patients who
have lost the ability to speak, to walk, to behave appropriately,
to see or hear, and to remember. These are not simply functions
lost because of a particular disease or insult to the brain—they
represent a loss of part of the person. In the case of memory
loss, the literal identity of the person may be lost. It does not
get more personal that that! It is also important for me to state
that my patients have helped me to understand that all of us can
appreciate life and that it is so important to stop our hurried
lives and enjoy the moment, to express ourselves to those we
love, and to realize that today may be our last.
The human brain is the most brilliant and magnifi cent sys-
tem ever designed. Every now and then the brain will express
its sheer brilliance, though we tend to view some manifestations
of this brilliance as “abnormal” or as a psychiatric disorder. I
often use the example of Rain Man, the wonderful movie that
stars Dustin Hoffman as a man who suffers from autism with a
savant ability to mentally calculate the probability of a certain
card being drawn from six decks of cards.
When it comes to the mind, there is nothing that now exists
and there will never be anything built that comes close to the
complexity of the human brain, and that is based on the little
we know about the brain today. We underestimate the power
Introduction 3
of the human brain on a consistent basis. Despite our tendency
to sit in awe of the latest technology or gadget, the most impres-
sive portable and wireless system is the human brain, which is
capable of things we cannot even imagine yet.
It is from this context and appreciation of the human brain
that a deeper discussion can occur about why and how we care
for this part of our being. Your brain contains your identity,
your very being, your potential for personal development, and
perhaps the innovation or idea that will forever change the lives
of millions. Your brain builds over the course of your lifetime
your personal life story, the most precious gift you have and one
that needs to be shared with others whom you love. There is
perhaps no greater untapped resource in the universe than the
human brain. Cultures from the beginning of humankind have
neglected the brain’s importance and unique distinction. It is
time to shift our viewpoint to awaken a wonderful interest in
the human brain and a lifestyle that promotes brain health.
The Power of Your Brain
Sitting inside our heads is the greatest system in the universe—
a real miracle. We need to move beyond a perception of the
human brain as an academic or clinical entity to one that is
deeply personal. Indeed, we need to embrace this part of our
being, the core of who we are, and learn about it. From an
understanding of the basics of our brain, we can begin the pro-
cess of caring for it and promoting its health. Brain health is a