Towards a new culture of Brain Health and Brain Fitness

?Pan­el agrees: Brain health improved by eat­ing healthy diet, get­ting reg­u­lar exer­cise + rest­ful sleep, reduc­ing stress, being social­ly con­nect­ed. Sounds sim­ple but we don’t do it well in mod­ern US cul­ture. Let’s address bar­ri­ers AND find ther­a­pies to treat brain dis­eases. #MIFHS pic.twitter.com/aj4uh5wLm5

— Kim McCleary (@KimTweetsDC) Octo­ber 23, 2018

Some addi­tion­al Con­fer­ence Bites from the stim­u­lat­ing con­ver­sa­tions at the Future of Health Sum­mit ear­li­er this week:

“We real­ly believe the future is indi­vid­u­al­iza­tion & con­sumers will be empow­ered to make more choice.”
~ Sara Wajn­berg, Oscar Health

“Every­one has a brain, and how can we help every­one under­stand the impor­tance of brain health? ‘Brain fit­ness’ is a metaphor that engages peo­ple at all levels.”
~ Alvaro Fer­nan­dez, SharpBrains

“With 10,000 peo­ple turn­ing 65 every day in the U.S., brain health is increas­ing­ly important.”
~ Sarah Lock, AARP

“There’s noth­ing more dis­ap­point­ing to those of us who work in sci­ence to see sci­ence just sit on the shelf. Sci­ence does not need to sit on a shelf. It needs to be put into action to solve problems.”
~ Robert Red­field, CDC

Ses­sion title: Brain Health for Longevi­ty: What Works? What Doesn’t?

Descrip­tion: The human brain is one of the most pow­er­ful — yet least under­stood — machines on the plan­et. Despite the social, eth­i­cal, and eco­nom­ic imper­a­tives to cure and pre­vent dis­eases of the aging brain — from mild cog­ni­tive impair­ment to Alzheimer’s — we know much less than what is need­ed to tru­ly address these ill­ness­es. This ses­sion will exam­ine what the lead­ing sci­en­tists, schol­ars and pol­i­cy experts know about how lifestyle issues such as nutri­tion, stress, and phys­i­cal activ­i­ty may impact long-term brain health, as well as promis­ing break­throughs in the devel­op­ment of new drug ther­a­pies to pre­vent and treat Alzheimer’s disease.

Mod­er­a­tor: Nora Super
Direc­tor of Pol­i­cy and Pro­grams, Cen­ter for the Future of Aging, Milken Institute

Speak­ers:

Alvaro Fer­nan­dez
CEO and Edi­tor-in-Chief, Sharp­Brains; Young Glob­al Leader, World Eco­nom­ic Forum

Sarah Lock
Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Glob­al Coun­cil on Brain Health; Senior Vice Pres­i­dent, Pol­i­cy and Brain Health, AARP

David Perl­mut­ter
Exec­u­tive Vice Chan­cel­lor for Med­ical Affairs and Dean, School of Med­i­cine, Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty in St. Louis

Alfred San­drock
Chief Med­ical Offi­cer, Biogen

Bri­an Van Buren
Liv­ing with Alzheimer’s

Event in Context:

• Solv­ing the Brain Fit­ness Puz­zle Is the Key to Self-Empow­ered Aging
• Six tips to build resilience and pre­vent brain-dam­ag­ing stress
• Five rea­sons the future of brain enhance­ment is dig­i­tal, per­va­sive and (hope­ful­ly) bright
• To har­ness neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, start with enthusiasm
• 10 neu­rotech­nolo­gies about to trans­form brain enhance­ment and brain health