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Why I’m Dig­ging Deep Into Alzheimer’s (Bill Gates):

“In every part of the world, peo­ple are liv­ing longer than they used to. Thanks to sci­en­tif­ic advance­ments, few­er peo­ple die young from heart dis­ease, can­cer, and infec­tious dis­eases. It’s no longer unusu­al for a per­son to live well into their 80s and beyond. My dad will cel­e­brate his 92nd birth­day in a cou­ple weeks, a mile­stone that was prac­ti­cal­ly unimag­in­able when he was born.

This fact—that peo­ple are liv­ing longer than ever before—should always be a won­der­ful thing. But what hap­pens when it’s not? Read the rest of this entry »

Time for Sharp­Brains’ July e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing fas­ci­nat­ing sci­en­tif­ic find­ings, emerg­ing brain health prac­tices and insights…and some fun teasers.

New research

Let’s start with the key take-aways from a new and very insight­ful evi­dence review which found nine mod­i­fi­able risk fac­tors for demen­tia — account­ing for 35% of all cas­es:
— Edu­ca­tion by age 15 (dur­ing ear­ly life)
— Hyper­ten­sion; Obe­si­ty; Hear­ing loss (in mid-life)
— Depres­sion; Dia­betes; Phys­i­cal inac­tiv­i­ty; Smok­ing; Low social con­tact (in lat­er life)

• Report: 35% of world­wide demen­tia cas­es could be pre­vent­ed by mod­i­fy­ing these 9 mod­i­fi­able risk fac­tors
• Study shows how prac­tic­ing grat­i­tude can help train your brain and improve men­tal health over time
• With 25% of US physi­cians aged 65+, hos­pi­tals test old­er doc­tors on men­tal and phys­i­cal acu­ity

New thinking

• “Our health starts and ends with brain health” — Dr. San­dra Bond Chap­man, at the 2016 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit
• Four Ways to Upgrade Brain Health in the Dig­i­tal Age
• Call for nom­i­na­tions and appli­ca­tions @ Glob­al Teacher Prize 2018

Upcoming events

• Brain Health Chal­lenge by MIT Solve (Sub­mis­sions due August 1st)
• Reminder and Dis­count Code: Brain­Fu­tures 2017 to take place Sep­tem­ber 6–7th in Wash­ing­ton, DC
• 2017 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit: Brain Enhance­ment in the Dig­i­tal Age (Decem­ber 5–7th, 2017), fea­tur­ing a stel­lar “Sharp Tank” of Judges shap­ing brain-relat­ed inno­va­tion in health­care, edu­ca­tion, the work­place, and gen­er­al qual­i­ty of life.

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Final­ly, you may want to Test your Brain and Mind with these 9 Clas­sic Opti­cal Illu­sions 🙂

Have a great August!

The Sharp­Brains Team

The Lancet Com­mis­sion: One Third of Demen­tia May Be Pre­ventable (Lancet report release):

“Today’s find­ings are extreme­ly hope­ful,” said Maria Car­ril­lo, PhD, chief sci­ence offi­cer at the Alzheimer’s Asso­ci­a­tion. “At an indi­vid­ual lev­el, many peo­ple have the poten­tial to reduce their risk of cog­ni­tive decline, and per­haps demen­tia, through sim­ple, health­ful behav­ior changes. At a pub­lic health lev­el, inter­ven­tions based on this evi­dence could be extreme­ly pow­er­ful in man­ag­ing the glob­al human and eco­nom­ic costs of Alzheimer’s dis­ease and oth­er demen­tias.” Read the rest of this entry »

Demen­tia Risk Declines, And Edu­ca­tion May Be One Rea­son Why (NPR):

“Some encour­ag­ing news in the bat­tle against Alzheimer’s dis­ease and oth­er forms of demen­tia: The rate at which old­er Amer­i­cans are get­ting these con­di­tions is declin­ing. That’s accord­ing to Read the rest of this entry »

Nov­el Ini­tia­tive Ups Cog­ni­tive Screen­ing in Geri­atric Patients (Med­scape):

“A res­i­dent-run ini­tia­tive in a geri­atric clin­ic clear­ly shows that when screen­ing for cog­ni­tive impair­ment becomes a pri­or­i­ty, to screen all patients opens the door toward time­ly inter­ven­tion and opti­mized out­comes in this high-risk pop­u­la­tion Read the rest of this entry »