The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness

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The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness:
How to Optimize Brain Health and Performance at Any Age

  • Lan­guage: Eng­lish.
  • Oth­er edi­tions: Español, Japan­ese, Pol­ish.
  • Pub­lish­er: Sharp­Brains Incor­po­rat­ed; 2 edi­tion (April 2013)
  • For­mat: Soft­cov­er, eBook

Book Description:

Mod­ern life places extra­or­di­nary demands on our brains. Not only do we live longer than ever before, but we must con­stant­ly adapt to com­plex and rapid­ly evolv­ing per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al real­i­ties. Yet, we often ignore our most pre­cious resource to do so: our brain.

The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness cuts through the clut­ter of mis­con­cep­tions, super­fi­cial and con­flict­ing media cov­er­age, and aggres­sive mar­ket­ing claims, to help read­ers dis­cov­er what real­ly works, and what doesn’t, to improve brain health and per­for­mance at any age, to delay or pre­vent cog­ni­tive decline, and become smarter con­sumers of both media cov­er­age and sci­en­tif­ic research in the process.

With use­ful, prag­mat­ic and per­son­al­ized tips and sug­ges­tions that are easy to imple­ment, the Sharp­Brains Guide offers a ground­break­ing new approach for self-assess­ing cur­rent brain fit­ness needs and iden­ti­fy­ing the most rel­e­vant and evi­dence-based meth­ods to pre­serve and enhance brain func­tion through­out life. Whether your goal is to become more resilient, enhance mem­o­ry, ward off Alzheimer’s dis­ease, or sim­ply improve men­tal focus to per­form bet­ter at work, this how-to guide shows you exact­ly how to “use it or lose it.”

This new and much-expand­ed edi­tion of the guide AARP named a Best Book on Brain Fit­ness com­bines a user-friend­ly tuto­r­i­al on how the brain works with advice on how to choose and inte­grate lifestyle changes and research-based brain train­ing. Fea­tur­ing an inde­pen­dent analy­sis of hun­dreds of sci­en­tif­ic stud­ies pub­lished in the last 10 years, the book also includes in-depth inter­views with 20 lead­ing sci­en­tists who often chal­lenge con­ven­tion­al wis­dom and pre­vail­ing brain health think­ing and care.

A thought-pro­vok­ing, prac­ti­cal and cap­ti­vat­ing read, the Sharp­Brains Guide makes the fas­ci­nat­ing and com­plex sub­ject of brain func­tion and neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty easy to digest with its com­mon sense approach. It’s time to rethink, and to tru­ly apply, “use it or lose it.”

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Authors:

Alvaro Fernandez(co-author) Alvaro Fer­nan­dez, named a Young Glob­al Leader by the World Eco­nom­ic Forum in 2012, is the CEO of Sharp­Brains, a lead­ing inde­pen­dent mar­ket research and think tank track­ing health and well-being appli­ca­tions of neu­ro­science. He has been quot­ed by The New York Times, The Wall Street Jour­nal, CNN, Reuters, and Asso­ci­ated Press, among oth­ers. Alvaro pro­duces the annu­al Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit –the lead­ing vir­tu­al con­fer­ence gath­er­ing hun­dreds of brain sci­en­tists and experts world­wide– and is a rec­og­nized speak­er on brain health inno­va­tion. He start­ed his career at McK­in­sey & Co, and led the launch and turn-around of sev­eral edu­ca­tion-relat­ed start-ups. Alvaro has an MBA and MA in Edu­ca­tion from Stan­ford Uni­ver­sity, and a BA in Eco­nom­ics from Uni­ver­si­dad de Deusto.

Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg(co-author) Elkhonon Gold­berg, Ph.D., is an author, sci­en­tist, edu­ca­tor and clin­i­cian, inter­na­tion­al­ly renowned for his clin­i­cal work, research, writ­ing and teach­ing in neu­ropsy­chol­o­gy and cog­ni­tive neu­ro­science. Dr. Gold­berg is a Clin­i­cal Pro­fes­sor, Depart­ment of Neu­rol­o­gy at New York Uni­ver­si­ty School of Med­i­cine, and Diplo­mate of The Amer­i­can Board of Pro­fes­sion­al Psy­chol­o­gy in Clin­i­cal Neu­ropsy­chol­o­gy. A stu­dent and close asso­ciate of the great neu­ropsy­chol­o­gist Alexan­der Luria, Dr. Gold­berg has con­tin­ued to advance Luria’s sci­en­tif­ic and clin­i­cal tra­di­tion, and writ­ten pop­u­lar sci­ence books such as The Exec­u­tive Brain: Frontal Lobes and The Civ­i­lized Mind and The Wis­dom Para­dox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger As Your Brain Grows Older.

Pascale Michelon(with) Pas­cale Mich­e­lon, Ph.D. in Cog­ni­tive Psy­chol­o­gy, is a sci­en­tist, edu­ca­tor and writer. Dr. Mich­e­lon start­ed her career as a Research Sci­en­tist at Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty in Saint Louis where she con­duct­ed behav­ioral and neu­roimag­ing stud­ies to bet­ter under­stand how the brain process­es and mem­o­rizes visu­al infor­ma­tion. She is now an Adjunct Fac­ul­ty at Wash­ing­ton University.

 

25 Comments

  1. Kathi on January 17, 2008 at 7:10

    Watched the pro­gram on PBS with my spouse, 3‑yr stroke sur­vivor. Now age 60. Extreme­ly intel­li­gent, moti­vat­ed. We want to main­tain and re-gain the brain.

    Reply
  2. Ellen on January 29, 2008 at 9:00

    I am sur­vivor of rup­tured brain aneurysm in yr 2000. Since have had three more repaired. Due to the rup­ture have some prob­lems although con­tin­ue to attempt to re-gain brain fit­ness. Now age 44 worked 15 years as social work­er now on med­ical retire­ment, all the more rea­son for brain fitness.

    Reply
  3. Susan Taylor on February 21, 2008 at 7:49

    I would like to order Mind­Fit, but can’t find a link to order it.

    Reply
  4. Alvaro on February 21, 2008 at 12:40

    Kathi, Ellen, Susan, thanks you for your com­ments, and moti­va­tion to main­tain our brains in shape.

    Susan, we don’t sell Mind­Fit or oth­er prod­ucts, you can just google “mind­fit” and will find it in a num­ber of online stores. Please let us know your expe­ri­ence if you end up buy­ing and using it!

    Reply
  5. C. Lester on March 2, 2008 at 9:42

    Thanks for your kind offer.

    Reply
  6. William Currie on March 8, 2008 at 3:49

    Was referred to Foley Cen­ter of Uni­ver­si­ty Hosp. in Cleve­land. After eval­u­a­tion, looked on inter­net & found PBS “Sharp Brains”.

    Reply
  7. John W. Peterson on March 10, 2008 at 2:11

    What effect does this have on ini­tial stages of Alzheimers or Pick­’s dis­ease? What research do you have to ver­i­fy the results?

    Reply
  8. Alvaro on March 10, 2008 at 7:48

    Hel­lo William, I hope you enjoy the eGuide.

    John, can you be more spe­cif­ic on your inter­est and back­ground? You can find many arti­cles here regard­ing lifestyle inter­ven­tions to help delay the onset of Alzheimer’s symp­toms, such as as this interview
    https://sharpbrains.com/blog/2007/07/23/build-your-cognitive-reserve-yaakov-stern/

    We do not offer clin­i­cal advice, so don’t touch on Alzheimer’s or Pick­’s dis­ease directly

    Reply
  9. PAM on March 16, 2008 at 7:02

    How can I use this to help me over come a life­time of ago­ra­pho­bia. I also have pan­ic attacks.

    Reply
  10. Ron Anders on March 18, 2008 at 1:11

    What is the best approach to per­man­te­ly revers­ing learn­ing dis­abil­i­ties? Is it through brain fit­ness tech­nol­o­gy? The use of speech pathologist/occupational thearpist? Would love to hear opin­ions on this!

    Reply
  11. John Thvedt on April 8, 2008 at 3:43

    I am still unable to down­load the ebook 101

    Reply
  12. Felice Lotito on April 21, 2008 at 10:29

    I would like a copy of the brain fit­ness e‑book
    thank you
    Felice

    Reply
  13. Alvaro on April 21, 2008 at 7:37

    PAM: let me rec­om­mend you find a psy­chol­o­gist famil­iar with these tech­niques: cog­ni­tive ther­a­py, biofeed­back, mind­ful­ness-based stress reduc­tion. They can be very effec­tive to help peo­ple deal with intense fears/ anx­i­eties such as ago­ra­pho­bia. Cog­ni­tive ther­a­py, in par­tic­u­lar, has a grow­ing body of lit­er­a­ture on a vari­ety of anx­i­ety prob­lems (we men­tioned one study in my inter­view with Judith Beck, see last few para­graphs here https://sharpbrains.com/blog/2007/09/17/judith-beck-train-your-brain-to-think-like-a-thin-person/)

    Ron: there is no one gen­er­al solu­tion, for every­one and for every­thing. Both tech­nolo­gies and ther­a­pists can be use­ful, and many times com­ple­men­tary. In fact, I’d rec­om­mend you first con­tact a good trained pro­fes­sion­al in the spe­cif­ic con­di­tion you care about, and he/ she should be able to help you nav­i­gate through the most appro­pri­ate options.

    John, Felice: you will receive instruc­tions auto­mat­i­cal­ly to down­load the eBook once you sub­scribe to our newslet­ter-do you see the newslet­ter box above? please con­tact us: sup­port at sharp­brains dot com if you have any spe­cif­ic prob­lem. Thanks!

    Reply
  14. Corrina on May 1, 2008 at 9:42

    Thanks

    Reply
  15. Marilyn L. Flaherty on May 22, 2008 at 8:32

    I just viewed part of PBS Brain Plas­tic­i­ty program!
    Loved it! I am moth­er of 6 grown and won­der­ful chil­dren- 5 daugh­ters and 1 son.
    One year fol­low­ing my hus­band’s death, I suf­fered a mas­sive cere­bral aneurysm- much to the shock of my fam­i­ly because of excel­lent health. I spent 3 weeks in Neu­ro ICU,almost the only pt. living.
    I had no reper­cus­sions and a
    com­plete recov­ery. God had plans for my life. Thanks to my excel­lent Neu­ro­sur­geon- Dr. Jim Rose at Methodist Hosp., Hous­ton, TX.- a one of a kind Thinker. I shall be eter­nal­ly grate­ful. I am now 73 yrs old, although 39 in spir­it. Age is not rel­a­tive in my view. I shall con­tin­ue to enjoy my research into liv­ing and the peo­ple that always cross my path in life. Every day is an adventure!
    Sinceerely,
    Mar­i­lyn L. Flaherty

    Reply
  16. Alvaro on May 23, 2008 at 8:53

    Mar­i­lyn: very nice to hear from you!

    Reply
  17. Arlene Johnson on July 21, 2008 at 12:50

    I am alreadyh a sub­scriber. Can I still get a copy of the eguide to brain fit­ness? Thanks.

    Reply
  18. Alvaro on July 21, 2008 at 1:04

    Arlene: of course! We are send­ing a copy to the email address you used to sub­scribe to our newsletter.

    Reply
  19. Alvaro on July 21, 2008 at 1:04

    Arlene: of course! We are send­ing a copy to the email address you used to sub­scribe to our newsletter.

    Reply
  20. Cheryl K. Theiler on October 10, 2008 at 6:46

    I too am already a sub­scriber and would like to get a copy of the eguide to brain fitness.
    Thank you.

    Cheryl

    Reply
  21. Alvaro Fernandez on October 10, 2008 at 8:16

    Cheryl, we will email you a copy. Thank you

    Reply
  22. patrick on November 26, 2008 at 12:25

    great stuff,i am a sub­scriber, would like a copy eguide to brain fitness

    Reply
  23. Carol on January 9, 2009 at 8:29

    I am already a sub­scriber to the newslet­ter but would like to recieve a copy of the e‑guide. thanks

    Reply
  24. Chantal Denis on January 10, 2009 at 9:04

    Je souhait­erais trou­ver le lgi­ciel pour «Entrainez votre esprit, trans­formez votre cerveau».

    Reply
  25. Chantal Denis on January 10, 2009 at 9:53

    Est-ce pos­si­ble d’avoir des infor­ma­tions en français?

    Reply

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