The Scientific American Healthy Aging Brain. the Neuroscience of Making the Most of Your Mature Mind

Description

Good news about getting older from Scientific American and Scientific American Mind

The Scientific American Healthy Aging Brain taps into the most current research to present a realistic and encouraging view of the well-aged brain, a sobering look at what can go wrong––and at what might help you and your brain stay healthy longer. Neurologists and psychologists have discovered the aging brain is much more elastic and supple than previously thought, and that happiness actually increases with age. While our short-term memory may not be what it was, dementia is not inevitable. Far from disintegrating, the elder brain can continue to develop and adapt in many ways and stay sharp as it ages.

• Offers new insights on how an aging brain can repair itself, and the five best strategies for keeping your brain healthy
• Shows how older brains can acquire new skills, perspective, and productivity
• Dispels negative myths about aging
• Explores what to expect as our brains grow older

With hope and truth, this book helps us preserve what we’ve got, minimize what we’ve lost, and optimize the vigor and health of our maturing brains.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Preface: Live Long, and Live Well
• Introduction: Welcome to the New Old Age
• What’s Old, Anyway?
• How Scientists Are Researching Your Brain

PART ONE How Your Brain Grows

• Chapter 1. The Well-Aged Brain: Older and Happier
• The Myth of a Sad Old Age
• Actually, It’s Getting Better All the Time
• Great Late Achievers
• Are Grandparents Safer Drivers?
• Do You Think I’m Sexy? Apparently, Yes—at Any Age
• A Swell of Centenarians: One Hundred Reasons to Take Care of Your Brain
• Chapter 2. How Your Brain Grows: Zero to Sixty
• In the Beginning: Your Fetal and Baby Brain
• A Brief Tour of Your Brain
• The Gray and the White: Neurons and Myelin
• Childhood: Building the Brain
• The Teen Brain: Not Yet Ready for Prime Time
• Get Smart Younger, Delay Dementia Older
• The Peak Years: Twenties to Sixties
• Chapter 3. Your Brain Growing Older: What to Expect in a Healthy Aging Brain
• The Usual Effects of Aging
• Do the Brains of Men and Women Age Differently?
• How Memory Works: The Short Version
• Why White Matter Matters
• The Aging Brain: Is It Less Connected?
• Forgetting May Be Vital to Remembering
• Five Things Most People Get Wrong About Memory
• The Good News: Slower Is Sometimes Better
• More Easily Distracted: Why Multitasking Is a Task

PART TWO Threats to Your Brain

• Chapter 4. What Can Go Wrong
• When Your Brain Needs Help: How Can You Tell?
• The Darkness of Dementia
• Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Subtle Loss
• Stroke: The Brain Attack
• A Healing Stroke
• Parkinson’s Disease
• Your Brain on Diabetes: Not So Sweet
• Traumatic Brain Injury: A Blow to Your Thinking Brain
• Depression: An Abnormal State
• The Legacy of Cancer: “Chemo Brain”
• Too Much of a Good Thing: When Medications Mess Up Your Mind
• What—Me Worry?
• Chapter 5. Alzheimer’s Disease: The Brain Killer
• What Is Alzheimer’s Disease?
• Chasing the Cause
• Anxiety and Alzheimer’s Disease: Another Reason to Chill
• Maybe It’s Bad Neural Housekeeping?
• The Search for a Cure—or Even a Treatment That Works
• Looking Beyond the Brain
• An Ounce of Prevention: Marijuana Might Benefit Aging Brains
• The Future—Without Alzheimer’s Disease

PART THREE How to Optimize Your Aging Brain

• Chapter 6. The Big Five for Optimal Brain Function
• The Cognitive Shop
• How to Keep Your Brain Healthy and Nimble
• Chapter 7. Exercise Your Body: Move Your Body for a Better Brain
• The is Brain Was Made for Walking
• It’s Never Too Late to Start Exercising
• A Fine Balance: Yoga, Tai Chi, and Fall Prevention
• Chapter 8. Challenge Your Brain
• Educated Brains Stay Better Longer
• Why Testing Boosts Learning
• Do Brain Fitness Products Work?
• Computer Training May Keep You Driving Longer
• The Bottom Line
• Chapter 9. Nutrition: Fuel for Thought
• Glucose Is Not So Sweet to the Brain
• Forget the Fructose
• Omega-3, the Essential Oil
• Your Brain on Berries, Chocolate, and Wine: The Flavonoid Connection
• Caffeine: A Perk for Your Brain
• Is There a Pill for That? Supplements and Vitamins
• Chapter 10. The Social Treatment
• You’ve Got a Friend, We Hope
• Talk to Teens, Live Longer
• Finding and Making Friends in Later Life
• Chapter 11. Creativity, Spirit, and Attitude: Enrich Thyself
• The Art of an Active Brain
• Live Larger to Live Better
• The Power of Meditation for the Aging Brain
• Smile! It Could Make You Happier
• Attitudes Matter: The Optimism Factor

PART FOUR The Future for Your Brain

• Chapter 12. Predictions, Promises, and Possibilities
• A Fix to Reverse Memory Decline
• Are You Saving for Those Final Years?
• RX for This Good Life
• Chapter 13. Living in the Now
• Living with an Aging Brain
• How We (Eventually) Die
• Going Out with a Bang: The Brain Surges Just Before Death
• Living in the Now

• Sources
• Illustration Credits
• Glossary
• Resources for Aging and Coping
• About the Author
• Index