Synopses & Reviews
If there is one thing that determines how fully you live at an older age, it is how well your brain works. Your brain controls and powers virtually every aspect of your lifefrom memory to moods, from thinking to sleeping, from movement to sensesand like the rest of your body, it changes with age. The good news is that now there is a single, reliable, comprehensive source with the information you need to keep your brain working at the highest possible level for the longest possible time.
In Keep Your Brain Young, two of the worlds leading brain doctors guide you through the changes you may encounter as you get older and your brain matures. They calm your concerns about normal changes and show how to minimize them while enhancing your mental and physical functioning. Youll learn what steps you can take to reduce the risk for serious diseases such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons and how to recognize the symptoms of these diseases should they occur. Youll learn about the brain-body link for other diseases, including heart disease and cancer. Youll also find out about the rapid progress being made in the treatment of brain disorders.
Based on state-of-the-art research and supplemented with dramatic case histories from the authors patient files, Keep Your Brain Young shows you the latest techniques you can use to maintain your memory, manage stress, and cope with sleep disorders. Youll discover which foods provide the best nutrition for your brain and protect it from illness, how alcohol affects your brain, and how to recognize and cope with the symptoms of depression. Keep Your Brain Young includes prescriptive exercises you can put into action right away.
Dont let worries about senior moments interfere with your enjoyment of the second half of life. Read Keep Your Brain Young and gain the knowledge and confidence you need to manage the aging process, take care of your brain, and stay active and alert for many years to come.
Review
"Guy McKhann and Marilyn Albert are to middle-aged people and seniors what Dr. Spock is to babies and their parents. Keep Your Brain Young is must reading for anyone over 50; it should be on your bedside table." —Judy Woodruff, CNN, and Al Hunt,
Wall Street Journal"Keep Your Brain Young is the ultimate user's guide to the brain. Drs. McKhann and Albert, two of the world's leading authorities on how the brain works, have written a highly intelligent, straightforward, and important book. Take care of your gray matter: buy and read this book. It is a great investment in your future." —Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and author of An Unquiet Mind and Touched with Fire
"I highly recommend this readable, informal and entertaining guide to achieving and maintaining optimum brain functioning as we age. Guy McKhann and Marilyn Albert provide a single, reliable comprehensive guide to the changes we all can expect as we enter the second half of life. Best of all, their sound advice, tinctured with generous doses of hope and encouragement, provides an effective antidote against a ?gloom and doom? attitude toward aging." —Richard Restak, M.D., coauthor of The Longevity Strategy: How to Live to 100 Using the Brain-Body Connection and author of The Secret Life of the Brain
"For the first time, the authors have presented an interesting and understandable scientific explanation of mind/body function as we get older. This book explains how memory may fade with age without the loss of intellect, and how to assist nature in maintaining such function." —Eunice K. Shriver, Executive Vice-President of The Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation and Founder and Honorary Chairman of Special Olympics, Inc.
Review
How well the brain works is key to enjoying a healthy, productive life in the senior years, according to this guide to the relationship between brain activity and long life. Because the brain controls thinking, emotions, movement, the senses, and other physical functions, it is essential to keep it working as well as possible, explain McCann (neurologist, Johns Hopkins Univ. Sch. of Medicine) and Albert (psychiatry and neurology, Harvard Medical Sch.). This accessible compendium offers a wealth of fascinating information on age-related brain changes that affect normal physical processes such as sleep, hearing, balance, memory, and pain and those that may lead to abnormal conditions like dizziness, Alzheimer's disease, depression, Parkinson's, brain tumors, and stroke. Liberally documented with the latest research findings, the book illustrates scientific facts with case studies and practical suggestions for maintaining a healthy mind in a healthy body. Unfortunately, the limited appendix lists only a handful of professional organizations, web sites, and books; the book would have benefited from a more comprehensive bibliography of professional articles cited in the text and related consumer health resources. Nonetheless, this is recommended for all consumer health and aging collections. —Karen McNally Bensing, Benjamin Rose Lib., Cleveland (
Library Journal, April 1, 2002)
McKhann, a professor of neurology at John Hopkins, has coauthored this manual on the workings of the brain with his wife, Albert, director of gerontology research at Massachusetts General Hospital. Although the writing is dry, there is excellent information here for the aging adult. The authors acknowledge that growing older quite naturally involves some physical changes in the brain. They present the most effective ways, based on scientific research and case histories, to minimize these changes and their impact on everyday life. Strategies are offered to improve memory, such as doing mental exercises and maintaining a regular exercise program. For the disease-free older adult, the authors recommend a well-balanced diet and getting an adequate amount of sleep. They stress the importance of recognizing and seeking medical assistance for depression, hearing or vision loss and urinary and sexual problems. McKhann and Albert also deal extensively with a variety of brain disorders including tumors, Parkinson's Disease and Alzheimer's, and detail the latest medical treatments and drugs that may ameliorate some of these conditions. (May) (Publishers Weekly, April 15, 2002)
"...an easy-to-understand guide about some not-so-easy worries that mark upper-middle age...an extraordinarily useful guidebook to serve us..." (The Wall Street Journal, July 8, 2002)
THEY TEACH NEUROLOGY-HE'S at Johns Hopkins, and she's at Harvard. Together, these cerebral types have written a fitness book to keep your gray matter in the pink.
Preserving your smarts, they argue, depends on a positive attitude and physical and mental exertion. Activities like swimming can prod the brain to produce the chemicals it needs to function in old age. Mental aerobics like crossword puzzles may strengthen connections between nerve cells and possibly aid in forming new neurons.
The authors believe that women may live longer than men because they shop, a pastime that requires both physical (walking and carrying bags) and mental (price-comparison) skills. There are no radical new theories here-just sharp insights into what goes on up there and how to keep your brain whole as you grow older. —Carole Buia (Time Magazine, July 29, 2002)
Synopsis
Using the latest knowledge on how the brain ages to help us feel younger and healthier In Keep Your Brain Young, two of the world's most prominent brain doctors explain all of the normal changes that can affect the brain as we age. While showing what we can do to minimize these changes and how to boost mental and physical functioning through our post-forty years. Soundly based on the authors' own breakthrough research, this pathbreaking guide discusses the latest techniques for maintaining memory, managing stress, and coping with age-related sleep disorders. The authors include prescriptive exercises that can be put into action right away. Keep Your Brain Young has been featured on the Today show, in Time magazine, and The Wall Street Journal.
Synopsis
Using the latest knowledge on how the brain ages to help us feel younger and healthier
In Keep Your Brain Young, two of the world s most prominent brain doctors explain all of the normal changes that can affect the brain as we age. While showing what we can do to minimize these changes and how to boost mental and physical functioning through our post-forty years. Soundly based on the authors own breakthrough research, this pathbreaking guide discusses the latest techniques for maintaining memory, managing stress, and coping with age-related sleep disorders. The authors include prescriptive exercises that can be put into action right away. Keep Your Brain Young has been featured on the Today show, in Time magazine, and The Wall Street Journal.
Guy McKhann, MD (Baltimore, MD), is Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Director of the school s Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute. Marilyn Albert, PhD (Boston, MA), is Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at Harvard Medical School. She is Director of the Gerontology Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital and of the Harvard-Mahoney Neuroscience Institute at Harvard Medical School.
Synopsis
The ultimate user's guide to the brain...highly intelligent, straightforward, and important.
--Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D.
As Seen in Time magazine and on the Today Show
""Guy McKhann and Marilyn Albert are to middle-aged people and seniors what Dr. Spock is to babies and their parents. Keep Your Brain Young is must reading for anyone over fifty; it should be on your bedside table.""
----Judy Woodruff, CNN, and Al Hunt, The Wall Street Journal
""I highly recommend this readable, informal, and entertaining guide to achieving and maintaining optimum brain functioning as we age. . . . A single, reliable, comprehensive guide to the changes we all can expect as we enter the second half of life.""
----Richard Restak, M.D., coauthor of The Longevity Strategy
Your brain controls and powers virtually every aspect of your life ---- and like the rest of your body, it changes with age. In Keep Your Brain Young, two of the world's leading brain doctors guide you through the changes you may encounter as you get older and as your brain matures. Based on state-of-the-art research and supplemented with dramatic case histories, this comprehensive resource shows you the latest techniques for maintaining memory, managing stress, and coping with sleep disorders and depression, offering prescriptive exercises you can put into action right away. You'll also learn how to enhance your mental and physical functioning while reducing the risk for serious diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Read Keep Your Brain Young and gain the knowledge and confidence you need to manage the aging process, take care of your brain, and stay active and alert for many years to come.
Synopsis
"The ultimate user's guide to the brain...highly intelligent, straightforward, and important."
--Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D.
As Seen in Time magazine and on the Today Show
"Guy McKhann and Marilyn Albert are to middle-aged people and seniors what Dr. Spock is to babies and their parents. Keep Your Brain Young is must reading for anyone over fifty; it should be on your bedside table."
----Judy Woodruff, CNN, and Al Hunt, The Wall Street Journal
"I highly recommend this readable, informal, and entertaining guide to achieving and maintaining optimum brain functioning as we age. . . . A single, reliable, comprehensive guide to the changes we all can expect as we enter the second half of life."
----Richard Restak, M.D., coauthor of The Longevity Strategy
Your brain controls and powers virtually every aspect of your life ---- and like the rest of your body, it changes with age. In Keep Your Brain Young, two of the world's leading brain doctors guide you through the changes you may encounter as you get older and as your brain matures. Based on state-of-the-art research and supplemented with dramatic case histories, this comprehensive resource shows you the latest techniques for maintaining memory, managing stress, and coping with sleep disorders and depression, offering prescriptive exercises you can put into action right away. You'll also learn how to enhance your mental and physical functioning while reducing the risk for serious diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Read Keep Your Brain Young and gain the knowledge and confidence you need to manage the aging process, take care of your brain, and stay active and alert for many years to come.
About the Author
GUY McKHANN, M.D., is Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and founding Director of the Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute at Johns Hopkins. He is the founding Chairman of the Department of Neurology at Johns Hopkins and has appeared on 60 Minutes and in other national media.
MARILYN ALBERT, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at Harvard Medical School. She is Director of the Gerontology Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital and was recently appointed Director of the Division of Cognitive Neuroscience and the CoDirector of the Johns Hopkins Alzheimers Disease Research Center. She has appeared on the Today show, PBS-TV, and in other national media. Drs. McKhann and Albert are husband and wife.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments.
PART ONE: THE BRAIN AND EVERYDAY CONCERNS.
Introduction: Healthy But Realistic in the Second Half.
Maintaining Your Memory.
Nutrition for the Brain: Food, Fuel, and Protection.
Sleep and the Brain.
Managing Stress.
Unmasking Depression.
Alcohol and Your Brain.
PART TWO: THE BRAIN AND YOUR BODY.
Pain and Your Brain.
Body Functions and Your Brain.
Protecting Your Senses.
How to Keep Your Balance—Literally.
Fainting, Dizziness, and Your Brain.
PART THREE: THE BRAIN AND PREVENTING AND TREATING SERIOUS PROBLEMS.
Understanding Acute Memory Loss.
Acute Confusion and How to Prevent It.
Dealing with Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias.
Treatable Dementias.
Cancer and the Brain.
New Options for Parkinson's Disease.
Shaking, Weakness, ALS, and Your Brain.
Stroke: The Brain-Heart Connection.
Taking Charge of Your Brain.
Appendix.
Index.