The Importance of Brain Plasticity

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The brain is plastic. If the neurons are still alive, as you mentioned, if they're dead, you can't bring them back. Is there like a gray state in between where there's sort of dormant not getting quite enough oxygen, but they're not dead and that you can jumpstart those again through again exercise or diet or these brain games? Yeah. For most people, your raw cognitive abilities peak, I think right around the age of 30. Now you make up for it because you know more things, your knowledge is better, you chunk much better,. You don't have to think through from first principles, all kinds of things because you've been through it before.

We are on the cusp of a major transformation in healthcare. Using information gleaned from our blood and genes and tapping into the data revolution made possible by AI, doctors can catch the onset of disease years before symptoms arise, revolutionizing prevention. At top hospitals and a few innovative health-tech startups, scientists are working closely with patients to dramatically extend their “healthspan”―the number of healthy years before disease sets in. In The Age of Scientific Wellness, two visionary leaders of this revolution in health take us on a thrilling journey to this new frontier of medicine.

Hood, Price, and Shermer discuss: why we age and die • sickcare vs. healthcare • the 10 most popular drugs in the U.S. work for only about 10% of treated people • chronological age ≠ biological age • life expectancy, life span, longevity, and healthspan • why eliminating all cancers would only increase average life span by 3 years • genome vs. phenome • gut biome • optimizing brain function • brain plasticity • sleep, nutrition, exercise • Alzheimer’s • AI and quantum computing for better health.