How to Avoid Cognitive Decline & Dementia (starting in your 40s) | Dr. Tommy Wood

Your brain does not have to decline with age. Recent research reveals that for most people, staving off cognitive decline or dementia is more about lifestyle, especially in your 30s to 50s, than age or genetics. And, amazingly, retirement might be the single biggest danger zone for your brain health.

Neuroscientist Dr. Tommy Wood has spent his career studying what actually predicts a declining brain, and the answer has almost nothing to do with age. It's what happens the day you stop being challenged, especially the day you retire. This week: why the smartest, most accomplished people you know may be the ones most at risk, and the two-part check you can run at your next doctor's visit that sets the stage for the next fifty years.

What you'll explore:

• Why age-specific dementia rates have quietly been falling for decades, even as headlines warn of a coming epidemic
• The real difference between forgetting a name (a retrieval problem) and never actually experiencing it in the first place (an encoding problem), and why only one of those predicts dementia
• Tommy's 3S model: stimulus, supply, and support, the framework he uses to make sense of everything that keeps a brain sharp
• The truth about brain games, and what really works to keep your brain primed with age
• Why the most educated, highest-achieving people often face the steepest cognitive drop right after they stop working
• The exact numbers to get checked at your next doctor's visit if you're in your 40s or 50s

If you're standing at the edge of any major life transition, or supporting a parent who is, this conversation will change how you think about what actually protects your mind.

You can find Tommy at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript

Next week, we're sitting down with Dr. Jessica Shepherd, alongside guest host Karen Walrond, to talk about why so much of what we've been told about menopause is either outdated or flat wrong, and what personalized care for this stage of life can actually look like. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss any upcoming episodes!

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