Sanjay Gupta's "Build a Better Brain at Any Age" Javascript must be enabled to use this site. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try again. × Search search POPULAR SEARCHES SUGGESTED LINKS Join AARP for just $9 per year when you sign up for a 5-year term. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Leaving AARP.org Website You are now leaving AARP.org and going to a website that is not operated by AARP. A different privacy policy and terms of service will apply.

Sanjay Gupta s Prescription for Brain Health

Medical reporter says lifestyle changes are key to resilience

Jim Wright Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. I took the man to the operating room for a craniotomy. I drilled into his skull and used a sawlike device to remove a flap of bone. I removed the blood pool and coagulated small remaining bleeders. All that was left to do was to close the dura mater, reposition the bone flap and suture the skin. Before I proceeded, though, I took a few moments to inspect his brain. What I saw surprised me. Given how sharp he was, how active and cognitively intact, I expected to see a large brain pulsating robustly and appearing healthy. But this looked like a 93-year-old brain. It was more shriveled, sunken with deep wrinkles indicative of his age. Now, if this sounds disheartening to you, it should not. In fact, it should sound just the opposite. There is a truism in medicine: Always treat the patient, not the test results. If someone had described his brain to me before the operation, I probably would have been even less inclined to operate. But this was a reminder that it didn't matter what his brain looked like — it mattered how it performed. The brain, perhaps more so than any other organ in the body, may reliably grow stronger in some ways throughout life and become more robust than in years past. I won't forget that experience. There seemed to be a total disconnect between the brain I was staring at and the man whose skull it inhabited. I was eager to see how he'd wake up from the operation and what his recovery might be like. Did I make the right decision? Had I prolonged his life or hastened his death? AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Entertainment $3 off popcorn and soft drink combos See more Entertainment offers > According to an AARP survey of Americans ages 34 to 75, nearly everyone (93 percent) understands the importance of brain health. But those same people don't always know how to make their brains healthier. Some believe that this mysterious organ is a black box of sorts, untouchable and incapable of being improved. Not true. I've now been a surgeon and health journalist for more than two decades, but what I've learned more recently, while researching this book, has shifted how I think about the brain and how to care for it. I am more convinced than ever that the brain can be constructively changed — continually enhanced and fine-tuned — no matter what your age or access to resources is. AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. , by Sanjay Gupta, M.D. (Jan. 5, 2021), published by Simon & Schuster in partnership with AARP. Gupta is CNN's Emmy Award–winning chief medical correspondent. He lives in Atlanta, where he is an associate professor of neurosurgery at the Emory University School of Medicine. More on health AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. AARP VALUE & MEMBER BENEFITS See more Health & Wellness offers > See more Flights & Vacation Packages offers > See more Finances offers > See more Health & Wellness offers > SAVE MONEY WITH THESE LIMITED-TIME OFFERS