You Can Get Smarter. Neuroscience Proves It.
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I want to start with something I hear almost every week, from patients, from students, from some of the most accomplished people I know.
“I’m just not as smart as other people.”
Sometimes it comes out directly, like that. More often it arrives dressed in other language. Someone describes a co-worker who always has the answer in the meeting. A sibling who seems to grasp ideas without effort. A friend who navigates social situations with a ease they can’t replicate. And beneath all of it, the same quiet conclusion: some people are just built differently. Some people got more of whatever “it” is.
Once, a teenage patient came to see me with her mother because she felt she would never be as smart as her older sister. She was getting A’s in every subject except math and physics. She loved drawing, writing, singing, and acting — she was the star of her school’s theater group — but in her mind, none of that counted. She couldn’t understand the equations. And in her world, that meant she wasn’t smart.
I want to tell you what I told her. And I want to explain the neuroscience behind it, because this is not a motivational speech. This is biology.
What Intelligence Actually Is
When we talk about the brain and higher-level thinking, we often confuse three words that mean very different things: cognitive skills, talents, and intelligence.
Cognitive skills are the higher brain functions you use every day — reading, writing, navigating a conversation, doing your taxes, following a recipe. Talents are cognitive skills that go one step further: playing a musical instrument, excelling at a sport, writing beautifully, creating visual art. And intelligence simply means doing any of these cognitive skills at an exceptionally high level.
Here is what neuroscience tells us about all three: they are the result of networks of neurons connecting and firing in two parts of your brain — the cortex and the hippocampus. The cortex is the outer layer of your brain, and the hippocampus is an extension of the cortex that sits deep inside your temporal lobe, roughly the size of your thumb. Together, they form the biological foundation for everything you think, learn, and remember.
And what is the most important thing I can tell you about those structures?
They are highly malleable. They can change. They change for the better every single time you use them. When you challenge them by doing something difficult — something genuinely unfamiliar and demanding — you make them grow larger and stronger. They are, in the most literal neurological sense, like your muscles. The more you challenge them, the larger and stronger they get.
There Are 30 Forms of Intelligence — Not Two
In my book, The Invincible Brain, I describe 30 different forms of intelligence. Not two. Not the handful that get tested on standardized exams. Thirty.
There is emotional intelligence — your ability to perceive and manage feelings in yourself and others. Social intelligence — your ability to connect with almost anyone in any room. There is body movement and dexterity intelligence. Musical intelligence. Cooking intelligence. Humor intelligence — yes, being a genuinely funny person is a form of intelligence, and a sophisticated one at that. There is navigational intelligence, digital intelligence, street-smart intelligence, happiness intelligence, and many more.
My point is not simply that the definition of intelligence is broader than we thought. My point is that the way we have been measuring and talking about intelligence — in schools, in workplaces, in the way we size each other up — has been systematically wrong. We have taken two or three narrow cognitive domains, elevated them above everything else, and allowed millions of people to walk away from childhood and adolescence believing they came up short.
My teenage patient had extraordinary intelligence for visual art, narrative writing, performance, and musical expression. Her cortex and hippocampus had grown and specialized to be exceptional in those areas. They had not, yet, been challenged enough in math and physics. But that was not a fixed condition. It was a starting point.
The Patient Who Scored in the 99th Percentile
After I explained to her the malleability of the cortex and hippocampus — that these structures change every time they are challenged, and that she could genuinely become excellent at math and physics if she committed to challenging them — something shifted.
She had been telling herself a story. A story that said: I am not the kind of person who is good at this. That story was not just discouraging. At a neurological level, it was an active obstacle, because it was removing the effort and practice that growth requires. Once she stopped believing the ceiling was fixed, she began working as though it wasn’t.
With some tutoring support and consistent daily practice, she improved steadily. And when she sat for her SAT exam, she scored in the 99th percentile — meaning she had performed exceptionally well across every dimension of that test, including the mathematical sections she had once believed were beyond her.
She had not discovered hidden talent she never knew was there. She had built it. That is what the brain does when you give it the right conditions.
Intelligence Is Not Fixed
I want to be as clear as possible on this point, because it runs counter to a very deep cultural assumption: intelligence is not fixed. Not at 16, not at 45, not at 70.
Every part of your cortex and hippocampus can grow stronger with practice. The science is unambiguous on this. The more you use your brain — the more you engage it in genuinely challenging, unfamiliar work — the more those neuronal networks consolidate and expand. You can acquire any talent you wish to have. There is no ceiling imposed by biology. The only ceiling that is real is the one built from a belief that the ceiling is real.
We should never tell our children they are not good at something. And we should stop telling ourselves that, too.
Five Steps to Become One Notch Smarter in Three Months
I want to give you something concrete. Not a philosophy — a method. Five steps that, practiced with genuine commitment over ninety days, will make you measurably better in any field you choose. Not the best in the world. One notch better than you are today. Which is all it ever takes.
Step 1: Shift the narrative in your head. You have to genuinely believe — not just tell yourself — that you can get better at almost anything. Because you can. The science is on your side. Every story you carry about what you’re “just not good at” is a story about where you haven’t practiced yet, not about what your brain is capable of.
Step 2: Make a list. Write down the things you would love to be good at. Dancing. Chess. Math. Cooking. Public speaking. Remembering names. Learning a language. Whatever genuinely excites you — not what impresses other people. Just make your list and be honest about it.
Step 3: Choose one. From that list, identify the one skill or hobby that would bring the most joy to your life if you became genuinely good at it. The one you feel most passionate about. Decide on that single thing. Focus matters here — the brain builds its networks through repetition of a specific demand, not through scattered effort across a dozen things simultaneously.
Step 4: Practice it every day — even for a few minutes. Take a class. Watch a YouTube series. Find a mentor. But whatever you do, touch it daily. You don’t need hours. You don’t need a perfect structure. You need to challenge that specific part of your cortex and hippocampus consistently enough that those neuronal networks have a reason to consolidate. Your only goal is to be slightly better than you were yesterday.
Step 5: Be persistent — and be proud of your mistakes. This step matters more than any of the others. Three months of consistent practice, even modest practice, will produce measurable change in the brain. That is not a promise — that is what the MRI shows. But persistence is the prerequisite.
And here is something I want you to hold onto: every time you make a mistake in the process of learning something difficult, you are among the rare few who had the courage to step outside their comfort zone. Most people don’t do that. Most people stay comfortable and tell themselves they’re not as capable as others. You’re different. Give yourself credit for that.
What 40 Years of Studying the Brain Has Taught Me
I have spent nearly four decades studying the brain, mostly at Johns Hopkins and Harvard Medical School. I have treated thousands of patients across a very wide range of cognitive conditions — from children with attention challenges to adults in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. And the one thing I know with certainty, after all of that research and all of those patients, is this:
Your brain has far more capacity than you have ever used. It is far more intelligent than you think it is.
Every day you choose to challenge it — in any domain, at any level — you are making that foundation larger and stronger. And every day you tell yourself the story that you’ve already reached your ceiling, you are choosing not to.
Start today. Just one notch. Just try to be slightly better at one thing than you were yesterday.
In three months, you will be much, much better than you are today.
Dr. Majid Fotuhi is a Harvard- and Johns Hopkins-trained neurologist, bestselling author of The Invincible Brain (USA TODAY Bestseller), and one of the world’s leading experts on brain health and cognitive performance. To discover your brain health score and receive a personalized 10-page report, take the free Invincible Brain Assessment at invincible.drfotuhi.com.
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Menopause, HRT, and Your Brain Fog
What if the brain fog you’re feeling in your 40s or 50s isn’t just normal aging, but your brain reacting to the hormonal changes of menopause?
I want to tell you about a patient of mine, and about two brand-new studies that are changing how we think about hormones, menopause, and Alzheimer’s disease. The answer is more encouraging than you might think. Stay with me to the end, because I’ll also tell you exactly what I would do if I were you.
A few years ago, a lawyer in her late 40s came to see me.
She told me she felt slower handling her cases. She was less articulate than she used to be. She kept forgetting things: appointments and why she’d walked into a room. Her mother had died of Alzheimer’s, and she was terrified she was next. She wanted me to fix it, immediately.
She was serious. She was panicked. And honestly, I understood why.
I’ll tell you what we actually found, and what happened to her, later in this article. But first, let me explain what’s happening in women like her.
Why Menopause Can Change How Your Brain Feels
When a woman goes through menopause, her estrogen levels drop dramatically.
We usually think of estrogen as a reproductive hormone. But it does far more than that. There are estrogen receptors throughout the brain. Estrogen helps brain cells communicate with one another. It supports the connections between neurons. It affects the neurotransmitters involved in mood, sleep, and memory. It even influences the parts of the brain in charge of temperature regulation, appetite, and weight management.
So when estrogen falls during menopause, it makes sense that some women notice changes in how their brain functions. It makes sense that they might experience brain fog, trouble finding the right word, mood swings, or a feeling of being less sharp than they used to be.
Many women also experience hot flashes, weight gain, sleep apnea, and metabolic issues around this time, all of which can affect memory and thinking indirectly.
For years, scientists have wondered whether losing estrogen might help explain why women are so much more likely than men to develop Alzheimer’s disease. We still don’t have a definitive answer. But two brand-new studies are giving us some real clues. If you’ve heard conflicting things about hormone replacement therapy over the past twenty years, these two studies are a big part of why that conversation is finally starting to change.
Two New Studies Worth Knowing About
The first was published on August 12 in the journal Neurology, by researchers at Stanford.
Instead of simply asking women whether they had memory problems, the researchers looked inside their brains. They studied more than 21,000 women, including thousands whose brains were examined after they passed away. Women who had used estrogen-only hormone therapy had 35% lower odds of showing Alzheimer’s-related damage in their brains, and 39% lower odds of ever being diagnosed with any form of dementia.
The second study was published on August 26 in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia. Researchers from the University of Exeter and the University of East Anglia followed more than 183,000 postmenopausal women in the UK for over 13 years.
Women who had used HRT had a 16% lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease. And among women who had gone through a surgical menopause, those who used HRT had about a 26% lower risk of developing any form of dementia. This study found the biggest benefit in women who started HRT between the ages of 46 and 56.
Both studies point to something researchers call the window of opportunity. The idea is that estrogen may help the brain most when it is started around the time of menopause, rather than decades later. In other words, timing may matter more than we used to think.
I do want to be careful here. Both of these are observational studies. They show an association between hormone therapy and lower dementia risk, not proof that HRT prevents dementia. The researchers behind both studies have said the same thing, and they’ve called for randomized clinical trials to test the question properly. I agree with them. But after twenty years of fear and confusion around this topic, findings this large and this consistent are genuinely reassuring.
What Actually Happened to My Patient
Now, back to the terrified lawyer: she had Alzheimer’s.
Her workup told a very different story than the one she feared. She was sleeping poorly. She was working full time, raising three teenage sons, and taking on extra projects after hours to try to earn a promotion. On top of all that, she had gained weight, and she was not exercising.
When we went through it together, she understood that her symptoms were not caused by Alzheimer’s disease. They were the product of exhaustion, stress, poor sleep, and a body under strain. And that meant they were fixable.
She completed our 12-week Brain Fitness Program, and my brain coaches helped her improve her exercise routine, her diet, her sleep, her stress levels, and her brain training. In parallel, her own doctor started her on hormone replacement therapy.
Twelve weeks later, her memory had gone from the 40th percentile for her age to the 80th percentile. She was thrilled. And she stopped worrying about Alzheimer’s disease.
Her story is the whole point, really. Her fog was real. But it was not what she was most afraid of, and it responded to the right combination of changes.
So Should You Take HRT to Protect Your Brain?
This is the question I get most often, so let me answer it honestly.
Not for that reason alone, and not yet. We do not yet have the gold-standard proof from a randomized clinical trial to recommend HRT specifically for cognitive symptoms.
But if you are also struggling with hot flashes, vaginal dryness, or other menopausal symptoms, then HRT for a couple of years can be a very reasonable option, one worth discussing seriously with your doctor. And these new studies are reassuring, not alarming.
Please keep one thing in mind. Your brain does not exist in isolation. Sleep, exercise, nutrition, stress, brain training, and your hormones are all connected. Hormones may be one piece of the puzzle, but they are not the whole picture, exactly as I saw with my patient.
What I Want You to Do
If you are at this stage of life and wondering whether HRT is right for you, talk to your doctor about your own personal history and risk factors. That conversation is the single most important next step you can take. Every woman’s situation is different, and this is a decision to make with a physician who knows your history, not one to make from a newsletter or a video.
And regardless of what your hormones are doing, you should always work on the five pillars of brain health:
- Walk daily, and exercise about three hours a week.
- Sleep 7 to 8 hours a night.
- Eat a Mediterranean diet.
- Reduce your stress, and consider meditation or yoga.
- Challenge your brain with a fun hobby at least once a week.
The fog you’re feeling is not a life sentence. Very often, like it was for my patient, it’s a signal, and a signal is something you can act on.
Dr. Majid Fotuhi is a Harvard- and Johns Hopkins-trained neurologist, bestselling author of The Invincible Brain (USA TODAY Bestseller), and one of the world’s leading experts on brain health and cognitive performance. He has spent more than three decades studying the brain’s capacity for growth and repair. To discover your brain health score and receive a personalized 10-page report, take the free Invincible Brain Assessment at invincible.drfotuhi.com.
📺 Watch the full video on Dr. Fotuhi’s YouTube Channel.
How to Fix your brain fog in 40s & 50s | Dr. Fotuhi
AI Is Changing Your Brain, Here's How.
How many days do you think it takes to start losing a skill you’ve had for decades?
For me, the answer was three.
A few weeks ago, I got into a self-driving car for the first time and let it take me around my town. It was smooth. It was relaxing. And honestly, it was a little bit magical. I sat there with my hands barely on the wheel, watching the car make its own decisions.
Three days later, I got behind the wheel of my own car again. This time with no assistance. Just me. And something felt off. It was slightly difficult to manage the heavy traffic on a busy highway. My sense of the road felt a little rusty.
It had only been three days, and I could already feel the difference.
That small moment stuck with me. Because as a neurologist who has spent forty years studying the brain, I knew exactly what was happening. My brain had not lost the skill of driving. But the parts of my brain responsible for it had quietly relaxed, because for three days they simply did not have to work that hard.
Negative Neuroplasticity: The Part Nobody Talks About
This is what I call negative neuroplasticity.
Your brain is not fixed. It is not a piece of hardware that stays the same your whole life. Your brain is living tissue, and it changes its shape, its structure, and its strength based on how you use it every single day.
Think of your brain like a muscle. If you work your biceps and triceps, they grow. If you stop using them, they shrink. Your brain grows and shrinks in the same way, in response to your lifestyle and your environment. The parts you use and challenge often get stronger. That is positive neuroplasticity. The parts you stop using quietly fade and shrink. That is negative neuroplasticity.
And we have seen this before, long before AI arrived.
When calculators became common, our collective ability to do math in our heads got weaker. When GPS became common, our sense of direction got weaker too. So here is the honest question all of us need to ask: if AI can now write our emails, solve our problems, remember our facts, and even drive our cars, what happens to the parts of our brains that used to do all of that work?
What the Research Is Starting to Show
There is new research beginning to answer that question, and the results are worth paying attention to.
In one study, researchers had people write essays in one of three ways: completely on their own, using a search engine, or using ChatGPT. The whole time, machines measured their brain activity. The group that used ChatGPT showed the weakest brain engagement of the three. And afterward, many of them could barely remember what they had just written, because in a very real sense, they had not actually written it themselves.
We are seeing the same pattern in medicine.
In one study, experienced doctors used an AI tool to help them spot polyps during colonoscopies. After they grew used to working alongside the AI, their detection rate without it actually dropped, compared to how they performed before they ever used the tool. These were skilled physicians, quietly losing a bit of their edge, simply because the tool had been doing that part of the thinking for them.
To me, this all makes perfect sense. The activity in the parts of our brain that we stop using and challenging gradually fades away.
This Is Not About Fearing AI
I want to be very clear about something, because this is not a message about fearing AI or rejecting it.
I use AI every single day. I think of it almost like one of my staff members. I let it handle the tedious, minor parts of my work, the things that do not require my judgment or my creativity. But I still do the hard thinking myself. The writing. The decisions. The real work. Because I know that “use it or lose it” applies to my brain just as much as it applies to my muscles.
Here is the strange thing. We already understand this instinct perfectly well when it comes to our bodies. We just have not caught up yet when it comes to our brains.
Think about how life used to require constant movement. People walked to work. They rolled their windows up with their own hands. They pushed in a clutch and changed gears with their own feet, over and over, every time they drove. All of that built-in movement quietly kept our bodies strong, without anyone ever thinking of it as exercise.
Today, machines do almost all of that work for us. We press a button, and the window rolls up. We slide into an automatic car and never touch a gear again. And what did we do as a society, once daily life stopped giving us that movement for free? We built gyms. We started going to Zumba classes, yoga classes, and Pilates. We began taking long walks on purpose, specifically to give our muscles the workout that daily life no longer provided automatically.
This is exactly the position we are now in with our brains.
AI is quietly becoming the automatic window button and the automatic transmission for our minds. It removes the friction, and it feels wonderful in the moment. But if we are not careful, we are quietly losing the mental exercise that daily life used to give us for free, when we had to remember phone numbers, do math, navigate our own cities, and write our own thoughts from a blank page.
Six Ways I Build a Gym for My Own Brain
So, just as we built gyms for our bodies once our environment stopped providing free exercise, we now need to build a gym for our brains. These are small, deliberate exercises we choose on purpose, precisely because daily life no longer forces us to do them.
Here are six exercises I personally do. Not because I read them in a textbook, but because I know they are important for keeping my own brain sharp.
1. I minimize using GPS on purpose: When I am driving somewhere I have been before, I make myself recall the way, even if it takes an extra moment of thinking. That small effort keeps my hippocampus and other memory areas active and engaged.
2. I memorize names: I work to remember the names of all my students and every person I meet, every single day. Holding a name in my mind and pulling it back later sounds almost too simple to matter. But that daily repetition is exactly what keeps my memory strong, the same way a short walk keeps my heart healthy.
3. I protect at least one block of deep, unassisted thinking: No AI, no shortcuts. Just my own mind, working hard on a project from beginning to end.
4. I keep authorship of anything that truly matters. I let AI carry the tedious, minor parts of my work, but the real writing, the real decisions, and the real thinking stay mine.
5. I take up hobbies that challenge my mind: Learning new dance steps is at the top of my list, and this one is for pure joy as much as it is for my brain. I am willing to bet you already have a small wish list in the back of your mind, something you have always wanted to learn from scratch or finally get better at. The science is clear that a new, challenging skill grows your brain in a matter of weeks. So pick the one hobby that sounds the most fun, and enjoy practicing it until you get really good at it.
6. I use AI to challenge me, not replace me: After I write an essay or prepare a presentation, I ask AI to critique my work and push back on it. I also use AI as a tutor when I need to understand something complex. In other words, I use AI to stimulate my brain, not to replace it.
The Brain You Have Is the Result of Your Daily Choices
So here is what I want to leave you with.
AI is not going to make you stupid. But how you use it will absolutely shape whether your brain stays sharp or slowly grows weaker.
Your brain, like your body, becomes what you ask of it every single day. The brain you have, sharp or dull, strong or weak, is the result of your daily choices. Just as the shape of your body is in your hands, so is the shape of your brain.
Dr. Majid Fotuhi is a Harvard- and Johns Hopkins-trained neurologist, bestselling author of The Invincible Brain (USA TODAY Bestseller), and one of the world’s leading experts on brain health and cognitive performance. He has spent more than three decades studying the brain’s capacity for growth and repair. To discover your brain health score and receive a personalized 10-page report, take the free Invincible Brain Assessment at invincible.drfotuhi.com.
📺 Watch on Dr. Fotuhi’s YouTube Channel.
How Ai is slowly destroying your brain health – Dr. Fotuhi
What Is a Brain Portfolio?
Let me start with a simple question.
If you were managing a $10 million investment portfolio, would you put all of it into a single stock?
Of course not. You would diversify. You would spread your money across different types of assets. You would manage your risk, monitor your performance, and make adjustments over time. That is simply what anyone serious about money does.
Now I want you to think about your brain the same way.
Your Brain Is an Asset
Your brain is an asset too. In fact, it may be the single most important asset you have. It allows you to think, make decisions, solve problems, lead your organization, manage your finances, and maintain your relationships.
And yet most of us do not manage our brain the way we manage a financial portfolio. Instead, we wait. We wait until there is a problem. We wait until our memory starts to slip, or until we are exhausted, stressed, and burned out. And only then do we ask, “What can I do about it now? Do I have early signs of Alzheimer’s disease?”
I believe we should approach brain health very differently. We should look at the brain the way we look at a financial portfolio. I call it your brain portfolio.
Just as a financial portfolio has different asset classes, your brain portfolio has five major assets: exercise, sleep, diet, stress management, and brain training.
And the key idea, the one I want you to hold onto, is diversification. You do not want to pour all of your brain health investment into a single area. Exercise is extremely important, but exercise alone is not enough. A good night’s sleep is important, but sleep alone is not enough. Eating well is important, but diet alone is not enough. You need to invest across all five. Each one contributes something different, and together they build a far stronger brain.
Let me walk you through each asset.
Asset One: Exercise
Think of exercise as one of the highest-performing assets you have.
When you exercise, you are not simply strengthening your muscles and your heart. You are increasing blood flow to the brain, supporting the growth and maintenance of brain connections, and helping to regulate blood pressure, glucose, and inflammation, all of which matter for optimal brain health.
Exercise also helps grow new neurons in the hippocampus, the memory center of your brain. And it strengthens the frontal lobes, the regions critical for emotional regulation and decision-making.
So exercise is not just a fitness investment. It is an important investment in your brain capital.
Asset Two: Sleep
Sleep is your brain’s maintenance department.
While you sleep, your brain is not shutting down. During deep sleep, your brain clears out the metabolic waste that accumulates throughout the day. This remarkable cleaning and rinsing process is your brain’s waste management system. At the same time, the parts of your brain responsible for consolidating memories, regulating emotions, and making decisions are refreshed and restored.
If you consistently under-invest in sleep, eventually you pay the price. The waste that does not get rinsed out accumulates night after night, week after week, year after year. Over time, that buildup contributes to significant brain shrinkage.
Regularly sleeping fewer than six hours a night carries serious long-term consequences, including an accelerated risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
Asset Three: Diet
I think of diet as the raw material your brain uses every single day.
Your brain requires energy, essential fats, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients to function properly. A good diet provides the building blocks for your brain cells and blood vessels.
So when you choose what to eat, you are not simply deciding what goes into your stomach. You are deciding what resources you are providing to one of the most valuable organs in your body. You are supplying the raw material your brain needs to function at its peak.
Asset Four: Stress Management
Your fourth asset is stress management, and I think of it as risk management for the brain.
Some stress is normal and even healthy. But chronic, unmanaged stress can become a major risk factor for both mental and physical health.
You do not need to eliminate every stressful situation, which is neither possible nor the goal. What you need is to reduce stress where you can and learn to manage the rest effectively. That means learning how to recover from stress: creating periods of calm, maintaining meaningful relationships, and making sure your brain has enough time to recharge.
Asset Five: Brain Training
The fifth asset is brain training, and here the rule is simple: your brain is a use-it-or-lose-it organ.
When you learn something new, you challenge your attention and stimulate the parts of your brain responsible for problem-solving. When you play music or take on intellectually demanding activities, you give your brain the chance to build new neural networks.
The regions you stimulate with new hobbies and new learning, such as picking up a new language, literally grow larger. It works just like your muscles, which grow in proportion to how much you challenge them with exercise.
Your brain remains an active, adaptable asset throughout your entire life, not just in childhood. You can expand and grow your brain at any age.
The Real Power Is in the Portfolio
Here is the part that matters most. These five assets do not operate independently. They interact.
Exercise can improve your sleep. Better sleep improves your attention and emotional regulation. A healthy diet supplies the energy and nutrients your brain needs to function well. Stress management improves both your sleep and your decision-making. And brain training gives your brain the stimulation it needs to stay adaptable.
The real power comes from the portfolio as a whole.
This is exactly how we think about financial diversification. We do not ask, “Which single stock will make me rich?” We ask, “How can I build a diversified portfolio that performs well and manages risk over time?”
We should ask the same question about our brains: How can I build a diversified brain portfolio that helps me maintain my memory, focus, creativity, resilience, and independence as I grow older?
Monitor, Rebalance, and Start Now
There is one more principle from finance worth borrowing. You need to monitor your portfolio.
You do not invest once and forget about it. You review your performance, identify your weaknesses, rebalance, and make adjustments when your circumstances change. The same should be true for your brain health.
Maybe your exercise is strong, but your sleep is weak. Maybe your diet is excellent, but you are carrying too much chronic stress. Maybe you are physically active but intellectually under-stimulated.
The goal is not perfection. The goal is balance.
And you may be wondering when the best time is to start paying attention to your brain portfolio. The answer is now. When it comes to your brain, prevention is a far better strategy than waiting for a major problem to appear.
A Note for Executives and Leaders
For executives, business leaders, and CEOs, I think this concept is especially important.
You spend your professional life managing financial assets, human capital, operational risk, and long-term growth. But none of those assets matter very much if your own brain is not functioning at its peak. Your brain is the executive system behind every single decision you make.
So I encourage you to think about your brain the same way you think about your financial portfolio. Diversify. Invest consistently. Manage your risk. Monitor your performance. And rebalance when necessary.
Your brain is not simply another organ in your body. It is the most important asset you have, and it is built to grow and expand throughout your life.
Look into the five pillars of your brain health and build a brain portfolio that will last you a lifetime. The earlier you start, the more likely you are to enjoy strong cognitive returns for many years to come.
That is how you become not just a successful executive, but a brain super ager.
Dr. Majid Fotuhi is a Harvard- and Johns Hopkins-trained neurologist, bestselling author of The Invincible Brain (USA TODAY Bestseller), and one of the world’s leading experts on brain health and cognitive performance. He has spent more than three decades studying the brain’s capacity for growth and repair. To discover your brain health score and receive a personalized 10-page report, take the free Invincible Brain Assessment at invincible.drfotuhi.com.
📺 Watch the full video on Dr. Fotuhi’s YouTube channel