Keep Your Brain Young: The Complete Guide to Physical and Emotional Health and Longevity [Paperback]

Guy M. McKhann (Author), Marilyn Albert (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 29, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0471407925 | ISBN-13: 978-0471407928 | Edition: 1st

"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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, 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)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1st edition (March 29, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471407925
• ISBN-13: 978-0471407928
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,249,659 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Keep Your Brain Young, April 1, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Keep Your Brain Young: The Complete Guide to Physical and Emotional Health and Longevity (Paperback)

This book will soothe anyone who is facing the natural aging process. Most people probably don't think they have any control over the way their brain functions, especially as one ages. However, if you read this book, you'll receive amazing information on how to reduce risk for diseases, recognize symptoms, and general information on your brain. There are even exercises you can practice, to help you "keep your brain young." The authors are clearly experts in their field.

22 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Keep Your Brain Young, April 2, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Keep Your Brain Young: The Complete Guide to Physical and Emotional Health and Longevity (Paperback)

This is a smart and important book -- it's taught me a lot about how my brain functions and the ways to keep it in top shape as I age.

13 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars No brainer, November 16, 2002

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Keep Your Brain Young: The Complete Guide to Physical and Emotional Health and Longevity (Paperback)

Too simplistic. The information is very common knowledge. It was a waste of time.