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The Amazing Secret to a Brain 30 Years Younger Than Your Physical Age

“Turning back the age of memory
“I’ve been waiting for a book like this that everyone can believe in and put into practice!”

Why are they super-agers?
Uncovering the Secrets of a Brain 30 Years Younger Than Your Physical Age

People with brains that are usually 20 to 30 years younger than their peers.
These so-called super-agers have memories and cognitive abilities as good as those of young people.
How can they maintain such a brain? The author argues that human aging is not a predetermined process, but rather a process of "wear and tear," and that we can significantly control the "rate at which our brains age" by how well we manage and use our bodies.
Unlike other organs, the brain cannot be replaced, so it inevitably has a high possibility of recovery, that is, regenerative plasticity.
In other words, a young and healthy brain depends on us.

I think the patient who gave me the biggest shock in my 20+ years of medical career was Mr. K.
Mr. K, 62, initially started going to the hospital as a caregiver for his mother who suffered from dementia.
While my mother's symptoms were improving while she was going to the hospital, her memory was still intact, and she was healthy enough to go to the swimming pool regularly, her guardian, Mr. K, who works as an architect, was losing weight day by day and showing signs of rapid aging on her face and other areas.
Then, after about five years, I started to often forget my mother's outpatient schedule.
When I asked Mr. K, who came to the hospital with his mother, “How is work going at the company these days?” he honestly confessed, “Unlike before, work progresses slower and I can’t draw drawings well.”
Mr. K's mother's dementia progressed slowly over 13 years, but his son's dementia progressed rapidly as soon as he was diagnosed with an abnormal condition.
And he died of cancer sooner than his mother.
Looking at Mr. K's case, I sometimes feel regretful that if his brain had been kept healthy, he would have preserved his bodily functions and lived a much longer and healthier life, caring for his mother.
--- pp.17~18

In fact, 'aging' and 'frailty' have similar meanings and are not easy to distinguish.
Just as older people jokingly ask their younger friends, “Have you ever been old?”, aging, which is something that we experience only as time passes, is a phenomenon in which bodily functions deteriorate over time.
Cellular aging occurs when cells lose their ability to divide.
Aging is generally characterized by a decline in the ability to cope with stress, an inability to maintain homeostasis, and an increased risk of disease.
In humans, aging is an accumulation of changes that affect life over time, including physical, psychological, and social changes.
And when aging progresses to a certain extent, it leads to death.
--- p.19

Mr. H, 60, came to see me after hearing from another hospital that his brain was gone.
At first I wondered what he was talking about.
After hearing Mr. H's story, he said that he had a brain MRI during a health checkup and that he could soon develop dementia.
He said he was advised to go to a neurologist right away.
In the photo, Mr. H's brain atrophy was far beyond the normal range and was shrunken by more than 30% compared to a normal person.
Although the cause was unclear, medical experts determined that his brain atrophy was at high risk for dementia, and he began seeing an outpatient doctor while undergoing additional tests.
How is Mr. H doing now, 14 years later? Despite being nearing 80, he shows no signs of dementia and continues to regularly visit hospitals from Daejeon to Seoul.
As seen in Mr. H's case, structural changes in the brain are not directly linked to functional decline.
Please refer to the '7 Habits' introduced below to learn about the exercise and diet that Mr. H does to maintain his physical function, and the habits he has developed.
First, we will look at aging and changes in the functions of each body organ, and learn what actually changes and how to deal with it.
--- pp.43~45

Mr. H, a 42-year-old former baseball player, woke up to find that his right arm and leg were not moving properly and his speech was suddenly slurred, so he went to the emergency room.
He was worried that his weight had suddenly increased by 20 kg after he stopped exercising, despite being 185 cm tall and weighing 112 kg, but he continued to participate in social sports.
However, in order to keep up with the new job, I often attended company dinners, so I often ate late at night, and the frequency of drinking and smoking kept increasing.
On the other hand, the amount of exercise was less than a tenth of what it was when I was a player.
As a former athlete with no physical problems, Mr. H was shocked to learn that the cause of the paralysis in his right arm and leg was cerebral infarction due to cerebral arteriosclerosis.
The health checkup did not reveal any particular problems, but the middle cerebral artery on the left side of the brain was already blocked.
Without me noticing it, my systolic blood pressure did not fall below 160 mmHg, and I even had hyperlipidemia and hyperglycemia.
After that, Mr. H's paralysis in his arms and legs improved, but he was no longer able to play baseball in society.
Here we can once again confirm that diseases can strike regardless of age.
So, what self-care principles should you follow to avoid a stroke at the young age of 42? First, for brain health, you should check your lifestyle habits, such as how much you move, when you eat, and what time you go to bed and wake up.
This is because we wake up, move, and eat unconsciously every day according to our habits.

Before we dive into the daily routine, let's answer these seven questions:

First, do you maintain regular sleep habits?
Second, are you eating a balanced diet of healthy, nutritious foods?
Third, do you exercise at a set time every day?
Fourth, do you write down and manage what stresses you out?
Fifth, are you doing anything to enhance your cognitive abilities?
Sixth, are you looking for ways to become a better version of yourself?
Seventh, are you looking for ways to maintain optimal productivity?

How many of these questions did you answer with a "yes"? Perhaps you answered "no" to all of them? If so, don't despair.
The very act of becoming aware of it is the first step toward change.

--- pp.69~71

There have been times when I couldn't remember medical terms that were frequently used during lectures.
I'm the type of person who speaks without hesitation, so I got through it without a hitch, but I was momentarily flustered.
After the lecture, I checked what I did the day before the lecture and whether I had any bad brain functions, and then I repeated the words I had forgotten 10 times before going to bed.
Only after I was able to skillfully use that word in another lecture did I breathe a sigh of relief.
So is this simply forgetfulness due to aging, or is it becoming pathological forgetfulness?
'Easy word amnesia', a subtle change that occurs with aging, is a natural part of getting older.
The question here is whether this natural forgetfulness is actually pathological or not.
A simple way to differentiate is that age-related forgetfulness is something I take seriously, while pathological forgetfulness is something others take more seriously than I do.
The important thing here is that even pathological forgetfulness can be reversed if you quickly review your daily life and make changes.
Several years ago, two patients, both tour guides, presented with forgetfulness around the same time.
The fates of the two people diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease at the time diverged as follows.

--- pp.77~78