Brain health: Key to health, productivity, and well‐being

Abstract

Brain health is essential for physical and mental health, social well-being, productivity, and creativity. Current neurological research focuses mainly on treating a diseased brain and preventing further deterioration rather than on developing and maintaining brain health. The pandemic has forced a shift toward virtual working environments that accelerated opportunities for transdisciplinary collaboration for fostering brain health among neurologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, neuro and socio-behavioral scientists, scholars in arts and humanities, policymakers, and citizens. This could shed light on the interconnectedness of physical, mental, environmental, and socioeconomic determinants of brain disease and health. We advocate making brain health the top priority worldwide, developing common measures and definitions to enhance research and policy, and finding the cause of the decline of incidence of stroke and dementia in some countries and then applying comprehensive customized cost-effective prevention solutions in actionable implementation units. Life cycle brain health offers the best single individual, communal, and global investment.

Post-Stroke Cognitive Impairment and Dementia

“…As population ages globally, brain health is becoming one of the most important concepts to embrace as part of the public health priorities to optimize quality of life and to control health care costs worldwide. 210 Brain health implies optimal function and freedom from neurological injury, which is intimately connected to prevention of PSCID. While no personalized prediction of trajectories of cognitive impairment after stroke is currently available, there is growing interest in PSCID, and its prevention, given the changing epidemiology of poststroke survivors-with older individuals surviving longer.…”

Investing in Late-Life Brain Capital

“…To capitalize on the myriad opportunities of an increasingly aging world, a new approach is needed for the 21st century ( Avan et al, 2021 )—one that focuses on optimizing late-life Brain Capital. Brain Capital is broadly defined as a form of capital, which prioritizes brain skills and brain health within the knowledge economy.…”

From Dementia to Eumentia: A New Approach to Dementia Prevention

“…Too many good causes depend on limited resources, so prioritizing becomes imperative. Luckily, brain health is the core that guarantees overall health and a strong will exists for making it the top health priority, given that it is the key to health, productivity, and wellbeing [31].…”

“…Leaders in the respective fields should converge where they can and diverge where they must. There are movements in that direction [31]. The World Heart Federation has endorsed the World Stroke Organization (WSO) proclamation on the joint prevention of stroke and dementia [32].…”