Hello and welcome to Zoe Recap, where each week we find the best bits from one of our podcast episodes to help you improve your health.

Medical advances over the past century mean our bodies are living longer than ever, but our brains aren't always keeping pace.

Rates of Alzheimer's are rising, and the big question is why. Emerging science

suggests that our brain health in later life is shaped decades earlier through everyday choices

around food, lifestyle and stress. Today I'm joined by neurologist Dr. Aisha and Dean Cherzai

who will share their neuro plan, a practical guide that you can use today

to keep your brain strong tomorrow.

What's the lifestyle? What are people doing that are contributing to these different factors causing

this risk? So in studies, especially the types of studies that look at large groups of people over a long

period of time have shown us that there are a number of factors that matter, and especially

their existence throughout the span of our lives can either increase or reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

The Lancet magazine, so it's a well-known medical journal, and they come up with a consensus report every three to four years.

And recently, just a few months ago, they created this beautiful

picture of the risk factors during childhood, midlife, and late life. And they have listed a number

of different factors. And Dean and I have, you know, kind of made it easy for our patients to

remember these factors. So we've created this acronym called neuro,

N-U-R-O, self-serving because we're neurologists.

But, you know, N stands for nutrition, E, exercise,

U-unwind, or stress management, R is restorative sleep,

and O is optimizing cognitive activities or building cognitive resilience.

And under each of them, so for example, in nutrition we have lipid metabolism, LDL cholesterol

that is contributed or affected by the kind of foods that we eat.

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