Dr. Majid Fotuhi

If you have kidney problems, nitrogen, urea levels go up, affects your brain.

If your heart is not functioning, forget it.

If you don't have enough blood, your brain can't work.

If your lungs are not functioning,

then not enough oxygen, your brain won't work.

Your muscles produce something called myokines, which are these hormones that are protective for the brain.

And so in order for us to have a healthy brain above our neck, we need to keep our body strong below our neck.

As you said, it's common sense.

But I think the problem is, I give a lot of lectures around the world.

I've been to 40 countries.

I teach at Johns Hopkins.

I teach at Harvard.

And everywhere I go, what I find interesting is that people don't realize the brain is an organ.

To most people, the brain is like this mysterious black box.

Many people think that the brain is like a computer that gets old and rusty with aging, and that there is not much they can do.

In reality, I think people need to think of their brain as a garden.

If you take care of a garden, the plants grow.

If there are any fruit plants, they produce fruits.

The weeds will not be there.

And if you neglect that garden, the weeds grow, and the plants won't grow, and it's a mess.