Dr. Majid Fotuhi

I love doing this podcast.

I love the fact that I just finished writing my fourth book and I will continue doing it.

So establish what it is that is meaningful to you.

And that will help you to have motivation to then pursue the things that are good for your brain.

You need to establish in your mind what it is that excites you, what it is that you feel passionate about.

These are not philosophical concepts.

These mindsets actually change the anatomy of your brain.

There are questionnaires to establish a sense of purpose in life.

And you answer like seven or 10 questions and you get a score on how much sense of purpose you have in your life.

And then you can use those questionnaires and ask the question of how having a sense of purpose can change things.

So having a sense of purpose reduces the risk of dementia by 19%, reduces risk of heart attack by 12%, reduces the risk of strokes by 50%.

In other words, you look at two groups of people

One group has high score for a sense of purpose in life, one group has low score.

And then look at their brains, the people with higher sense of purpose have 50% fewer strokes than people who don't have a sense of purpose in life.

You live longer, you have less stress, you sleep better, your brain is sharper.

Here's another thing.

If you look at two groups of people with the same load of plaques and tangles of Alzheimer's disease.

So person A, let's say from one to 10, has six out of 10 plaques and tangles in their brain.

And person B has six out of 10 plaques and tangles in their brain.

And then you do cognitive testing on them to see how well they perform