Summary: The XX Brain

The XX Brain (2020) serves as a prag­mat­ic man­u­al on enhanc­ing cog­ni­tive health in women and pre­vent­ing Alzheimer’s dis­ease. A con­cern­ing trend of Alzheimer’s preva­lence in women is on the rise, yet the med­ical field has not tak­en sig­nif­i­cant action. The XX Brain pro­vides insights on how to proac­tive­ly man­age your health, advo­cate for appro­pri­ate med­ical care, and imple­ment effec­tive mea­sures to stave off Alzheimer’s disease.

Introduction: Seize control of your health.

Were you aware that more women suc­cumb to Alzheimer’s dis­ease than breast can­cer in the UK and Aus­tralia? Fur­ther­more, a 45-year-old woman has a one in five like­li­hood of devel­op­ing Alzheimer’s before her pass­ing, com­pared to a man’s one in ten probability?

If these sta­tis­tics are unfa­mil­iar to you, you’re not alone. Women are fac­ing an Alzheimer’s cri­sis that is wors­en­ing with time. Regret­tably, the issue has received scant atten­tion from the media and insuf­fi­cient focus from the med­ical establishment.

What is fuel­ing this cri­sis? And, more impor­tant­ly, what actions can we take to pre­vent it? These sum­maries shed light on these inquiries and offer an empow­er­ing and prac­ti­cal toolk­it to ensure opti­mal brain health regard­less of age.

The state of women’s health is in turmoil due to disparities in the medical sector

Imag­ine a sce­nario where a mete­or is hurtling toward Earth, putting thir­ty mil­lion lives in the impact zone at risk of anni­hi­la­tion. This cir­cum­stance would pro­voke intense space research, wide­spread media cov­er­age, and a uni­fied effort to pre­vent this impend­ing catastrophe.

Now, con­sid­er a com­pa­ra­ble sce­nario where an equiv­a­lent num­ber of women are pro­ject­ed to suc­cumb to Alzheimer’s dis­ease with­in the next three decades, yet no sig­nif­i­cant action is being taken.

The expla­na­tion? There exists a spe­cif­ic form of dis­crim­i­na­tion at play, result­ing in tan­gi­ble repercussions.

The fun­da­men­tal idea is that wom­en’s health is fac­ing a cri­sis due to inequal­i­ties in the med­ical realm.

Tra­di­tion­al­ly, the field of med­i­cine has been male-dom­i­nat­ed. Male physi­cians sought advice from male researchers who con­duct­ed tri­als pre­dom­i­nant­ly on male par­tic­i­pants. Con­se­quent­ly, med­i­cine has com­mon­ly viewed the human body through a male-cen­tric lens.

The quandary aris­es from the phys­i­o­log­i­cal dis­par­i­ties between men and women. For instance, the symp­toms of a heart attack in women dif­fer from those in men. Instead of chest pain, women often exhib­it flu-like symp­toms such as per­spi­ra­tion and queasi­ness, lead­ing to a sev­en­fold increase in mis­di­ag­no­sis and pre­ma­ture dis­charge dur­ing a heart attack.

Anoth­er aspect to con­sid­er is the dis­tinct metab­o­lism of med­ica­tions in women com­pared to men. Stud­ies demon­strate that the pre­scribed dai­ly dosage of the sleep aid Ambi­en pos­es risks to women sim­ply because, unsur­pris­ing­ly, it was test­ed on men.

The med­ical pro­fes­sion has large­ly adopt­ed a per­spec­tive termed “biki­ni med­i­cine,” empha­siz­ing dif­fer­ences in repro­duc­tive organs while over­look­ing phys­i­o­log­i­cal dis­crep­an­cies from men in oth­er areas, par­tic­u­lar­ly the brain.

Women are twice as prone to depres­sion and anx­i­ety com­pared to men. They expe­ri­ence four times as many migraines and face three­fold risks of autoim­mune ail­ments such as mul­ti­ple scle­ro­sis. Per­haps most alarm­ing is the fact that two out of three Alzheimer’s patients are female. A 45-year-old woman holds a one in five chance of devel­op­ing the dis­ease dur­ing her life­time, while a man of the same age faces mere­ly a one in ten likelihood.

Address­ing wom­en’s health tran­scends the realm of “biki­ni med­i­cine”; it is not just a med­ical issue but an equi­ty con­cern. Women deserve pri­or­i­tized atten­tion to their health, as urgent as the sce­nario of a loom­ing mete­or hurtling towards Earth.

Transitions in hormones such as menopause significantly impact brain health.

If you have endured the fluc­tu­a­tions of pre­men­stru­al syn­drome (PMS), you are like­ly aware of the influ­ence of hor­mones on brain func­tion. How­ev­er, the extent to which hor­mones affect the brain might sur­prise you.

Estro­gen, being the pri­ma­ry hor­mone, dubbed the “mas­ter reg­u­la­tor,” exerts influ­ence over vir­tu­al­ly every crit­i­cal brain func­tion. It aids in ener­gy pro­duc­tion, sus­tains cel­lu­lar health, and acti­vates regions of the brain respon­si­ble for mem­o­ry and focus.

Estro­gen also serves to shield the brain by bol­ster­ing the immune sys­tem and reg­u­lat­ing mood by facil­i­tat­ing the release of endor­phins. Hence, the decline in estro­gen lev­els dur­ing menopause can have dev­as­tat­ing effects.

The crux here is that hor­mon­al tran­si­tions like menopause have a pro­found impact on brain health

Menopause occurs upon a wom­an’s final men­stru­al peri­od, typ­i­cal­ly around her for­ties or fifties, though it can be accel­er­at­ed in cas­es of hysterectomy.

In addi­tion to cus­tom­ary symp­toms like hot flash­es, the drop in estro­gen lev­els bears a sig­nif­i­cant effect on the brain. Many women con­front chal­lenges with depres­sion and anx­i­ety dur­ing menopause. Some may even expe­ri­ence symp­toms akin to bipo­lar dis­or­der or schiz­o­phre­nia for the first time. Fur­ther­more, menopause height­ens wom­en’s sus­cep­ti­bil­i­ty to heart con­di­tions, obe­si­ty, and diabetes.

Stud­ies con­trast­ing brains before and after menopause reveal a decline in activ­i­ty as estro­gen lev­els plum­met. Con­cur­rent­ly, a key indi­ca­tor of Alzheimer’s dis­ease, the pres­ence of amy­loid plaques in the brain, surges. Areas of mem­o­ry stor­age in the brain also shrink. Menopause esca­lates demen­tia risks for 80% of women.

Alzheimer’s may seem to man­i­fest sud­den­ly, yet the dis­ease incu­bates over decades. While overt symp­toms often emerge in old age, the foun­da­tions are laid ear­li­er in life. For many women, menopause marks the onset.

Does this imply accept­ing a fate sealed by hor­mon­al fluc­tu­a­tions? Absolute­ly not. It is vital to grasp the impli­ca­tions of such hor­mon­al tran­si­tions and adopt strate­gies to nav­i­gate them effectively.

By imple­ment­ing pre­ven­tive tac­tics, the effects of menopause can be man­aged to uphold opti­mal brain health through and beyond this phase.

Alzheimer’s is not an inevitable or solely hereditary consequence of aging

Recall the fairy­tales from your child­hood, where you embraced var­i­ous myths and fan­tasies with­out ques­tion. Despite matur­ing, sev­er­al of these nar­ra­tives like­ly endured in your psy­che. Myths tend to linger per­sis­tent­ly. Wom­en’s health is shroud­ed in myths, but unlike inno­cent folk­lore, these myths are per­ni­cious, influ­enc­ing our approach to wom­en’s health­care and care.

One of the most wide­spread mis­un­der­stand­ings about Alzheimer’s is that women acquire the con­di­tion due to pos­sess­ing a dis­tinct Alzheimer’s gene. This notion implies that devel­op­ing Alzheimer’s is innate or pre­de­ter­mined, and there’s no way to hin­der it.

That’s incor­rect.

The real­i­ty is com­plex. Spe­cif­ic genes do height­en your vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty: 1 to 2 per­cent of Alzheimer’s instances stem from an uncom­mon genet­ic alter­ation, and oth­er genes can ren­der you more prone.

Eth­nic­i­ty pos­es a risk. If you are an African Amer­i­can woman, your like­li­hood of hav­ing Alzheimer’s or suf­fer­ing a stroke is twice that of a Cau­casian woman. If you’re His­pan­ic, you’re one and a half times more prone to devel­op­ing Alzheimer’s.

How­ev­er, a genet­ic pre­dis­po­si­tion does­n’t equate to an inevitable out­come. Stud­ies reveal that at least one-third of all Alzheimer’s cas­es could be avert­ed through enhanced health and lifestyle decisions.

A sec­ond mis­con­cep­tion that needs to be addressed sug­gests that women are more sus­cep­ti­ble to Alzheimer’s because they live longer. This mis­con­cep­tion alleges that it’s a mal­a­dy of the elder­ly. Giv­en that women have extend­ed lifes­pans, it fol­lows that they’ll also like­ly devel­op Alzheimer’s more frequently.

Ini­tial­ly, this appears log­i­cal, yet upon clos­er exam­i­na­tion, the facts don’t hold up. For one, women don’t out­live men sig­nif­i­cant­ly — mere­ly three to five years on aver­age. Addi­tion­al­ly, they typ­i­cal­ly encounter Alzheimer’s at a younger age than men. More­over, women aren’t more pre­dis­posed to oth­er age-relat­ed con­di­tions like Parkinson’s or strokes. It seems rea­son­able to assume that anoth­er fac­tor must be trig­ger­ing this severe epidemic.

It’s time to relin­quish the fables that sug­gest Alzheimer’s is innate or pre­or­dained, and rather address this as the cri­sis it is — a cri­sis that can be averted.

To gauge your vulnerability to Alzheimer’s, assess your general health

If you’re engaged in a pok­er game and you receive a hand of kings and aces, you may believe you’re on the path to vic­to­ry. How­ev­er, if you’ve ever been dealt a seem­ing­ly sure­fire hand and still lost, you’ll under­stand that noth­ing is cer­tain until you play your cards.

The same prin­ci­ple applies to risk fac­tors and Alzheimer’s. You might pos­sess numer­ous risk fac­tors, but none of them ensure that you’ll cer­tain­ly devel­op the con­di­tion. They are sim­ply cues to be vig­i­lant of and manage.

Nat­u­ral­ly, one of the most potent ways to intro­duce tox­ins into your sys­tem is by smok­ing. Female smok­ers are at a sig­nif­i­cant­ly ele­vat­ed risk of devel­op­ing car­dio­vas­cu­lar and cere­bral conditions.

Menopause hormone therapy has its critics, but we shouldn’t dismiss it.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, it’s not that straight­for­ward. Alzheimer’s med­ica­tions exhib­it the high­est fail­ure rate in clin­i­cal tri­als — at an astound­ing 99.6 per­cent! As we’ve observed, wom­en’s dis­tinc­tive encoun­ters with Alzheimer’s have gar­nered min­i­mal atten­tion in med­ical research.

How­ev­er, there is one treat­ment that has exhib­it­ed promise: hor­mone replace­ment ther­a­py, also rec­og­nized as menopause hor­mone treat­ments or MHT.

How­ev­er, there were cer­tain short­com­ings in the tri­al that cast doubt on these find­ings. For instance, it sole­ly exam­ined women in their six­ties and sev­en­ties who were well into menopause. Many of these women like­ly had con­di­tions like thick­ened arter­ies — which con­tribute to heart dis­ease — already. Fur­ther­more, the study sole­ly focused on pro­longed usage of MHTs at high dosages. It did­n’t shed light on whether short-term con­sump­tion at low dosages could be effec­tive or safe.

So, the piv­otal query is: should you con­sid­er them? As should be evi­dent by now, this is an intri­cate ques­tion that is ide­al­ly dis­cussed with your doc­tor, who can eval­u­ate your per­son­al risk fac­tors and scru­ti­nize the poten­tial benefits.

Maintaining a balanced, nourishing diet is the approach to enhancing your brain health

Some lipids are harm­ful to you; oth­ers are nec­es­sary. Con­sid­er trans fats. They are heav­i­ly processed and harm­ful for your body in any quan­ti­ty. Con­verse­ly, the unsat­u­rat­ed fats present in avo­ca­dos, nuts, and fish sup­port your heart and brain to thrive, par­tic­u­lar­ly if con­sumed daily.

The same applies to car­bo­hy­drates. Foods rich in sug­ar, like white bread, pas­ta, and pas­tries, cause your blood sug­ar lev­els to rise and then drop, mak­ing it chal­leng­ing for your body to reg­u­late ener­gy. In con­trast, com­plex carbs like those found in veg­eta­bles, brown rice, and quinoa are packed with fiber that sta­bi­lizes estro­gen and the sug­ar lev­els in your blood.

Chick­peas, flaxseeds, and apri­cots are all ben­e­fi­cial foods for main­tain­ing your estro­gen lev­els. More­over, if you wish to active­ly enhance your brain’s health, then you must reg­u­lar­ly eat super­foods full of antiox­i­dants. Dur­ing meals, ensure that half of your plate is filled with veg­eta­bles – the more diverse, the better.

To aid your body in digest­ing all these nour­ish­ing sub­stances, you also need to enhance the ben­e­fi­cial microbes in your gut. This involves con­sum­ing plen­ty of pre­bi­otics like onions, bananas, and gar­lic that func­tion as a sort of “fer­til­iz­er,” along with pro­bi­otics present in foods like yogurt.

Nev­er­the­less, even with a superb diet, there might be instances where you require addi­tion­al sup­port. If you feel low or exces­sive­ly fatigued, con­sult your physi­cian to eval­u­ate your lev­els of B vit­a­mins and Omega 3 fat­ty acids, which are vital for your men­tal and emo­tion­al well­ness along with brain health.

By embrac­ing a bal­anced diet filled with top-notch foods and sup­ple­ment­ing where nec­es­sary, you will empow­er your body – and mind – to thrive.

Consistent, gentle physical activity is crucial for brain health. As you age, slower is better.

Have you heard the fable of the tor­toise and the hare: the hare dash­es past the tor­toise in a race and seems like she’s win­ning, but soon becomes worn out, and then the stead­fast tor­toise, who sim­ply keeps mov­ing at a steady pace, ends up reach­ing the fin­ish line first?

Well, it appears that in terms of exer­cis­ing, as a woman, you should emu­late the tor­toise rather than the hare.

Engag­ing in reg­u­lar low to mod­er­ate-inten­si­ty work­outs offers immense ben­e­fits for all facets of your well-being – par­tic­u­lar­ly the wel­fare of your brain.

Phys­i­cal exer­cise has incred­i­ble advan­tages for your health. It bol­sters your heart by reduc­ing plaque accu­mu­la­tion in your arter­ies and induces a sense of well-being by trig­ger­ing the release of endor­phins. Impor­tant­ly, it also fos­ters youth­ful brain function.

When you engage in phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, you release growth hor­mones that aid your neu­rons in repair and form­ing new con­nec­tions. There­fore, it is not sur­pris­ing that women who exer­cise reg­u­lar­ly have a sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduced risk of devel­op­ing demen­tia in lat­er stages of life.

How­ev­er, if the thought of work­ing out con­jures daunt­ing images of lift­ing weights in the gym, fear not: wom­en’s bod­ies excel with rou­tine low to mod­er­ate-inten­si­ty phys­i­cal activity.

There is no uni­ver­sal work­out reg­i­men, but it’s ben­e­fi­cial to tai­lor your exer­cise rou­tine based on your age. For women in their twen­ties and thir­ties, a blend of more aer­o­bic exer­cis­es can help decel­er­ate the aging process and uphold opti­mal estro­gen lev­els. Ide­al­ly, women in this age group should work out for about 45 min­utes thrice a week.

Post­menopause, it’s rec­om­mend­ed to boost the fre­quen­cy while low­er­ing the inten­si­ty, aim­ing for around 30 min­utes of exer­cise five times a week. This approach yields the most favor­able out­comes for numer­ous reasons.

To start with, high-inten­si­ty work­outs ele­vate cor­ti­sol lev­els – the stress hor­mone – poten­tial­ly esca­lat­ing inflam­ma­tion and caus­ing mus­cle or joint issues. Sec­ond­ly, stren­u­ous work­outs neces­si­tate extend­ed recov­ery peri­ods, which are con­tin­gent on obtain­ing qual­i­ty sleep – a chal­lenge for menopausal women. Last­ly, high-inten­si­ty exer­cise can cause mus­cle strain and height­en the risk of bone frac­tures in old­er women.

Instead, attempt activ­i­ties like yoga, pilates, gar­den­ing, or embark­ing on a half-hour bicy­cle ride. The finest exer­cise is dai­ly and rou­tine. Your brain will express grat­i­tude for it!

It’s time to confront the stress pandemic adversely impacting women’s well-being

Have you expe­ri­enced a sce­nario where numer­ous indi­vid­u­als were mak­ing diverse demands you simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, and you found your­self whirling in a fren­zy try­ing to ful­fill every­one’s require­ments? If so, you are sim­i­lar to many mod­ern women, who fre­quent­ly jug­gle the demands of a full-time job with those of their chil­dren and families.

Intro­duc­ing the respon­si­bil­i­ty of car­ing for elder­ly par­ents into the mix cre­ates a stress­ful con­coc­tion. And this is detri­men­tal to the brain.

Although equal­i­ty in the pro­fes­sion­al sphere has increased, it has not been par­al­leled by equal­i­ty at home. Women are over­bur­dened and lack­ing ade­quate sup­port. Chron­ic stress has become cus­tom­ary, but it should­n’t be. Stress leads to inad­e­quate sleep, low spir­its, and an ele­vat­ed risk of depres­sion. It even con­tributes to brain atrophy!

Hence, it is imper­a­tive to man­age stress lev­els. But how can this be achieved? One way is to grant our brains a break from inces­sant men­tal stim­u­la­tion. Nowa­days, we are con­stant­ly bom­bard­ed with dis­tress­ing news and work-relat­ed emails. Endeav­or to imple­ment dig­i­tal detox peri­ods and restrict your use of mobile phones and check­ing work emails beyond reg­u­lar work­ing hours.

If your mind is per­sis­tent­ly rac­ing, med­i­ta­tive prac­tices or mind­ful­ness are ben­e­fi­cial skills to cul­ti­vate. Var­i­ous approach­es exist, but they all cul­mi­nate in the same out­come: allow­ing your mind to rest. The health ben­e­fits are sub­stan­tial, with one study reveal­ing that con­sis­tent med­i­ta­tion over sev­er­al years led to a 48 per­cent reduc­tion in mor­tal­i­ty risk from heart disease!

Nat­u­ral­ly, the most effec­tive means to pro­vide your mind with respite is through sleep. Pro­found sleep is cru­cial for enabling your body and brain to reju­ve­nate and heal. How­ev­er, many of us func­tion on min­i­mal sleep quan­ti­ties, result­ing in cog­ni­tive fog, despon­den­cy, and irritability.

To enhance your sleep qual­i­ty, engage in a wind­ing-down rou­tine for half an hour before bed­time, devoid of elec­tron­ic devices or oth­er stim­uli. Dimin­ish light­ing in your bed­room and ensure it is suit­ably cool. If these strate­gies prove inef­fec­tive, the author sug­gests con­sult­ing your physi­cian regard­ing mela­tonin sup­ple­ments and incor­po­rat­ing mela­tonin-rich foods like pis­ta­chios into your pre-bed­time routine.

Stress has grown to seem like a nat­ur­al com­po­nent of our lives, but there is noth­ing nat­ur­al about it. In real­i­ty, it is a per­ilous adver­sary. There­fore, address­ing it should be a para­mount concern.

Cognitive stimulation will promote the thriving of your brain

When did you last acquire new knowl­edge? Or avail your­self of an oppor­tu­ni­ty to step out­side your com­fort zone?

In youth, exper­i­men­ta­tion with new expe­ri­ences appears com­mon. How­ev­er, as we age, we fre­quent­ly become entrenched in monot­o­nous rou­tines and shy away from exploration.

This is unfa­vor­able for our cog­ni­tive well-being. In essence, to sus­tain a healthy brain, you must exer­cise it.

A study mon­i­tor­ing 900 indi­vid­u­als over 15 years found that those engaged in stim­u­lat­ing occu­pa­tions or pos­sessed degrees had a sig­nif­i­cant­ly larg­er cog­ni­tive reserve. Sim­i­lar­ly, a study involv­ing 400 seniors yield­ed pos­i­tive out­comes: those intel­lec­tu­al­ly engaged exhib­it­ed a 54 per­cent reduced risk of cog­ni­tive decline. Even indi­vid­u­als car­ry­ing the rare gene muta­tion respon­si­ble for Alzheimer’s can delay the dis­ease’s onset by embrac­ing intel­lec­tu­al stimulation.

A well-exer­cised brain is a pow­er­ful asset for main­tain­ing cog­ni­tive vital­i­ty and over­all well-being as you age stur­dier con­nec­tions among brain cells, con­tribute to greater adapt­abil­i­ty and dura­bil­i­ty, result­ing in quick­er respons­es to stimuli.

Regret­tably, women have his­tor­i­cal­ly faced sig­nif­i­cant­ly few­er oppor­tu­ni­ties to pur­sue advanced edu­ca­tion or engag­ing employ­ment, result­ing in many miss­ing out on these brain-enhanc­ing advan­tages. Progress is being made, albeit slow­ly, towards achiev­ing equi­ty today.

For­tu­nate­ly, there exist alter­na­tive meth­ods to acti­vate your brain. While the recent surge in online gam­ing has not been sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly val­i­dat­ed to be ben­e­fi­cial, numer­ous offline activ­i­ties have shown pos­i­tive effects.

Engag­ing in read­ing a news­pa­per or an enrich­ing book can ignite your neu­rons. Sim­i­lar­ly, attend­ing the the­ater, watch­ing a doc­u­men­tary, or play­ing a table­top game with friends can have the same effect. How­ev­er, chal­lenge your­self and your brain. If you excel at chess, explore a dif­fer­ent strate­gic game. If you usu­al­ly opt for light­heart­ed romances, con­sid­er pick­ing up a clas­sic nov­el for a change.

One of the most effec­tive ways to sharp­en your brain is by acquir­ing new knowl­edge. Have you longed to mas­ter the art of del­i­cate pas­try-mak­ing? Or per­haps learn­ing to play the vio­lin cap­ti­vates you? Now is the ide­al moment to pur­sue these aspirations.

The soon­er you adopt a healthy diet, engage in phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, reduce stress, and stim­u­late your mind, the bet­ter the out­comes. It’s high time for soci­ety to acknowl­edge and pri­or­i­tize women’s brain health. Until that hap­pens, you pos­sess the abil­i­ty to take con­trol of your own well-being, com­menc­ing today.

Final Summary

The fun­da­men­tal mes­sage con­veyed in these synopses:

Women’s brain health is in a crit­i­cal state, yet the rise of Alzheimer’s can be avert­ed. By proac­tive­ly mon­i­tor­ing your over­all well-being, you can delay or even pre­vent the onset of this con­di­tion entire­ly. Mak­ing adjust­ments to your diet, exer­cise rou­tine, stress man­age­ment, and intel­lec­tu­al engage­ments are piv­otal lifestyle mod­i­fi­ca­tions for sig­nif­i­cant­ly enhanc­ing your brain health.

Prac­ti­cal rec­om­men­da­tion: Feel­ing light­head­ed in the morn­ing? Con­sume a cup of luke­warm water.

Our brains con­sist of 80 per­cent water. There­fore, even minor dehy­dra­tion can pro­found­ly affect their func­tion­al­i­ty. Research indi­cates that ade­quate hydra­tion boosts brain per­for­mance by 30 per­cent! Luke­warm water is absorbed more effi­cient­ly by our bod­ies. To kick­start the day on a pos­i­tive note, drink a cup of luke­warm water imme­di­ate­ly upon wak­ing up in the morning.

About the author

Lisa Mosconi, PhD, serves as an Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Neu­ro­science in Neu­rol­o­gy and Radi­ol­o­gy at Weill Cor­nell and holds the role of Direc­tor for the Alzheimer’s Pre­ven­tion Pro­gram at Weill Cor­nell Med­i­cine/NewYork-Pres­by­ter­ian Hos­pi­tal. A glob­al­ly rec­og­nized neu­ro­sci­en­tist with a doc­tor­ate in Neu­ro­science and Nuclear Med­i­cine from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Flo­rence, Italy, Dr. Mosconi was acknowl­edged as one of the 17 most influ­en­tial liv­ing female sci­en­tists by The Times and was hailed “the Mona Lisa of Neu­ro­science” by ELLE Inter­na­tion­al. She is the author of Brain Food.