USE YOUR BRAIN TO CHANGE YOUR AGE

Clinical neuroscientist and public-broadcasting favorite Amen (The Amen Solution, 2011, etc.) updates and sharpens his program for shaping a healthy brain.

The brain is the hub: When it works correctly, so will you, like feeling the urge and responsibility to exercise and eat sensibly. When it is weakened or damaged, so too will be your decision making. Readers may quibble with some of Amen’s particulars—such as his equation of brain health equaling wealth—but one would have to be blind not to nod in agreement at the familiar sagacity of his overall plan. In his comforting storyteller’s voice, the author makes tales of the important elements in his healthy-brain system: diet, supportive friends, exercise (including our old friend sex: “Your bed may be the best piece of workout equipment in your house”), confronting and grappling with brain damage, addressing emotional challenges, learning to keep the brain nimble and keeping track of your vital numbers. With clarity and compactness, Amen presents 10 vignettes to drive home his points and then from each draws 20 tips to put the evidence into play in the reader’s life. Though he doesn’t shrink from boosting the brain-health products sold through his Amen Clinics, to his credit he details just which substances and supplements are important to achieve a goal.

Just reading Amen’s book will probably improve your brain, though his commonsensical advice suggests you can do plenty more.