Food, movement, social engagements, play, and stress.  These are all key drivers of how well our brain’s function and how cognitive function declines with age. It’s also the same for our dogs and cats. At a cellular level its largely about maintaining mitochondrial function, managing inflammation, and managing oxidative stress. What that means for the less technical of us is that exercise, social function, cognitive training, and a good diet are hitting multiple pathways in your brain to help it in 1000 different ways. To maintain cellular health in our brains we must feed our mitochondria and help our bodies manage inflammation. 

Dr Liz Head is a Neuroscientist who has been studying dementia, Alzheimer’s, and cognitive decline in dogs and humans. Her research began assessing brain aging in dogs as a model for human Alzheimer’s. This has expanded to examining how diet, behaviour, and inflammatory disease impact the activity of the brain’s mitochondria. Liz is at UC Irvine where she her team is examining various molecular pathways engaged in the aging and Alzheimer disease process to identify interventions that may improve cognition. 

I recently caught up with Liz to hear more about her work. You can listen to his conversation here. 

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