The Aging Brain

Recently I participated in a launch team for Timothy Jennings, M.D. new book The Aging Brain: Proven Steps to Prevent Dementia and Sharpen Your Mind. This title excited me as I am now closer to retirement than to the beginning of my working career. As a participant in the launch team, I received a free pre-release copy of this title.

I eagerly began to read this book and found the initial chapter immensely interesting. Specifically, the idea that the top 5 leading causes of death are not due to poor health necessarily but due to longer life spans (17). From this point, Dr. Jennings continued with chapters on the importance of overall health and information on genetics. The fourth chapter on "Genes and Aging" was a more challenging read. While Dr. Jennings explains everything well and includes excellent documentation, I found I had to pay very careful attention while reading this section.

Part 2 on "Oxidative Stress and Aging" mentioned the typical health concerns but delved more deeply into their impact on aging. Part 3 moved on to lifestyle changes that should be made. Again, the items listed were items we all know we should do. The final section of the book focuses more on dementia. An entire chapter is devoted to vitamins and supplements useful to combat onset of Alzheimer's. This section was particularly useful and covered topics that aren't addressed in all of the leading magazines.

The best part of this book is the section at the end of every chapter titled "Learning Points" and a section titled "Action Plan: Things to Do" which appears in most chapters. These bulleted lists cut to the heart of the book in an easily memorable format. The Amazing Brain is well documented with extensive endnotes. I would have enjoyed the addition of charts to provide another explanation of the material particularly to depict a process.

Overall I recommend this book with some reservation. While it is a good book and well-documented, I found there was not a lot of information that I couldn't find by reading Prevention Magazine or some other health source. The benefit of the book is the convenience of having all of this content in one place and being able to reference it when desired.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received the book, The Aging Brain, free from Baker Books. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”