How to Save Your Aging Brain

(BIO 86)

What makes our brains decline with age? And what can we do to slow or reverse it? In this course, we will learn how free radicals, hormones, supplements, exercise, physical activity, meditation, sugar, sweeteners, caffeine, caloric restriction, video games, and our genes influence how quickly our brain ages. We will explore why some vitamins and antioxidants don’t make it into the most important part of nerve cells, and which ones do. We will examine potential future treatments to slow or reverse brain aging such as stem cells, nerve implants, free-radical scavengers, and regenerative medicine. By the end of this course, we will know the best things we can do to save our aging brains.

Michael Walker, Consulting Professor, Department of Medicine

Michael Walker received a PhD from Stanford. He teaches courses in biology and statistics and consults for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. He has published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Genome Research, and other leading journals, and has more than forty patents issued or pending for the discovery of disease-associated genes and statistical analysis methods.