Her urgent message: It’s time for a brain health renaissance.
Aesthetically speaking, brains are not nearly as sexy as abs. But ensuring your mind stays in the same shape as your physique is crucial to optimizing your life now—and warding off diseases in the future.
The stats speak for themselves: Someone gets diagnosed with Alzheimer’s every 65 seconds. That’s based on newly-released data that shaved a second off the previous number, 66. While the numbers seem gloomier, there’s more optimistic new science that further supports what The Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement (WAM), founded by Maria Shriver, has been preaching: Women in a study who prioritized fitness were 90 percent less likely to get dementia later in life.
The shared belief in the power of fitness led Shriver, WAM, and Equinox to create Move For Minds, a series of events and panel discussions that will run throughout the month of June, Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month. Now in its fourth year, with sponsors like Cole Haan, they’re also introducing a social media challenge and a new version of Equinox’s popular MetCon class, MetConM.
Furthermore spoke to Shriver about Move For Minds, the crunches you can do for your brain, and the most exciting research currently happening in this space.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and concision.
Photo: Azusa Takano