Dancing into Brain Health (S1 Ep8): Partnering with Youth to Spark Brain Health

This World Alzheimer’s Month, we engage in a topic that is largely under-addressed – youth brain health. Public health recommendations encourage a life course approach to brain health and dementia prevention, however much of the public discourse, research and interventions around these topics center middle and late adulthood.

Young adulthood and the potential brain health risk factors are largely neglected in dementia research and policy making despite this demographic being highly exposed to several known modifiable risk factors. Globally, the potential risk and protective factors that have the biggest effect on dementia outcomes in young adulthood remain unclear.

Our guest today on the Dancing into Brain Health Podcast is neuroscientist and Assistant Professor in the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago, Dr. Francesca Farina. In our discussion, she introduces a new initiative that is shining a light into the topic of youth brain health.

“We talk a lot about risk and resilience, but actually what we do most of the time is focus on risk. We talk about brain health, but then we go back to risk factors and the things that we’re not supposed to be doing. We know that brain health is more than the absence of brain disease. You know, it’s about thriving. So I think there’s a real need, not just in young adults, but across the spectrum when we’re thinking about brain health to really focus in on what do we mean by resilience or protective factors.”

— Dr. Francesca Farina

Learn more about Dr. Francesca Farina here: https://profiles.uchicago.edu/profiles/display/41427710

https://www.gbhi.org/profiles/francesca-farina

https://www.linkedin.com/in/francescarfarina/⁠

Learn more about Next Generation Brain Health and get in touch HERE:

Learn more about PERI-MIND and get in touch HERE:

Read or watch more:

Next generation brain health: transforming global research and public health to promote prevention of dementia and reduce its risk in young adult populations

Exploring brain health awareness and dementia risk in young adults: A focus group study

Young Adult Brain Capital: A New Opportunity for Dementia Prevention

Shifting the Narrative, Bringing Light to Younger-Onset Dementia

Global burden of young-onset dementia, from 1990 to 2021: an age-period-cohort analysis from the global burden of disease study 2021

Reducing fear and avoidance of memory loss improves mood and social engagement in community-based older adults: a randomized trial

Why Science Needs Art: From Historical to Modern Day Perspectives

This episode of Dancing into Brain Health was edited and produced by Magda Kaczmarska and Hilary Brown-Istrefi. The music for this show is the title cut from the album, Critical Path by Joe Venegoni and Carl Weingarten.

ABOUT DANCING INTO BRAIN HEALTH PODCAST

Join host Magda Kaczmarska, dancer, researcher, Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health and executive director of arts and health nonprofit, DanceStream Projects, in uncovering the interconnections of dance, brain health and community. Each episode Magda brings together leading researchers, artists, advocates and thought leaders to illuminate the magical interconnections of dance and brain health and explore their influence on all aspects of our lives.

* New Episodes every month! *

Follow us on IG: @ dancestream_projects or email us at: magda@dancestreamprojects.com