Dr. Austin Perlmutter argues that you don't have to sacrifice brain health for pleasure. Excessive alcohol, junk food, and poor sleep habits directly link to cognitive decline. He sees a 2026 shift where people choose activities that feel good and protect their brains.
We, for the most part, live our lives with this understanding that, you know, maybe I'm making choices that aren't great for my health, but I'm going to enjoy the moment. And somehow we've been forced into this belief that if we're going to enjoy ourselves, it has to come at the cost of our future brain health, meaning all the things that we do to try to mitigate our stress in life or try to connect with other people. It's drinking a bunch of alcohol, it's eating junk food, it's staying up late, really being in these situations that we know are directly related to long term brain disability. And so my hope is coming into 2026, we can start normalize the spending time doing things that are enjoyable that don't come with this massive opportunity cost of brain health. I think we've already seen some of this around alcohol consumption, which has dropped off dramatically in the last couple of years. But what would it be like if we just normalize this idea that making choices for our short and long term brain health was the goal? I think it'd be a very different society.
She Used to Crash Every Afternoon — Here's What Fixed It | The Wardrobe Consultant
