YOUR daily lifestyle choices shape not only YOUR brain health, but also create a transformative ripple effect, touching the lives and well-being of those YOU care for, those YOU care about, and YOUR greater community.
Learn about Building Brain Health Communities
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WEF New Frontiers of Nutrition Platform : The food we eat shapes who are as people, expresses our connection to our culture, and defines who we can be as a society for years to come. The food we eat can heal, or harm, more readily than almost any other pattern of consumption we engage with. The top three causes of death in 2019 were non-communicable diseases that could have been better managed through proper diet. The WEF New Frontiers of Nutrition is a coordinated approach to improve nutritional outcomes that empower overall health and well-being through increasing the access, availability, adoption, and prioritization of more nutritious food choices through tangible actions to be taken by institutions, companies, and consumers.
WEF Future of Personalized Well-being : Advancements in scientific research in areas such as the microbiome, technology, and data are offering the opportunity to tailor wellness products and services based on an individual’s unique biological profile to achieve sustained well-being. However, to realize the greatest potential impact for individuals and society, new models and approaches are required to navigate inherent risks and challenges with this type of sensitive and personal information. The WEF Future of Personalized Well-being exists to transform societal well-being by unlocking the full potential of personalized solutions, as well as help individuals lead healthy and resilient lives that are preventatively empowered by an advanced spectrum of personalized solutions tailored to their unique physical and mental health needs.
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In partnership with UF-IFAS, the overall goal of this project is to develop and demonstrate inclusive, measurable, and scalable prototypes in FL and beyond to increase nutritional outcomes and healthy lifestyle literacy, along with the availability, access, and adoption of new plant breeds, leading to a greater supply and variety of phytonutrient-rich foods.
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The BHI and its collaborators, including the World Economic Forum and University of Florida College of Medicine, believe that the brain and the body are inextricably linked, and that focusing on the health and performance of our brains is the future of work, sport, and life. The BHI is committed to the concept of “brain span” and helping all we reach understand how they can optimize the function of their brain to be ready for the moments that matter most — today and well into the future.
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BHI Hospitals for Brain Health involve the engagement a continuum of work focusing on establishing the baseline of brain health and performance where hospital workforces work, live, learn, and play; investigating the efficacy of integrated solutions vs. siloed interventions, including increasing participants’ literacy about brain health and performance; and showcasing the impact of deploying solutions that improve organizations at multiple levels — from the individual employee and their families to teams — up to the broader organizational culture.
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The BHI Restaurants for Brain Health is an initiative aiming to inspire the saturation of our food culture with brain-healthy dining experiences, including but not limited to brain-healthy ingredients, menus, food sourcing, cooking techniques, and ambiance. The BHI will use an innovative and comprehensive Brain Health Food Metric and evaluation method to identify and approve Certified Brain Healthy restaurants as a component of its strategic plan to build Brain Healthy Communities.
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The BHI Brain Health Scholar is a highly competitive, nomination, and application-only program for young leaders. BHI Brain Health Scholars work primarily virtually with BHI clinicians and scientists to promote and protect brain health, fight brain illness, and optimize performance for all ages. BHI Brain Health Scholars help carry out the engagement and impact and research agenda of the BHI, raising brain health awareness, increasing brain health literacy, and assisting in the collection of data to better understand the brain health and well-being concerns, values, priorities, and attitudes of both you and adults.
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BHI Families for Brain Health programming focuses on enhancing family well-being, providing parenting and care-giving support and strategies for living with brain health in mind, and empowering families’ advocacy for their children through resources and guidance for understanding, adopting, and implementing brain-healthy lifestyle habits for all family members. With the skills, knowledge, competence, and confidence gained through these interventions, families can support their child’s educational journey, foster resilience, and promote lifelong learning and lifestyle habits that extend far beyond their years in school.
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Youth leaders will be provided opportunities to become trained and earn a Youth Brain Health Community Educator certificate. As Brain Health Community Educators, these youth will become informed about the science of brain health while preventing and fighting brain health throughout the community where they live, learn, work, and play. This process will provide a ripple effect supporting brain health and healthy lifestyles at the individual and community levels.
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This program is a part of BHI’s strategic plan to build Brain Healthy Communities. This project, in collaboration with American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, seeks to create an objective measure of the nutritional profile of food relative to neuroprotective properties.
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BHI Faculty have launched the world’s first Nutritional Neuroscience academic course, Food is Medicine for Brain Health and Performance, as well as the Lifestyle Medicine for Brain Health and Performance academic course, at Harvard in the spring semester of 2023. In addition, BHI faculty have launched the inaugural Lifestyle Medicine for Brain Health and Performance dual enrollment course at the University of South Florida’s Judy Genshaft Honors College. As part of these academic courses, Harvard undergraduate and graduate students, as well as the University of South Florida Judy Genshaft Honors College students, BHI Brain Health Scholars, and high school students from the School District of Manatee County and Lakewood Ranch Preparatory Academy will gain a deeper understanding of the science and implications of a planet and brain-healthy lifestyle, including nutrition and culinary literacy, physical activity, and emotional well-being on brain health and overall wellness. Students will also develop a toolkit that will enable them to apply the information learned to their own well-being choices with confidence and competence and to inspire community stakeholders (e.g., restaurants, regional farmers markets, organic farms, and retails) to promote planet and brain health.
Crisis, opportunity, and hope drive the Brain Health Initiatives’s (BHI) goal, which is to build brain healthy communities.
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Crisis 〰️ Opportunity 〰️ Hope 〰️
Crisis.
While unconventional, crisis is the core driver of the BHI’s mission.
Currently, there is a new global public health crisis: brain illness. Its scale is unprecedented, and its numbers (already tragic) are growing rapidly. As an example, looking only at the brain illness of dementia, for those over the age of 65, the number living with the disease doubles every five years. Five years is also how long we have before half of all baby boomers are over the age of 65 — paving the way for over 10 million Americans living with dementia by 2050. Current statistics reveal that two-thirds of Americans who have Alzheimer’s Disease are women (about 3.6 million). Certain racial and ethnic groups are even more susceptible to Alzheimer’s. For example, today, African Americans are twice as likely to hav dementia and Latinos one-and-a-half times more likely. Sobering statistics like these are the tip of the iceberg for a constellation of challenges related to brain illness such as dementia, Parkinson’s PTSD, depression, anxiety, addictions, and more.
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Despite the crisis and evolving potential to prevent and decrease incidence of brain illness, the world’s understanding, appreciation, and response to brain health and brain illness (and its relation to overall health and well-being), remain poorly understood and under-supported.
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Crisis 〰️ Opportunity 〰️ Hope 〰️
Opportunity.
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For the first time, scientists, innovators, clinicians, and the general public can use the words prevention and brain illness (like dementia, depression, anxiety) in the same sentence.
The past century's progress in medicine and public health, coupled with the last few decades of discovery in neuroscience, has brought opportunity that has not previously existed. We now understand that biology is not destiny, and the focus on interdisciplinary collaboration and lifestyle is key in improving outcomes.
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The BHI is built on the foundation of science, community, and innovation that support the opportunity that now exists to:
Prevent devastating brain illness.
Identify symptoms of brain illness early before they become a full-blown disease or disability.
Develop and implement innovative intervention.
Optimize performance across the lifespan.
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The BHI believes individuals and communities should take action on the opportunity to promote brain health, optimize brain performance, and prevent and decrease incidence of brain illness.
Brain health deserves as much attention as heart health cancer, diabetes, obesity, and smoking cessation (and now vaping) have had for decades.
From a BHI perspective, while true prevention of brain illness is an ideal goal, intermediary targets are the BHI’s aim, such as early identification and delaying the onset and slowing the progression of brain illness, like the degenerative process when it comes to dementia.
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Crisis 〰️ Opportunity 〰️ Hope 〰️
Hope serves as the mechanism to bridge the gap between lifespan and brain span. There is hope in our ability to enhance brain health, optimize brain performance, and now prevent and decrease incidence of brain illness of all types at every age. There is hope that brain health conditions that once ravaged families can be stopped and future generations can live lives free of brain disorders and disease.
— The Brain Health Initiative is investigating and taking action on the crisis, opportunity and hope. The BHI is committed to exploring the science behind brain health, including lifestyle behavior choices and their impact on brain health and performance. The BHI is led with partners from the Massachusetts General Hospital, a Harvard Medical School Teaching Hospital, and works collaboratively across the Harvard campus, as well as with local, regional, national, and global brain health stakeholders across many disciplines.
