Three Piece Chicken Dinner

I find this question surprisingly difficult to answer, because to me every animal is so much more than just an animal. It is an individual, living a life that will never be lived in exactly the same way again. Every encounter is unique. Sometimes it becomes a kind of silent interaction, if the animal is aware of my presence and gradually accepts that I am there. Other times, it feels like being allowed a brief glimpse into a life that I can only partly understand.

I believe we humans often underestimate animals. They are not human, and we should not pretend that they are, but that does not mean they lack emotions, relationships or empathy. Through my camera, I have witnessed playfulness, tenderness, sibling rivalry, curiosity, grief and courage. So many of the things we like to imagine belong only to us.

Because of that, it is hard for me to single out one moment as more memorable than another. I think instead of the quiet morning when I watched beavers going about their lives around their lodge. I think of fox cubs wrestling and playing in the evening light. I think of the time I sat very close to a group of wild boar, listening to them grunt and communicate as they searched for food. I think of young red squirrels discovering the world, of hares chasing one another under the moonlight, and of a young moose staring at me with such curiosity that I found myself wondering what it thought I was.

I think of the tenderness of a roe deer doe with her fawns, but also of the desperate determination with which she tried to keep a fox away from them. The lives of wild animals are often about survival. It is eat or be eaten. But that does not make them cruel or malicious. They are simply trying to survive and to protect themselves and those they care for.

To me, the natural world is an intricate and extraordinary balance, and one that we humans should interfere with as little as possible. Being allowed to witness even small fragments of animals' lives is a privilege every single time.

The way I explain it to my patients is that our neurons don’t regenerate. They make connections with each other and that’s it. If you don’t use your brain, they make fewer connections and, if one of them dies, you’re gonna miss it, because that was the only one that knew how to do X. Now, if each one of them has many, many connections, you won’t notice the difference when one of them dies. The others pick up the slack.

As of 2024, 45% of dementia risk factors are modifiable. Relevant to this conversation, 5% for less education and 5% for social isolation.

We absolutely are going to see the reflection of this, but it’s gonna take decades and it’ll be too late. So, for the love of your brain, pretend that it’s a muscle and make it work. People complain about “when am I ever gonna use this maths formula in my life?” You’re not. You’re teaching your brain to think logically. Those sinapses will be there for when you need to figure out your week’s schedule. English classes taught me how to interpret data and how to convey it in this text so it’s clear and you understand what I’m saying, not because I needed to justify why the curtain is blue.

Make your brain know how to do different things. Logic games, puzzles, taking care of a garden even if small, planning a church’s event or birthday, learn a new instrument, learn a few words in another language, look at a calendar every day, do some manual labor if possible. Do not, I repeat, do not let your brain get rid of sinapses by letting AI do everything. Your brain uses 20% of your body’s energy — do you really think it’s going to maintain connexions that aren’t in use?

Most cases of Alzheimer’s are sporadic, meaning no family history. Family history of a first-degree relative with Alzheimer’s starting before they were 80yo increases your risk in 2-3x on average.

The dogma stood relatively still until the past two centuries, during which surgeons and scientists found evidence that neurons in the body and brain can repair themselves and regenerate after injury and that new nerve cells can grow throughout the lifespan. In recent decades this knowledge has inspired promising treatments for nerve injuries and has led researchers to investigate interventions for neurodegenerative disease.

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