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Interview: George Bartzokis, MD
Neurologist, Brain Research Institute
University of California Los Angeles,

If you are over forty, then you may have noticed that your brain and body just don't seem to work as rapidly as they used to.

And that goes for athletic ability, reaction time, even unconscious reflexes.

Well, you're not imagining it; there's a reason that people tend to slow down in middle age. Brain decline is tied to a decrease in myelin coating the brain's neurons. MRI scans can detect changes in the myelin.

Neurologist George Bartzokis of UCLA recently published a study that says that the secret lies in the insulation-like material called myelin, which encases the neurons.

To understand his findings, he tells Sound Medicine's Dr. David Crabb to think of the brain not as a computer but rather as an internet.

Additional Resources:

• Read more about Dr. Bartzokis's research on the effects of myelin breakdown in the human brain.
• Find out how the breakdown of the brain's myelin may lead to Alzheimer's disease.

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