The model allows researchers the opportunity to explore how lifestyle changes made in midlife, and other factors, could extend the brain's peak performance time so that our minds function as long as our bodies. As it is now, MRIs show that the brain’s wiring develops until middle age and then begins to degenerate with the breakdown of myelin.

Myelin, a sheet of lipid, or fat, with very high cholesterol content helps to send messages through the brain. As the brain ages, more myelin is produced, which leads to greater cholesterol levels in the brain. Eventually this can lead to the production of a toxic protein that attacks the myelin, leading to the toxic plaques that are found in Alzheimer’s patient.

The new brain model suggests that the best time to address the myelin breakdown is during middle age, when the process begins, as by the time patients reach their 60s to 80s it may be too late to reverse the course of the disease.

Neurobiology of Aging January, 2004;25(1):49-62