Keep Sharp! Learn how to preserve Brain Health As we Age
Thursday, June 1
10:30 A.M. – 11:45 A.M.
Northwest Labs
Summary:
Is it possible to preserve brain health as we age?
As many of us have seen our parents, family members, and friends decline with the onset of dementias, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy Body disease, Primary Progressive Aphasia, Vascular dementia, and others, we ask ourselves if there are any ways to prevent this seemingly inevitable decline or at least slow it down.
Fortunately, we have a panel of accomplished neurologists and occupational and environmental health professors who can give us a glimpse into what is being done to answer these questions. With members of the Class of ‘78 now in their mid-60s, it is more pressing for each of us to examine this new data as it becomes available.
Panelists:
Kirk R. Daffner ’78, MD,
Dr. Kirk Daffner is the Director of the Center for Brain-Mind Medicine and chief of the Division of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and the J. David and Virginia Wimberly Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. He is the faculty editor of “Improving Memory”, a Special Health Report from Harvard Medical School.
Dr Daffner is a member of the Class of ‘78.
MingMing Ning, MD, MMSc
Dr. MingMing Ning is a vascular neurologist and Director of the Cardio-Neurology Division and Clinical Proteomics Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Her NIH-sponsored research explores a wide range of multi-disciplinary omics and digital technologies to improve brain-heart health and individualize treatment. Music and art for vascular cognitive health is of particular interest. She has served as President of the American Federation for Medical Research (AFMR) and is Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Dr Ning graduated with her BS and BA from Yale.
Stephanos N. Kales MD, MPH, FACP, FACOEM
Dr. Stephanos Kales is a Professor and the Director of the Occupational Medicare Residency Program at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and the Division Chief of Occupational and Environmental Health at the Cambridge Health Alliance.
He is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His primary research involves the health of firefighters and police officers. He has significant expertise on obesity and cardio-metabolic risk. He is a faculty member in Harvard’s Cardiovascular Epidemiology Program, a multi-disciplinary, heart disease prevention collaboration, and is also a faculty Member of Harvard Medical School’s Division of Sleep Medicine. He was Scientific Chair of the 2017 Mediterranean Diet and Health Conference in Greece and co-authored the Textbook of Lifestyle Medicine in 2022.
Dr Kales graduated with his BS from Bucknell.
Moderator: Anna Athena Manatis, ’78 M.D., MPH
Dr. Anna Athena Manatis has been an internist for over 30 years, earning her MD from New York University and her MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health in Occupational and Environmental Health. She has a particular interest in power plant pollution and lung cancer, as well as environmental exposures and breast cancer. Before joining Mass General Brigham she worked in private practice on Cape Cod for 20 years in the practice she started in 1989. Ana is a member of the Class of ’78