Key takeaways:
Product Feature
Your Brain Score
What it is: Your Brain Score is a single number that combines data from multiple assessments to give you a comprehensive view of where you stand and how you're improving over time.
What's measured?
Your Brain Score combines data across the assessments available through BetterBrain:
- The Health Profile
- Cognitive Check-Ups*
- Your blood biomarkers*
- The Mind & Body Snapshot
*Available with BetterBrain Check-Up
What makes it powerful?
Your score weighs objective measures like bloodwork more heavily, ensuring it's grounded in measurable data while accounting for your health history and how you feel.
When does the score update?
Your score will update any time you complete a new assessment. We keep a preliminary label on your Brain Score until you complete all assessments to reflect that we don't have all the information yet.
What's a normal score?
Scores go from 0 to 100, and we find that our clients have scores that fall across this entire range. In other words, all scores can be considered "normal" - it's more important to keep track of the trend.
Join BetterBrain today or update your assessments to continue tracking your Brain Score over time.
Social Connections
Evidence-Based Strategies That Work
Strong social connections are fundamental to mental and physical well-being, including brain health and dementia risk. Research shows that people with robust social networks have up to 50% lower risk of cognitive decline.
The Science: Social engagement stimulates cognitive reserve and reduces neuro-inflammation. Strong relationships buffer against chronic stress (a major dementia risk factor) while providing sense of purpose linked to better cognitive outcomes. Connected people also maintain healthier lifestyles and seek medical care sooner.
Getting Started: Small, consistent actions can compound over time. The key is quality over quantity - even one meaningful relationship can provide significant brain health benefits.
Areas to focus on:
- Improve Quality Time: Practice active listening and dedicate focused time to connect with loved ones. Put away devices and engage in deep conversation.
- Prioritize Close Relationships:Invest in regular in-person interactions with people who matter most. Schedule recurring activities with family and friends.
- Build New Connections: Join local clubs, volunteer, or take classes. Put yourself in situations where you can meet like-minded people.
- Give Back to Your Community: Volunteer for causes you care about, mentor others, or perform random acts of kindness. Helping others creates meaningful connections while providing a sense of purpose that protects cognitive health.
BetterBrain Insight: Social connections work best when combined with other brain health strategies. Many of our highest-scoring clients participate in social exercise, cooking together, or group learning activities.
You can access all of our Brain Health Arsenal techniques related to social connections on your BetterBrain dashboard here.
CONTENT CORNER
CBT: A Mental Tool for Brain Protection
Bottom line: Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) can help fight dementia through two powerful paths - addressing mental health issues that increase risk and helping establish brain-healthy habits.
Your mental health is closely linked to your brain health. Depression, anxiety, and other disorders can increase inflammatory stress in your brain and disrupt cognitive function. CBT is highly effective at treating these conditions, offering protection against dementia risk.
But CBT's benefits extend beyond mental health. Much of dementia prevention relies on addressing lifestyle risk factors like physical inactivity, poor diet, diabetes, and high blood pressure. CBT provides proven techniques for forming and maintaining the healthy habits that protect your brain:
- Cognitive Restructuring: Challenge negative thoughts like "changing my diet won't make a difference" and replace them with "every healthy meal contributes to my resilience"
- Behavioral Experiments: Start small with manageable changes like 10-minute daily walks to build confidence and momentum
- Goal Setting: Work with specific, achievable targets that feel realistic and manageable
- Reinforcement: Track progress over time to create a natural feedback loop where improvement becomes motivating
BetterBrain Takeaway: The systematic approach CBT uses to challenge thoughts and build new behaviors is the same framework that helps you successfully implement the lifestyle changes identified in your Health Profile and Brain Health Arsenal.
You can find CBT support through insurance-covered therapists, telehealth platforms like Talkspace, or self-help resources like Dr. David Burns' "Feeling Great." You can read more about this topic and access resources to get started in our Grey Matters blog post on CBT and brain health.
.webp)