Academy Award winner Julianne Moore has been advocating for more awareness about and attention to brain health. (Photo: Art + Commerce)
Art + Commerce
Here’s something Academy Award-winning actress Julianne Moore wants you to keep in mind. Your mind. What’s happening with your brain. You know, that thing that sits on top of your body and oversees, oh, everything that you do like read Forbes articles. Moore wants everyone to prioritize brain health, well, more. And she’s partnered with Eli Lilly for the just-launched “Brain Health Matters” campaign to get folks to take more steps to reduce the risk of brain health issues like dementia from Alzheimer’s Disease and other causes like atherosclerosis, strokes and traumatic brain injuries.
Moore’s Emphasizes How Your Brain Is ‘The Engine Of The Entire Body’
I recently talked to Moore about her brain health advocacy. Being aware of what’s happening with your brain and taking care of your noggin may seem kind of like a no-brainer. But that hasn’t necessarily been the case. “I think that we always have kind of thought like, oh, my brain, it does its own thing,” Moore explained. “It’s like we don’t consider it as something that’s sort of the engine of the entire body.” Moore also mentioned about how any decline in brain functioning may be viewed as “oh, just part of aging” and that there’s not much you can do about it.
But all of these things, of course, are not true. You can do a lot to help your brain health. And your brain is attached to the rest of your body—at least, it should be. (If your brain is somehow detached from your body and going separately to places like Costco, you should grab your brain and see your doctor immediately.) Therefore, it’s important to know that what you do to the rest of your body can affect your brain health and vice-versa.
Moore’s Interest In Brain Health Stems From Her Role In The Movie ‘Still Alice’
Julianne Moore’s leading role in the movie “Still Alice” helped her better understand what happens with Alzherimer’s Disease and dementia. Here she appears with co-star Alec Baldwin on the set of the movie on March 11, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Raymond Hall/GC Images)
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Moore’s interest in brain health dates back to what she did for her starring role in the 2014 movie Still Alice. In that movie she played Alice Howland, a linguistics professor at Columbia University who is diagnosed with early onset familial Alzheimer’s disease and then goes through the major trials and tribulations of cognitive decline. That role earned Moore an Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role and led her to better understand brain health.
“Before I made that movie, I really hadn’t met anybody with Alzheimer’s and I knew nothing about it, I knew nothing about the disease, I knew nothing about the behaviors,” Moore told me. “I really wanted to make sure that I was going to portray it accurately.” She then described the research that she did for the movie. “People were so incredibly generous with with their time and with their information,” she recalled. “I spoke to doctors and patients, people who have been really newly diagnosed, and also people who are observed to be further along in their diagnosis and caregivers.”
Moore described how she had visited a long-term care facility, “watched all all the films that were available” and talked to Lisa Genova, who had written the 2007 Still Alice novel that served as the basis for the movie. “[Genova]
wanted to differentiate [Alzheimer’s] from age, because so many people believe that Alzheimer’s is a condition of aging,” Moore explained. “There was this idea,, particularly years ago, that it was about senility.”
Moore Urges Everyone To Get Cognitive Assessments
One of the first steps to taking care of your brain health is getting a cognitive assessment. The term “cognitive” means anything related to thinking, learning and understanding, you know all stuff that your brain handles. So examples of cognitive skills or processes include your ability remember stuff, learn new skills and information, pay attention to other people and your surroundings, speak and listen and process everything that bombards you each and every day. When any of these abilities worsen, it’s considered cognitive impairment or decline. Dementia is when your cognitive or mental functioning has declined to a point that it significantly affects your daily activities.
Such impairments can be very subtle and hard to detect yourself, especially early on their course. You can write them off as having a bad day, bad week, bad year or even a bad decade. As mentioned earlier, you may think they’re simply a part of getting older. You may not even be able to recognize them because it can take cognitive abilities to assess cognitive abilities. There can also be some stigma or perceived stigma about suffering cognitive impairment. Plus, as Moore has emphasized, “the progression is often very slow.”
Therefore, it’s important to get a more objective measure of your cognitive state. A health professional can administer one or more different cognitive tests. One of the quickest and easiest to do is the Mini-Cog. It clocks in at just around three minutes to do and checks whether you can draw a clock with hands to show a specific time and recall a three-word list of different objects. This is clearly a quick screen and may not pick up more subtle issues.
A somewhat longer—taking about 10 minutes—and more involved test is the Mini-mental state exam or MMSE. The MMSE entails asking you to recall the current date, count backwards and name everyday objects when they are shown to you, such as a pencil, watch or that Justin Bieber figurine that’s sitting in the corner of the doctor’s office for some reason.
The MMSE may be able to detect more severe cognitive issues but may not catch milder impairment. On the other hand, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is more comprehensive, taking around 15 minutes to complete. It involves tasks like memorizing words, copying shapes, and identifying animals in pictures, which can help identify milder cognitive impairment. However, no test is perfect and passing these assessments does not guarantee perfect cognitive health.
Despite their limitations, undergoing some form of cognitive assessment is a good starting point and may lead to more thorough follow-up assessments. Unfortunately, many people do not prioritize cognitive health assessments as part of their routine healthcare. It’s important to normalize discussions around brain health assessments, just as we have with other routine screenings like mammograms and colonoscopies.
Julianne Moore emphasizes the importance of taking proactive steps to maintain brain health. Engaging in activities that challenge the brain, such as puzzles, learning new skills, and social interactions, can help keep the brain active and healthy. Additionally, lifestyle factors like proper nutrition, adequate sleep, and regular physical activity play a significant role in brain health. Moore also highlights the importance of addressing factors like blood pressure, cholesterol, and smoking that can impact brain health.
Moore personally practices yoga for physical and emotional well-being, emphasizing the mind-body connection. She also prioritizes getting enough uninterrupted sleep, recognizing the importance of quality rest for brain health. By taking steps to maintain brain health and addressing modifiable factors, individuals can work towards preserving cognitive function as they age. “Now that my children are all grown up, I no longer find myself waking up in the middle of the night as often. This has made a significant difference in my daily life,” she shared. She also emphasized the importance of being mindful of her diet. As the saying goes, there are no shortcuts to achieving good physical and mental health, as another Moore film title suggests.
These habits have been ingrained in her life for years, stemming from her early days after graduating from Boston University College of Fine Arts in 1983 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theater. She has always been conscious of the demands of her physically demanding job, especially during long hours on set. “I need to maintain my physical and mental stamina to get through those grueling 12-hour days,” she explained.
Julianne Moore is a strong advocate for brain health and encourages others to prioritize it as well. Balancing her professional commitments with her personal life keeps her busy, with recent projects including a comedic musical with Jesse Eisenberg. She enjoys spending time with her adult children in New York City and looks forward to upcoming family trips in the fall. More than ten years after her role in “Still Alice,” she remains dedicated to using her platform to raise awareness for important issues.
