About the Brain Care Score
Your score is built up of different lifestyle and health factors that affect your brain health. These include your daily habits, emotions, and physical health. While it is not necessarily a diagnosis, it is a way to understand how different parts of your life support your brain. Seeing where you might be falling behind can help you find areas to improve. Making progress in one area can often help you improve in others, too!
There isn’t a “pass” or “fail.” Higher scores suggest more protective habits, while lower scores show areas where support or small changes could help. The most important part is identifying opportunities for improvement, not the number itself.
No, you don’t need a doctor to take the Brain Care Score. You can do it by yourself or with help from someone in your community. Some questions about blood pressure, cholesterol, or blood sugar, might be easier to answer if you ask a doctor or nurse.
The Brain Care Score is not a medical test and doesn’t give a diagnosis. It’s meant to help you understand what you can do to take care of your brain and lower your health risks.
It’s okay if you don’t know your blood pressure, A1c, or cholesterol numbers. You can skip those questions for now and fill them in later when you have the information.
The Brain Care Score can still be used even if you leave out the parts that need physical measurements. It might not be as effective of predicting dementia, stroke, or depression, but it is still helpful to see other areas you can improve in
Low scores highlight where lifestyle adjustments or follow-up with your healthcare team could help. For example, improving sleep habits, getting more physical activity, managing blood pressure, or connecting socially can make a big difference over time.
Definitely! Even small, steady changes can lead to noticeable improvements in brain health over time. You can check your progress by retaking your score from time to time.
Yes. This is for your personal health. Only your total score or any anonymous feedback would be shared with the team who created this survey so they can figure out how to make it better. Your data would be combined with other people’s data, which makes it harder to identify you.
The GBCC team would not receive any information that could identify you, such as your name, email, phone number, for example.
Small changes like moving more, eating well, sleeping better, and staying connected with others. Many areas overlap and progress in one area can help the others! You can pick one topic to work on to start. Your score might not immediately improve – a bad week doesn’t set you back, the goal is to get you thinking about what you can do to protect your brain.
Yes! It’s a great way to track your health over time. Taking it in a few months might be helpful since making changes to your health can take time.
About the Modifiable Lifestyle Factors
Your A1C score is a measure that looks at your blood sugar levels. When blood sugar stays high, it can damage blood vessels and nerves — including the ones that support the brain.
Cholesterol travels through your blood. If there’s too much of the “bad” kind, it can build up in your blood vessels and make them narrow or clogged.
If blood can’t flow well to the brain, the brain doesn’t get enough oxygen and nutrients — this can increase the risk of stroke and memory problems later in life.
High blood pressure puts extra stress on your blood vessels. Over time, that can damage the tiny vessels that feed the brain. This can impact thinking and memory later in life.
When you don’t sleep well, it’s harder to think clearly, your mood can drop, and your brain doesn’t have time to rest and repair. Sleep helps us with our memory, focus, make decisions, and our mood.
Over time, poor sleep can raise the risk of problems like memory loss, depression, stroke, and dementia.
Adding fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein to your diet helps provide nutrients to your brain and protect brain cells from damage.
Yes! Genetics can play a role, but lifestyle behaviors like movement, sleep, food, and stress have a big impact on brain health. Even one small change can reduce your risk. What’s good for the body and heart is also good for the brain!