One of the most important things we can do to promote neural health involves myelin, which is 80 percent lipids. Our bodies’ ability to create and maintain myelin relies on dietary fats. Without them, or with a reduced ability to metabolize them, we see even more decay of the myelin sheath than is caused by aging alone. Not every word retrieval problem or lost wallet is due to demyelination, but improving and maintaining myelination does help. Two easy mechanisms are eating fatty fish and getting enough vitamin B12.
