Dr. Sanjay Gupta opens by presenting brain health as actively maintainable and improvable throughout life through specific evidence-based practices, challenging assumptions that cognitive decline represents an inevitable, unaddressable aspect of aging.

Why this active-maintenance framing matters:

• Many people assume cognitive decline represents an inevitable, unaddressable consequence of aging, when Gupta's evidence-based approach identifies specific practices genuinely supporting brain health throughout life
• This framing provides motivation and direction for the book's subsequent detailed evidence-based practical guidance
• This opening establishes the book's foundational, hopeful premise regarding brain health's active maintainability, grounded in Gupta's medical background and research review

This opening establishes the book's foundational premise regarding brain health's active maintainability, challenging assumptions of inevitable, unaddressable age-related cognitive decline.