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Physical Foundations


Just Start: Why the Hardest Part of Exercise for Your Brain Is Lacing Up the First Time
I know what happens when I bring up exercise in the clinic during appointments with my patients. There is a particular look. A slight shift in the chair. Sometimes a polite nod that communicates, clearly, that this conversation has been had before and that it did not result in a gym membership. I understand it. The word "exercise" carries decades of cultural baggage — images of early mornings, discomfort, athletic ability that was never there to begin with, and a time commit
Michael K. Lowe, MD
5 days ago5 min read


The Night Shift: Why Sleep May Be Your Brain's Most Powerful Protective Tool
I want to tell you about a conversation I have frequently in my resident clinic. A patient comes in concerned about memory. They're forgetting names, losing their train of thought mid-sentence, feeling mentally foggy in a way that wasn't there a few years ago. We go through the workup. And somewhere in the history, frequently as an afterthought, they mention that they haven't been sleeping well for years. They wake up at 3 am and can't get back down. Or they're in bed for ei
Michael K. Lowe, MD
Mar 225 min read


Why the MoCA is the "Special Ops" Tool of Cognitive Screening: A 2026 Guide for Families
In the high-stakes world of neurology, we often get caught up in the "glamour" of $5,000 PET scans and the latest monoclonal antibody infusions like Leqembi and Kisunla . But as a resident clinician, the most important ten minutes of my day aren’t spent looking at a computer screen—they are spent sitting across from a patient with a single sheet of paper and a pen. That single sheet of paper is the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) . I recently became officially accredi
Michael K. Lowe, MD
Jan 315 min read


The Rise of At-Home Alzheimer’s Testing: Empowerment or Uncertainty?
The landscape of modern healthcare is shifting toward shared accountability. We see it in the explosion of wearable fitness trackers and the availability of at-home kits for everything from cholesterol to colon cancer screening. It was only a matter of time before this trend reached the world of memory care. Today, the "Black Box" of neurology is opening. Patients no longer have to wait for a specialist appointment to begin investigating their cognitive health. However, as a
Michael K. Lowe, MD
Jan 114 min read
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