IT’S TIME FOR HEALTH CARE TO PUT BRAIN HEALTH FRONT AND CENTER

By: Lawrence Muscant, Executive Vice President

Modern medicine can image a heart in seconds, map genetic risk with extraordinary precision, and intervene earlier than ever in physical disease. Yet most Americans will go their entire lives without a single baseline assessment of their brain health—the organ responsible for judgment, resilience, emotional regulation, and every decision that gives value to our lives, relationships, and resources. That contradiction should feel especially uncomfortable to those who spend their lives managing risk.

In investing, we talk constantly about managing risk and avoiding catastrophic drawdowns—those permanent impairments of capital from which recovery is difficult or impossible. The same logic applies to health. Left unmanaged, ‘health drawdowns’ often arrive in the form of Alzheimer’s disease or dementia—conditions that quietly erase independence, identity, and family stability long before they claim a life. After all, what is the value of extraordinary financial success if we lack the health—and the mental clarity—to enjoy it with the people who matter most?

Leading the field in what brain health should be is not a pharmaceutical giant or a tech unicorn—it is the Center for BrainHealth at the University of Texas at Dallas. Under the leadership of its President and CEO, Dr. Sandra Bond Chapman, a preeminent cognitive neuroscientist, the Center has spent more than two decades redefining how we understand, measure, and strengthen the brain across the lifespan. Founded in 1999, the Center took a contrarian view early on: rather than focusing solely on how the brain fails with age, it asked how cognitive capacity can be built, protected, and sustained long before decline sets in.

That distinction matters. Brain health is not merely about preventing disease; it is about preserving the clarity, adaptability, and judgment required to remain an active participant in one’s own life. Longevity without cognitive strength strips both wealth and independence of their meaning. Just as diversified, disciplined portfolios protect financial futures, intentional investment in brain health helps protect the mental capital required to live those futures fully.

Built on rigorous neuroscience, the Center translates research into practical, evidence-based tools that show core brain abilities are not fixed traits but measurable skills that can be trained and preserved. This insight carries a hard truth familiar to investors: all the money in the world cannot recover lost capital after a total wipeout—and similarly, no amount of wealth can buy back a healthy mind once it has been neglected for too long. Prevention and early action are always less costly than repair.

Nowhere is the gap between science and behavior more visible than sleep. Despite overwhelming evidence that sleep underpins memory, emotional regulation, and long- term brain performance, chronic sleep deprivation remains culturally normalized—even celebrated. The Center’s Sleep Innovation Laboratory, led by Dr. Matthew Walker, is confronting that disconnect head-on. Dr. Walker—widely known for his appearances on the Joe Rogan Experience, the Huberman Lab, and his widely viewed TED Talk—translates cutting-edge sleep science into actionable insight, showing how sleep quality directly shapes cognitive performance, emotional resilience, and long-term brain health.

The lesson is intuitive: you cannot sustainably extract peak performance from an exhausted system—whether that system is a portfolio, a business, or a human brain. Avoiding health “drawdowns” requires the same discipline as avoiding financial ones: consistent habits, early measurement, and respect for compounding effects over time.

Sleep is only one piece of a broader effort. Central to the Center’s work is the BrainHealth Project, one of the largest long-term studies of healthy brains ever launched, tracking up to 100,000 adults over a decade to identify what builds and sustains cognitive strength. Its ambition echoes that of the Framingham Heart Study: shift the system from reaction to prevention. The takeaway mirrors every lesson in risk management—waiting for failure is always more expensive than investing early in resilience.

This is why Omnia Family Wealth is so grateful for our relationship with the Center for BrainHealth. For the families we serve, wealth is not an abstract scorecard—it is a tool meant to support long, engaged, and meaningful lives. Brain health is not a niche concern reserved for neurologists; it is foundational to physical health, financial decision- making, and family wellbeing. Ignoring the brain while optimizing everything else is like managing wealth without understanding risk—an incomplete strategy with predictable consequences.

The future of medicine will not be defined solely by how long we live, but by how well we think, decide, and remain engaged throughout those years. Protecting brain health is what allows people to truly enjoy the lives—and the wealth— they have worked so hard to build. The science is clear, the tools are available, and the implications extend far beyond medicine. The Center for BrainHealth has spent decades advancing this frontier, and Omnia Family Wealth is proud to help bring this work to South Florida at a moment when protecting the mind may be the most important investment of all.

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