What Maria Shriver Wants Women to Know About Their Brain Health

Only one in five women know that they’re more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than men, according to a recent survey. Maria Shriver wants that number to climb—and for women to start thinking about their brains decades before symptoms show up.“When people talk about living longer, you’re seeing a lot about people in the gym,” Shriver said Thursday at the TIME100 Health Leadership Forum in New York. “But what about their brains?”Shriver founded the Women's Alzheimer's Movement and co-founded the Comprehensive Women's Health and Research Center at Cleveland Clinic. She sat down with TIME deputy editor Kelly Conniff to talk about what women need to understand about brain health, and why the conversation can't wait until later in life.She became passionate about brain health when her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2003. At the time, Shriver said, there wasn’t much information available to help families understand the disease or prepare for how their lives would change. She approached figuring that out as both a journalist and a daughter, while watching family members grapple with the diagnosis in different ways.Her kids adjusted easily, she recalled, simply accepting the...