70. The Lifestyle Roadmap to Improving Your Memory and Brain Health
by Anthony Effinger
The Think Neuro podcast from Pacific Neuroscience Institute takes you into the clinic, operating room and laboratory with doctors and surgeons who are tackling the most challenging brain diseases and disorders. Host: Anthony Effinger
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Our memory isn’t just a passive function. Just like our muscles, it’s something that can be trained, optimized, and protected. Subtle changes in our memory can signal the earliest stages of cognitive decline, but preventative interventions can make a huge difference. That’s exactly what Dr. Karen Miller, Senior Director of the Brain Wellness and Lifestyle Program at PNI, helps her patients achieve. Dr. Miller specializes in personalized approaches to improve brain health. One technique is the “memory palace,” a method that links information to familiar places and strengthens one’s ability to recall information. In this episode, learn how Dr. Miller combines cognitive training with lifestyle factors like exercise, nutrition, and social engagement to help patients preserve and improve their brain health.
About Dr. Karen Miller

Karen Miller, PhD, Senior Director, Brain Wellness and Lifestyle Program, is a leading national expert in the area of Memory/Cognitive Training. With more than three decades of experience in the field of aging and memory as a geropsychologist and clinical neuropsychologist, she develops and directs the implementation of Lifestyle Programs at PNI aimed at providing a roadmap to brain wellness.
About the Author
Anthony Effinger
Think Neuro's host is Anthony Effinger, an award-winning journalist who is fascinated with neuroscience and the workings of the brain. Anthony spent 24 years at Bloomberg News, where he covered all aspects of finance, with forays into science and health. In 2006, the Association of Health Care Journalists awarded him first prize for Playing the Odds, an in-depth piece on the changing strategies used to treat prostate cancer. These days, he is a staff writer at Willamette Week, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper in Portland, Oregon, where he lives with his wife and two children.
Last updated: October 28th, 2025