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Do We Really Need a "Brain Upgrade" to Thrive in 2026 and Beyond?
Emily Rose Adams
April 17, 2026
Hi, I hope you've had a great week.
If you listen to The Health Review podcast, you'll know that the nervous system is a big focus on the show this year — and I've been trying to take the advice of my own guests when it comes to slowing down and listening to my body more. So this week I did something I've been meaning to try for a while: a 90-minute sound bath at The Sanctuary in east London. And wow — what a beautiful experience.
What I hadn't fully appreciated before going in is the science behind it: research shows that sound vibrations can actively stimulate the vagus nerve, shifting the body out of fight-or-flight and into its parasympathetic — or rest-and-repair — state, while measurably reducing cortisol and improving heart rate variability. (My HRV improved significantly afterwards). In other words, it works on a physiological level, not just a feelgood one. I used the session as an opportunity to meditate and drop into my subconscious, and left feeling genuinely reset and restored in a way that's hard to describe but very easy to notice. So if you've been thinking about trying one — here's your reminder.
Emily x
This week’s edition covers:
🧬 Health News: Discovery of a “natural ozempic”, is a hidden gut bacteria driving Dementia and ALS cases? and the screenless wearable space is booming.
🧠 Feature: Do we really need a “brain upgrade” to thrive in 2026 and beyond?
🎙️ Podcast: Your Brain Hasn't Changed in 30,000 Years. But Your World Has | Why We Can't Switch Off | Dr Shaady Harrison.
🧬 Stanford scientists discover a "natural Ozempic" — without the side effects
Scientists at Stanford Medicine have identified a naturally occurring molecule that appears to mimic some of the weight loss effects of semaglutide — the drug widely known as Ozempic. In animal studies, the molecule reduced appetite and body weight while avoiding several common side effects such as nausea, constipation, and muscle loss. The molecule, called BRP, was identified using AI and appears to act directly on the brain's appetite-control centre, helping animals eat less and lose fat without nausea or muscle loss. Human clinical trials are planned.
🧠 Scientists discover hidden gut trigger behind ALS and dementia
Our guts may have more to do with dementia than anyone realised. A new study has found that harmful sugars produced by gut bacteria can trigger immune reactions that damage the brain — and appear to be a key driver in both ALS and frontotemporal dementia. Among ALS and dementia patients studied, 70% had elevated levels of this harmful bacterial glycogen, compared to only around a third of people without the diseases. The discovery also helps answer a long-standing question: why do some people with the genetic mutation most commonly linked to ALS and dementia develop the disease, while others don't? Clinical trials to test whether reducing these sugars can slow disease progression could begin within a year.
💊 1 in 10 people may be genetically resistant to Ozempic
A new study found that popular diabetes and weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy may not work as effectively for about 10% of people due to specific genetic variants. The decade-long international study involved experiments in humans and mice, and researchers say knowing ahead of time who is likely to respond could help patients get on the right drugs faster — a significant step towards precision medicine.
📚 A lifetime of reading and learning may protect the brain from Alzheimer's
A lifetime of reading, writing, and learning new skills may be one of the most powerful things you can do for your brain. A new study found that people with the highest levels of cognitive enrichment had a 38% lower risk of Alzheimer's and experienced symptoms years later than those with lower levels. Not a new idea — but this is some of the strongest evidence yet. And in an age where AI is doing more and more of our thinking for us, it's a good reminder that keeping your own mind active matters more than ever.
📱 Google is coming for Whoop & Oura in the screenless wearable space
Google is developing a screenless fitness band under the Fitbit brand to compete with Whoop and Oura, and plans to release it later in 2026. The device will include basic features, with deeper functionality locked behind a Fitbit Premium subscription. The screenless health band space is suddenly very crowded — Garmin is also rumoured to be launching a rival called the Cirqa.
Do We Really Need a "Brain Upgrade" to Thrive in 2026 and Beyond?
Towards the end of last year, researchers from the Universities of Zurich and Loughborough published a paper that shared a blunt message around our evolution: the modern world has developed faster than human biology can adapt. Chronic stress, high blood pressure, burnout, depression — these aren't signs of personal weakness or poor time management. They may be symptoms of a fundamental mismatch between the bodies we have and the world we've built.
I've been thinking about that a lot ever since. Especially as so many people seem to be struggling now, and often blame themselves for feeling exhausted or like they're not able to thrive — and it's exactly what led me to reach out to Dr Shaady Harrison for an interview on The Health Review podcast.
Dr Shaady Harrison is a British medical doctor who now works at the intersection of neuroscience, psychology and modern life — advising founders, senior leaders and high-profile individuals on what she calls sustainable high performance. She's a doctor who has seen burnout up close — and who is asking a much more fundamental question. Why are so many of us struggling? And is the problem us, or the world we've built?
Her answer starts 30,000 years ago.
Stone Age Hardware, Modern World Problems
Our brains are, neurologically speaking, not very different from the brains of our ancestors 30,000 years ago. Evolutionary psychologists call this "evolutionary mismatch" — the gap between the environment our biology was shaped for and the one we're now living in. And that gap is vast.
Early humans faced acute, physical threats. A predator, a rival, a storm. The stress response would fire, the threat would resolve, and recovery could begin. The nervous system was designed for spikes — not sustained, low-grade activation.
Now consider what we're asking it to handle: a perpetually full inbox, a 24-hour news cycle, social media comparison, financial anxiety, back-to-back meetings with no space to breathe in between.
As one of the Zurich researchers put it: "Our body reacts as though all these stressors were lions." Except unlike a lion, these stressors don't end — there's no resolution or recovery.
We also know that conditions most associated with modern stress — high blood pressure, burnout, depression, chronic inflammation — are rare in existing hunter-gatherer societies.
What This Looks Like in Real Life
One of the things Dr Shaady described clearly was the nervous system as a dimmer switch. She aims to have clear on and off points in her day. The problem is that modern life keeps nudging that dimmer up for longer periods of time. And most of us have silently forgotten what the off even feels like.
Most of us, as she put it, are walking around in a state of low-level overwhelm — just never quite fully off. The nervous system wasn't designed for this — and over time, it takes a toll.
The Good News: Your Brain Can Change
Neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to reorganise itself and form new neural connections, was long thought to be limited to childhood. The science has moved on significantly. We now know that the brain retains this capacity throughout life. Measurable structural changes are detectable via neuroimaging after as few as six weeks of consistent practice.
What "Upgrading" Your Brain Actually Looks Like
The interventions that genuinely move the needle on nervous system regulation are not new or complicated. It's about looking back at evolution, simplifying things, slowing down and going back to our roots:
Movement, daily time in nature, morning sunlight, good-quality sleep, genuine rest and time with your community. Hunter-gatherer groups averaged around 150 people. Your brain is still calibrated for something closer to that scale than most of us are living at.
None of this is revolutionary. The hard part is that it requires deliberate slowing down in a world that is structurally built to speed everything up.
What I'm Taking From This
The question I keep returning to since recording this episode isn't "what more can I add?" It's the opposite. What am I doing that is keeping my nervous system stuck in a state it was never designed to sustain — and what would I need to remove or change to give it a chance to come back down?
You can listen to my full conversation with Dr Shaady Harrison — including her specific recommendations for nervous system regulation — on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts (links below). And if the ideas in this piece resonated, her newsletter Calm Down is well worth subscribing to.
This feature is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult your own doctor before making changes to your health.
Further Reading:
Your Brain Hasn't Changed in 30,000 Years. But Your World Has | Why We Can't Switch Off | Dr Shaady Harrison.
Most of us are walking around in a state of low-level overwhelm. Not in crisis.... just never quite fully off. Always running slightly behind, slightly rushed, slightly on edge.
If that sounds familiar — this conversation is for you.
In this episode of The Health Review I sit down with Dr Shaady Harrison — a British medical doctor trained at King's College London, who has worked across the NHS in general medicine, surgery, emergency medicine and general practice. She now works at the intersection of neuroscience, psychology and modern life, advising founders, senior leaders and high-profile individuals on sustainable high performance. She is also the creator of Calm Down — a weekly newsletter read by people at Goldman Sachs, Google, the NHS, OpenAI and beyond.
What makes Shaady's perspective so distinctive is that she's not a wellness coach selling you a morning routine. She's a doctor who has seen burnout up close and who is asking a much more fundamental question — why are so many of us struggling, and is the problem us or the world we've built?