Julia Lundstrom on Fixing Chronic Health Issues Backwards — Brain First, Everything Else Follows

You can keep chasing symptoms, or you can start with your brain first, where health actually begins. That’s the philosophy that has shaped Julia Lundstrom’s work in neuroscience and brain-health education, with an aim to change the notion of reactive care to proactive care, knowing that the brain is the cockpit for the body.

Lundstrom, CEO and founder of Simple Smart Science, an education-first company aimed at improving the brain health of people over fifty, has spent more than a decade teaching her methodology to audiences across the country. The company offers 1-1 coaching programs, workshops, guided-tutoring sessions, and other resources rooted in the mission to help manage degenerative diseases, such as Dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Her 10 Pillars of Brain Health, a comprehensive framework that integrates lifestyle, genetic individuality, and supplementation, has become the foundation of her coaching programs, community training, and expanding academy aimed at creating certified memory and cognitive coaches.

But the mission didn’t begin in boardrooms or educational institutions. It began with family.

Lundstrom’s aunt was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2012. Within a year, the memory loss was palpable. “She didn’t remember me, then she didn’t remember her kids,” Lundstrom recalls. “It happened so quickly.”

That same year, Lundstrom and her brother launched Simple Smart Science, driven by a growing concern around memory, cognition, and the rapidly increasing prevalence of dementia.

Her mother’s decline, however, unfolded entirely differently, slow and unpredictable. The first signs appeared around 2017. A persistent rash, countless dermatology visits, and lingering confusion led to a discovery that stunned the family: extremely high mold exposure from her apartment. After treatment began, the rash vanished, yet her cognition remained fragile. “Mold inhalation can be a major driver of neuroinflammation,” Lundstrom notes. “We were working to address everything we could.”

Lundstrom brought her mother to live with her. They ran every blood panel, tracked inflammatory markers, changed her diet, monitored glucose, and structured her days. Lundstrom tried, as she describes it, “everything I teach other people to do.” But the extent of her caregiving could not override her mother’s autonomy.

“She had to be the one to say yes,” Lundstrom says. “In the end, she didn’t want the help. And there wasn’t anything I could do.”

The pivotal moment came one night in 2021. Her mother awoke in panic, looking around the room without recognition. Lundstrom sat beside her. “She held my hand so tightly it turned blue,” she recalls. “Her eyes locked on mine, because that was the only thing she remembered.”

It was then she understood her role had shifted, not to saving her mother’s mind, but to giving her comfort, presence, and the familiarity of connection. Two weeks before her mother passed, Lundstrom experienced one final recognition. “She looked at me and cried,” she says. “It made me feel like she recognized me, just for a moment.”

These moments became the emotional framework for the message she now leads with: prevention begins long before symptoms surface, and meaningful change requires daily accountability. “I believe we’re wired for short-term dopamine hits,” she explains. “That’s why people often start diets and abandon them two weeks later. Accountability is essential. We are not meant to do this alone.”

Her 10 Pillars of Brain Health aim to create that structure, through 4 distinct phases. Phase One addresses lifestyle foundations, sleep, movement, nutritional patterns, isolation, and stress regulation. Only after these stabilize does Phase Two explore individualized genetic drivers. Supplements come next, in Phase Three. “Supplements are phase three for us,” she explains. “They are only implemented when everything else is already aligned.”

Lundstrom explains that clients undergo inflammation testing, continuous glucose monitoring, and regular coaching sessions. They attend live classes on breathwork, meditation, cognitive exercises, toxicity reduction, cooking for brain health, and more. Phase Four culminates in a retreat focused on brain-wave mapping and trauma-informed healing.

“Long-term brain health requires a team,” she says. Much of her work also centers on cultural shifts. She often sees, especially in older women, a reluctance to seek help. “We’re raised to be independent, to not ask for anything,” she notes. “But every great person stands on the shoulders of others. Asking for help is a strength.”

Lundstrom’s focus is now on the broader umbrella of brain health that aims to address metabolic health, vascular strength, and inflammation at its root. “I attempt to fix chronic health issues backwards, brain first, everything else follows,” she says.

This month, she’s hosting her Action Over Aging, a free three-day training event designed to help people begin the process she has spent years refining. “If people learn one thing,” she says, “I want it to be that the mind is worth protecting long before it needs saving.”

That belief manifests through her life’s story. “Every lab test, every workshop, every coaching is a family hoping for one more good year, one more familiar moment, one more chance for connection,” she says. “I understand these stakes intimately, and that’s why this work matters.” As she continues shaping the landscape of brain health, she carries her mother’s memory with her as motivation to help others preserve their own.