“Use Your Brain or Lose It” Says Expatriate Neuroscientist N. Rompakis

The distinguished Greek neuroscientist has come to Thessaloniki for only a few lectures, but his contribution will be invaluable. Nikolaos Rompakis studied Chemistry at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and then won a scholarship to New York University.
After tutoring for several years at Cretan University, he eventually settled in New York. He is now a Professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry at the Medical School of “Mount Sinai”.
Dr. Rompakis came to Thessaloniki to lecture Greek students. This is part of the initiative that the Hellenic Bioscientific Association in the USA has taken, in order to support the Greek Universities suffering from the financial crisis.

“Our aim”, says Dr. Rompakis, “is to cooperate with Greek students in the way of the technological mastery and mostly, to help our homeland”. He also expresses the hope that a close cooperation between Thessaloniki and “Mount Sinai” will be established, so that Greek scientists could easily visit Greece to lecture. Besides, collaboration always brings innovative ideas.
Dr. Rompakis’ main research field is Alzheimer’s disease. He claims that scientists have greater knowledge concerning cancer than Alzheimer’s. “Despite the fact that we are not sure why the disease affects people, we are certain that some brain practice helps”, adds Rompakis. When someone reads quite often or his brain is generally alert, they could easily avoid Alzheimer’s. The opposite happens when there is abuse of drugs or alcohol or even when someone retires at a very young age.
“Just use or lose it!”, advises the Greek scientist. The prevention seems to be no difficult task!