Having healthy blood vessels is a critical foundation for lifelong health. Blocked arteries in the heart (coronary arteries) can lead to angina and heart attacks, while blocked arteries in the brain can lead to strokes. A new study that followed more than 1800 people showed that having smaller and larger infarctions (cell death resulting from blocked blood vessels) in the brain, in middle age, is associated with cognitive decline over the next 20 years (1). In this study, res