'The brain is no different': Wealthy clients are spending up to $36K to keep their minds sharp — but does it actually work?

One session at the gym doesn’t whip you into automatic shape — and “the brain is no different.” That’s the pitch from Natalia Ramsden, a performance psychologist who runs a Brain Gym residency at London’s Mandarin Oriental Mayfair.

It’s also the logic behind a corner of luxury wellness where a week at one Swiss clinic costs about 30,000 Swiss francs — or $36,000 — despite the clinic admitting it can’t yet prove the results, Vogue reports.

The program, its market and the alternatives

That clinic is Clinique La Prairie. Longevity innovation director Olga Donica told Vogue it’s collecting observations from guests, but they aren’t enough to confirm effectiveness. Its seven-day Brain Potential program in Montreux, developed with Lausanne University Hospital, rolls a brain MRI, cognitive testing, genetic screening and gut microbiome analysis into a “cognitive age” score and a three-month training plan.

Donica said that guests range from their late 40s into their early 60s and tend to be wealthy professionals who’ve noticed their memory or decision-making skills slipping.

The worry behind the spending is real. An AARP Research survey of more than 3,500 U.S. adults 40 and older found that 44% worry to some degree about losing their mental sharpness, and 19% use technology to support their brain health.