Brain Health and Caregiving

*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

The following podcast is provided by a the Reforma and answers for elders radio. And welcome back everyone to segment number two of a four part series of this hour with one of the wonderful Amy Shank, who is a dementia certified dementia practitioner. And Amy is coming to us from southwest Florida and you are the community engagement lead of the neuropsychiatric research center of South Florida, and that is a southwest Florida. That is a big title, my friend. So I you it’s a mouthful. I always say it’s a really big mouthful. And what I do, as I have the opportunity to educate, to represent an amazing office where we are doing counting edge clinical trials, I educate, I support and I encourage people to take care of their brains. So that’s really what I do behind that very long title. Yes, well, and we’re glad to have you here courtesy of a theory Pharma, and certainly with a theory. We have been working a lot with them and and Um, you know, we’re excited to partner with individuals like you that are on the cutting edge of Alzheimer’s research, Clinical Research Um, working with medical breakthroughs, hearing about the amazing things that are happening out there in in clinical trials, but also really there’s a lot of work in like the things that you do. There’s a lot of things you can do for brain health and I would love to not only talk about that, but I’d also like to talk a little bit before we get into that, just to kind of continue that little piece of caregiving. and Um. We had talked in our last segment about what it’s like. Then people they end up with bringing somebody home and it’s overwhelming. Um, obviously, as as a family caregiver, there’s their mental health that it’s factors in and I know that there’s a big piece of that. Is there not any? Absolutely, and I think Susanne one of the toughest things. I say this a lot, if love could cure this disease, but I wouldn’t have a job because we wouldn’t need clinical trials. Unfortunately, the best caregivers, the mode, the kindest loving people this disease and what it does to their loved ones relate is. It can be overwhelming. So as a caregiver, there’s so many things that one thinks about. Did I do the right thing. Oh my gosh, this is more than I thought. Oh, I’m guilty. I really think it might have been better to have my mom in the assisted living so so many conflicting feelings and one of the things that we know is that the typical, and we know there’s no such thing as typical, but the typical caregiver is a woman between late forties, early mid sixties. Typically it was working full time and anytimes caring for her own family, who’s providing a roughly twenty hours a week or more to aging loved ones. And I think the other thing that we know is caregiving overall has a lot of nuances and it can be amazingly rewarding. It can also be amazingly difficult and because of the changes that happened as a result of Alzheimer’s disease or other conventions, it makes that caregiving job even more stressful and emotionally draining, and it does, and obviously with so I know sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees. I remember when I was taking care of my mom Um. You know, there’s this feeling of despair, feeling of the weight of the world on your shoulders, feeling of being unsupported. Um, you know, there’s just you don’t really know where to turn to find resources, and so, you know, that was my luck and the fact that I was able to start answers for elders out of my experience. But there’s so many individuals out there that I talked to every day, um, that are going through this and certainly concerned about, you know, when they see a loved one’s, you know, Um mental health starting to decline and things like that. Um, one of the things that I want to really talk about is, you know, just this whole thing of brain health and what does that mean? And obviously there’s higher risk for people. I mean, I’m very interested in this piece alone. Okay, well, let me give you a couple just I’ll share some facts with you. So, when we look at risk, Um, actually aging is the greatest risk. Interestingly, this is a woman’s disease. Shoot, the words of the individuals with this disease are women. And, as we talked about, what does the typical caregiver look like? Well, a middle aged woman. Unfortunately, this disease does discriminate. So people with a black African American background are two times as likely as Caucasians to have the disease and individuals with the Latin x Hispanic background are one and a half times. So those are risk factors, as are having a immediate family member have the disease. So if my mother has the disease, if my sibling has the disease, it increases my risk. Now I can’t quantify for you exactly how much that risk is because there are other factors, but when we talk about people at risk, those are the individuals that we’re looking at. So one of the things, of course, we want to do because we want to do everything in our power to keep our brains healthy, and I mean to give you a couple of really easy tips to remember. I will tell you that the American heart associations did a fabulous job talking about heart health. So we’ve been hearing about heart health for a while now. Absolutely if you remember one thing, but I’m going to give you a few more things to remember. But if what you’re doing is good for your heart, it’s good for your brain as well. So if you take one thing away, there’s a tip. And we know that brain health and heart health are actually linked. So some of the things are really common. We know that smoking is bad for you. We’ve known it for a long time. We know that staying on top of our other medical conditions is really important. So making sure that you are following up with your primary care practitioner to talk about all of your health conditions, as well as mental health. If you’re having some concerns your depression, you’re not feeling kind of the way you used to feel. Absolutely mental health is as critical as physical health. So you want to get help for that because, guess what, there are treatments that can help. We also know that we’ve talked about social engagement, so being around other people again, people that we like. I’m not saying people that if people bring you great stress, you might want to think about that one perhaps limit contact with those individuals, because we do want to manage stress as much as possible. One of the things that I think there’s lots of research going on end, and not in my center, but it’s a fascinating topic, is the impact on adequate sleep and brain health. Now, if you just think of it just anecdotally for all of us, I don’t know. I think when I was younger I could go a few days with not very much sleep. I could do those all nighters and study and I would be fine the next day. I’m not now. So just think of how lack of sleep over time impact you. We know it impacts cognitive functioning and that’s one of the other challenges that can really make it harder for caregivers because many times they’re worried, they’re concerned, they’re worried that their loved one isn’t sleeping. So again, sleep is big and talking to your health care professional about things you can do to an answer sleep really important. Diet. We all know diets important, and I always say just because we know it doesn’t mean that we always do it. No, hitting we all know that, myself included. I am here to tell you a Mediterranean Diet. So medic we’ve we’ve heard of Mediterranean diet, which is really very focused on whole foods, green leafy vegetables, lean meat are no beef. Yes, your glass of bread wine is still in there. So that I always like that part of Mediterranean Diet and also one of the things there’s actually a diet that’s a combination of the Mediterranean Diet and the Dash Diet, and dashed is a diet to help manage sodium or high blood part sure. So you know what, there’s a lot of information to remember. So I’m gonna give you some tips. If it’s processed, limited or avoid it. If it is whole food, full grains, vegetables, roots, continue that. Trying access sugar out. So again, things we know. And stay hydrated, because your brain needs hydration. Yes, yes, absolutely, and I appreciate the fact too, when you talk about things I know for us, I never used to pay that much attention to buying organic. I do now now that I’m over sixty five. I I realized, you know, it’s worth a little bit extra money just because I know I’m getting more nutrition from anything that I can purchase. But it’s also there’s a lot of things that we can do just every day. Um that drinking water is important. hydration is so important, but I think it’s too it’s it’s breathing, it’s getting out in the fre share, growing down nature. When we talk about Stress Relief and I’m looking at your beautiful background and I’m thinking, you know, one of the things that I know it can be overwhelming for caregivers and myself to the busier you are. The last thing you need is somebody to say you should do that. If I say, Susanne, you should take time out for yourself, I’m imagining that you’re thinking, well, I would just be fabulous if I could get five minutes just to go to the bathroom. And what I mean by that is it can be perceived, even though, as another burden, even though that’s really good advice. So I think one of the things that I’ve tried to do is to not give someone, particularly a caregiver, who has millions of things on there to do list, one more thing. You have to make it easy, as easy as possible. It’s like exercise. The thought of going to the gym sometimes makes some people want to go back to bed, and maybe that I’m one of them. It’s integrating things, even in a small way, that can help. So kind of back to that stress piece, I can tell that I could actually sit right there in your backyard with a cup of coffee listen to nature and I could do it for probably five or ten minutes and feel renewed. Those are the things that I talk about. So absolutely think of five, five minutes. I believe all of us have five minutes in a day and if we consistently do that, that will add up to thirty five minutes a week and then you can add a minute here or there. Sometimes you just need to sit and breathe. Well, and that’s it, sitting and breathe. But I think the other thing is, no matter what you’re doing in your life, it’s like it’s okay to set healthy boundaries for yourself. And a lot of times, especially those that are caregivers, we tend to not be good at that. So obviously we want to make sure that if you’re take in care of yourself as a caregiver, you were doing so in amy, we’re gonna be back. Next time we’re gonna talk about aging and changes and how memory, you know, evolves issues and so in the meantime, thanks to a theory farmer, we have some amazing breakthrough research and opportunities for those that might be interested in getting into early stage clinical trials as well as modern stage Um Alzheimer’s, and that is www dot lift, add the a D lift a D trial dot com and amy and I are going to be back right after this. Everyone. We at answers for elders. Thank you for listening. Did you know that you can discover hundreds of podcasts in our library on senior care. So visit our website and discover our decision guides that will help you also navigate decision making. Find us at answers for elders. Doctor M