There are a lot of companies out there selling programs that help train memory and attention and other thinking skills. They say that by doing those programs, it will help keep your brain healthy and even improve your brain.

But do they work? In this post, I’m going to share what the research says and how one world renown doctor uses brain training games as  part of his protocol to prevent and reverse cognitive decline. Be sure to read to the end where I’ll tell you about that protocol and how you can learn more. You may find this information helpful for your loved one with dementia, but I suspect you may even find it more helpful for you because it’s never too early to start good brain health.

If you would rather watch a video on this topic, click here.

Okay, let’s take a peek at the research. 

In 2018, there was a small study where they took 51 adults without dementia and put them through a brain training program called Luminosity....

Happy Tuesday  Careblazer!

Today I want to talk about some of the most dangerous medications for older adults with dementia. These medications have something called a “black box warning”.

If you would rather watch a video on this topic, click here.

When a medication has a black box warning, it means it has the most stringent warning for drugs and medical devices and the FDA requires a black box warning be placed on the medication or device packaging. The information must have a header in all caps and information printed in bold typeface. These warnings notify the public of serious, permanent or fatal side effects. You might be surprised to hear that some of the most common medications given to people with dementia with behavioral challenges include medications with these black box warnings because they can lead to things like stroke and death. Despite these warnings, studies suggest that these medications continue to be prescribed on a regular basis.

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Welcome back, Careblazer. What are you supposed to do if your loved one is living in another reality and has some delusions that aren’t true? How do you respond to them when what they are thinking is so off the wall but you don’t want to make them more upset?  

If you would rather watch a video on this topic, click here.

I was recently answering member questions inside my Care Course Q & A session and one Careblazer shared a really frustrating situation with her mom where her mom was believing something that wasn’t true. When the mom asked this Careblazer for her input, the Careblazer rationally explained why her mom’s belief wasn’t true. This led to an argument. The Careblazer had to walk away. 

Now this amazing Careblazer, much like all my Care Course members, knows her stuff. She knows that I teach the importance of “joining their world.” I’ve talked about that in several other videos. So she...

Hey there Careblazer! This weekend I had the pleasure of talking with Dr. Regina Koepp about the 6 stages of caregiving and what the goal is within each of these stages.

I am going to link the video of this interview here.

My challenge to you in this video is to watch and see which stage of caregiving you fall in at this moment. You can always come back to this video in the future as you move through the different stages.

Learn more about Dr. Regina Koepp and what she offers at www.drreginakoepp.com

I hope you all have a wonderful week Careblazers! Come back next week for a new blog post! 

Happy Tuesday Careblazers!

This week, I had the pleasure of getting to talk with Dr. Paula Hartman-Stein, a psychologist, consultant, journalist and educator. Click here if you would like to watch our interview!

She talks about the importance of Vitamin N and how we can overcome nature-deficit-disorder to lower cortisol, improve blood sugar, and help with overall cognition. The information she shares can be applied to dementia caregivers and to people with dementia. She explains how to adapt these principles for people with dementia, people who are blind, and how to still get a healthy dose of Vitamin N even during winter months and travel restrictions. The best part is that it's free! Listen to her share what the research has to show about his very important vitamin that most of us aren't getting enough of.

Dr. Hartman-Stein's free webinar on enhancing brain and heart health will be on Thursday, March 25th, 7 pm eastern time. You can sign up here: ...

Welcome back Careblazer. In last week’s post I talked about the top docs that are usually involved in diagnosing dementia. The PCP, neurologist, and neuropsychologist. In today’s video I want to share with you my top 5 most helpful professions when it comes to treating dementia and it’s symptoms. My guess is that your loved one may be struggling with something that one of these 5 types of providers can help with. 

Let’s start first with speech pathology. 

A Speech Pathologist can be extremely helpful not only with swallowing issues that can happen in dementia, but also in the assessment of language abilities and in cognitive rehabilitation- meaning helping the person learn new ways of remembering information and communicating information. For example, in dementia there may be times when your loved one is having a hard time communicating with you. Maybe you can’t understand what they are saying because their words are mumbled or because...

Welcome back, Careblazer. Today I want to spend some time talking about the different types of healthcare providers that are involved in the diagnosis of dementia. It can be pretty confusing to figure out what type of providers specialize in dementia and what ones your loved one may benefit from seeing. So in today’s post, I’m going to cover the most common types of dementia providers and how they can be helpful to you and your loved one. Because there are SO many different types of providers that can play a role in good dementia care, I’m going to focus on those most important for assessing dementia. And in a future post, I’ll talk about those that are really important for giving treatments for dementia and the symptoms of dementia. 

If you would rather watch a video on this topic, click here.

Let’s start first with the PCP. This is where most of you will start the process of getting a dementia diagnosis and it’s a really great...

Welcome back, Careblazer. I’m so excited to talk about today’s topic on how you can have a good relationship with someone who has dementia. If you already have a good relationship with your loved one, that’s great. The 4 tips I’m about to share with you will help you maintain that relationship. My personal favorite is tip #4. 

If you don’t have a good relationship with your loved one, (for example, perhaps your loved one resents your attempts to help them or often resists your efforts to help) then this post will certainly help. 

If you would rather watch a video on this topic, click here.

This information is so important because as you begin the caregiver journey it is so easy to go from being the spouse, partner, or child to being the caregiver. You lose the relationship. Your loved one becomes a patient and you become the caretaker and we lose a lot of the personal relationship. This makes it so much easier for the...

Hello Careblazer! I am so excited for today. In the video below, I interviewed Dr. Michael Yasinski. He is a psychiatrist who does a lot of work with the geriatric population and in this video he shares the 5 things he always asks about with every patient before he starts to consider things like dementia medications and other treatments. These 5 things are so important to the foundation of good health but it’s often overlooked by so many. If your loved one’s doctor isn’t asking about these 5 areas, you may want to bring them up to make sure nothing is being missed and  your loved one is functioning at their highest level. Be sure to let Dr. Yasinski know just how much you appreciate his expertise and time by leaving a comment and a thumbs up. I’m hoping he’ll come back on the show for some other topics. To watch my interview with Dr. Yasinski, click here.

Also, I’m excited for today because it’s the opening day of my care course....

Welcome back Careblazer. Are you ready to learn more about what’s causing your loved one to have those frustrating/difficult behaviors? 

Last week, I shared with you the information you need to gather if you want to get to the bottom of why your loved one is doing what they are doing. So I’m hoping you’ve started gathering that information and writing it down either using my free worksheet I created for you or your own notebook.
Today, I’m going to talk about what to do after you have all that information. Let’s say you’ve gathered several weeks worth of information and no clear patter is jumping out at you. What do you do from there. Well, this is where I want you to jump into the action stage. Last week was about the surveillance stage- the gathering of the information, so if you haven't seen part one of this series, click here. Now we are into the action stage. Let’s take what we know and do something about it. 

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