Brain Talk | Being Patient for Alzheimer's Patients and Caregivers

Alzheimer’s advocate Reda Harrison joins Being Patient Live Talks to discuss her experience with her diagnosis of dementia, and later Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), and early-onset Alzheimer’s. She’ll also discuss how those diagnoses led her to work with the Alzheimer’s Association and back into quilting.  

Harrison was diagnosed with MCI in 2018 and is now in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. After a group study on MCI at the University of Kentucky ​​Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, she began researching the condition’s connection to Alzheimer’s disease, which led her to the Alzheimer’s Association. She became involved in volunteer work and with support groups as she navigated her diagnosis. Harrison was later named an Early-Stage Advisor for the Alzheimer’s Association in the 2022-2023 cohort and continues volunteering as an advocate. 

Since retiring in 2021 from the University of Kentucky as a Surgery Coordinator, Harrison has been involved as an advocate for the Alzheimer’s Association. Beyond her advocacy work, she has rediscovered quilting and works on projects with her stepdaughter and members of the community. She also gardens as much as she can and takes piano lessons. 

Internationally acclaimed author, Age Wave co-founder, and longevity expert Maddy Dychtwald joined Being Patient Live Talks to discuss her latest book, Ageless Aging: A Woman’s Guide to Increasing Healthspan, Brainspan, and Lifespan (Mayo Clinic Press). She also discussed the research that informed the book and key strategies women can take to improve their brains and overall health as they age. 

Recognized by Forbes as one of the top fifty female futurists globally, Dychtwald’s work has also been featured in Bloomberg Businessweek, Newsweek, Time, Fox Business News, CNBC, and NPR. She’s the author of three previous books: Influence: How Women’s Soaring Economic Power Will Transform Our World for the Better, Gideon’s Dream: A Tale of New Beginnings, and Cycles: How We Will Live, Work, and Buy.
If you loved watching this Live Talk, visit our website to find more of our Alzheimer’s coverage and subscribe to our newsletter: https://www.beingpatient.com/

UW–Madison School of Medicine and Public Health’s Dr. Melissa Rosenkranz joins us to discuss her research on the link between asthma and dementia, specifically focusing on the impact of chronic, systemic inflammation on brain health. 

Rosenkranz holds the Distinguished Chair in Contemplative Neuroscience at the Center for Healthy Minds and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the UW–Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. Her research focuses on understanding the underlying biology of the mind-brain-body interactions of stress, emotion, and the immune system. In her most recent work, Rosenkranz has been researching how inflammation, like that present in asthma, impacts long-term cognitive function and the risk for the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

Watch the live talk to learn more about asthma, inflammation, and cognitive decline.

USC Evolutionary Biologist David Raichlen joins Being Patient Live Talks to discuss how exercise and physical activity can benefit brain health, particularly for older adults. 

Raichlen is a professor at the Human and Evolutionary Biology section of the Department of Biological Sciences at USC. His research focuses on the connection between human evolution, physical activity, and health across the lifespan. Currently, he’s focused on understanding how and why exercise and physical activity benefits brain structure and cognitive function, especially in older adults. 

Watch the full live talk to learn what our evolutionary history can teach us about the benefits of exercise and physical activity for brain health.

If you loved watching this Live Talk, visit our website to find more of our Alzheimer’s coverage and subscribe to our newsletter: https://www.beingpatient.com/

University of California Berkeley neurologist Dr. Mark D’Esposito joined Being Patient live talks to discuss how people concerned about Alzheimer’s risk can optimize their brain health and function. He’ll also discuss how neural mechanisms impact cognition to provide context on strategies for improving brain health.

While Alzheimer’s disease isn’t curable, research shows it may be preventable or postponable by controlling lifestyle factors like diet. Yet, with so many types of diets emerging, it’s hard to know what’s a fad and what lifestyle changes can actually support brain health.

Two thirds of people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s are women. In addition, research shows that Alzheimer’s biomarker tau protein accumulates differently and more quickly in women’s brains. Researchers like Rosalind Franklin University’s Lise Eliot are investigating how differences in brain structure for men and women are impacting Alzheimer’s risk. Eliot joins Being Patient Live Talks to discuss these gender differences in the brain and the current research in this space.

Former neuroscience nurse practitioner and Alzheimer’s advocate Doreen Monks joins Being Patient Live Talks to discuss her experience with diagnosis and her path toward advocacy.

Sarah Widmeyer joins Being Patient Live Talks to discuss her experience caring for her mother, Elaine, who passed away from Alzheimer’s in 2022, and how the experience set her off on the path to advocating for more gender diversity in clinical research. Widmeyer is an SVP of Wealth Strategies and CMO at Richardson Wealth, and she’s passionate about improving research and access to care for women. The end goal: to improve outcomes for women like her mom.

Pediatric psychotherapist Amanda Sullivan joins Being Patient Live Talks to discuss Leaf, a children’s book that commemorates the life of her mother, who died of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in 2022. Sullivan wrote the book after struggling to find any children’s books on FTD for her own children.