Ageless Grace's Denise Medved joins Suzanne to talk about caregivers and family members doing brain exercises together to improve cognitive health. 

Denise says, "The program can help you maintain your cognitive health. It can help you improve your cognitive health and it can delay any decline that has already started. It won't cure it, it won't go back and fix it, but it will delay it. We've had some research studies that show even in eight weeks of doing it three times a week, as opposed to every day, that they improved or maintained their cognitive function. Most improved."

"Mass. General Hospital in Boston has created a program to support caregivers, not professional caregivers, but family caregivers. And the program that they use is Ageless Grace. They help the caregivers learn a few tools they could use with their mom or their dad or whoever they're caring for. But more importantly, the caregivers gets to do what I call blowing off some steam, uh releasing some stress and feeling good yourself."

It works well with two people doing it together. "We even have some of our educators — which are people have gone through a 14-hour certification to be able to teach the program and then they re-certify every year — we have had many of them practice on their loved ones. One educator I'm thinking of in particular would call her mother every single morning at a certain time. And on Zoom, she and her mother and her sister, they would do Ageless Grave, bring health together. And that was a way of them connecting, and that was a way of them also supporting their mom in being able to maintain cognitive function. And they just did it for 10 to 15 minutes every day."

Ageless Grace has live classes hosted across the country, as well as Zoom classes, and videos. Denise says, "You practice this 10 to 15 minutes a day, which isn't very long, and you'll not only maintain cognitive function but can improve it and lift your spirit." Find locations at their website https://agelessgrace.com/.

Learn more about:
* Denise Medved: https://agelessgrace.com/denise-medved/
* Ageless Grace: https://agelessgrace.com/about/
* The Vitality Revolution podcast series: https://answersforelders.com/vitality-revolution/
* Humana: https://www.humana.com/
* Answers for Elders: https://answersforelders.com/welcome-to-answers-for-elders/

Answers for Elders is part of the SeniorResource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/

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