Alzheimer's Community Care Conference // Do You Want To Know

One question can change how you face Alzheimer’s: Do you want to know early? We do not ask it to scare anyone. We ask it because early testing creates options, and options create a plan. David shares why getting evaluated sooner helped him take control of his next steps, and Karen explains how the Alzheimer’s Community Care Education Conference is built to give families practical, usable tools for brain health, caregiving, and living well after a diagnosis. 

We talk about lifestyle strategies that support cognitive health, including nutrition, daily movement, social connection, and addressing hearing loss. David describes how he noticed improvement through lifestyle choices before starting an Exelon patch, and why “measure to manage” matters if you want to know what is truly helping. We also dig into the real-world challenge of staying consistent, how routines reduce decision fatigue, and why support groups and peer-to-peer connection can be a lifeline for people navigating mild cognitive impairment or early-stage Alzheimer’s. 

Karen breaks down research that backs up this approach, including lessons from the U.S. POINTER Study showing structured programs outperform self-guided change. We also discuss why lifestyle changes can deliver meaningful cognitive benefits without the scary side effects associated with some newer treatments, while still respecting the role of ongoing Alzheimer’s research. 

We share details for the May 21 conference at the Doubletree Hotel in Palm Beach Gardens, plus where to find highlights afterward at allzcare.org and David’s resources at davidsalzheimersfight.org. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review so more families can find practical brain health guidance.

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Transcript

Disclaimer And Welcome

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This podcast shares insights, not medical advice. Please consult a professional for your care. Hi, everybody. Welcome to David's Alzheimer's Fight Podcast. And here we're here today to talk about what's the upcoming conference that being held by Alzheimer's Community Care. And we're talking also today about the breakout session that Karen and I will be working with people at the conference to talk about my speech, which is basically, do you want to know? And we are trying to be able to give you information now, as well as there will be further information on the website after the program. So you'll be able to get that information. For now, I'll turn it over to Karen and let her give you more explanation of what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Thank

Conference Mission And Format

SPEAKER_01 0:48

you, David. I will give a little bit of history of our conference. Alzheimer's Community Care is in its 30th year providing services for patients and their caregivers in Palm Beach Martin and St. Lucie County, and soon to be in Hillsboro County. And this is our 27th education conference. So we bring together experts, nationally known experts, some internationally known experts, who are talking about how we can best help someone with a diagnosis, how we can best help their family caregivers, and also what we now know about brain health and all of the new information about how we can preserve and protect brain health, even as research struggles to come up with treatments. And as I'm sure you all know, we have no cure for Alzheimer's disease. We have a few treatments, not everybody can take them, and they don't have extraordinarily dramatic results. But there's so much more that we can do. So that's what this conference will share from these various experts. What do we now know about protecting our health? How can we adopt those strategies? And what outcomes will we realize? So we have some main sessions going on in the ballroom, uh, three times uh throughout the day, three different uh discussions. And then we have, as David said, breakout sessions. Uh so David and I will be talking about his journey over the last year and uh his title of Do You Wanna Know? Very important. And David, I'd like you to explain how you came to that title and what you're going to share about your journey, which is now starting its second year.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Do

Do You Want To Know Early

SPEAKER_00 2:40

you want to know is simply should you find out early? And do you really want to find out early if you have Alzheimer's? Many people don't want to think about it and don't want to even consider the fact that they may have it. But the earlier you find out, the better off you're going to be. And I can I am proof and living proof that this is what's happened. And I have been able to be much better than I have been or in in this last year. And I've tried to follow the healthy lifestyle approach. I'm, you know, occasionally fallen off the wagon. I may mean not exercising every single day. But the idea is my intent and what I'm trying to achieve has been accomplished as far as I'm concerned, because a year ago it wasn't the same. So the speech is about how we can help each other and what information that we can give you to help you accomplish what I've tried to do. And I'm just trying to be an example, and that's the best thing I can do is to be an example for people and show them it is possible. So that's basically the concept. And it's it's very interesting because the the conference mainly is about this year, is about exactly what we're talking about, about what you can do without having to take medication. Although I do take a on patch and it's it's a mild dosage. I can't say that's been a great help or not, but it certainly hasn't hurt. So but in any case, generally speaking, it's what you do in your lifestyle that makes the difference. And I think that's what mainly the conference is about this

Lifestyle Changes That Show Results

SPEAKER_00 4:08

year.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

I I want to mention too, uh David, that you first started seeing improvement, perceiving it yourself, and others telling you they saw improvement before you started the Exilon patch. Yes. So those improvements were only based on your lifestyle uh choices. And that, of course, included diet, exercise, getting your hearing exam. We have that whole list uh of lifestyle approaches that uh one can adopt to protect and preserve brain health. Of course, the more of them you do, the better protected you are. So not only do they help protect brain health, but they help someone like you who saw changes, didn't like what they were seeing, went and got evaluated, got an early diagnosis, that's key, and then immediately adopted those strategies. There is really no disease for which we do better if we fail to get a diagnosis and address it.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

One of the things I wanted to add is I am going to be taking all the tests. And typically, when you're taking one of the uh test trials or the uh can be or uh drugs like that as infusions, they test you on a regular basis about how you're progressing. Well, I haven't done that because I'm not in one of those studies. We are gonna do the study, we are gonna do the all the tests again in another month or so. And so it'll be interesting to see if it's progressed, if it's regressed, it will be a good sh show of what could happen to people if they do what what I'm trying to do. So I don't know what's gonna happen, but we're gonna do it.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

You have to measure to manage, so it makes total sense. Based on those results, you might decide you need to be a little more diligent and not fall off the wagon as much. Um, but knowledge is power, so absolutely that is a great thing to do. And although this is our 27th conference coming up on May 21st, it'll be held at the Doubletree Hotel in Palm Beach Gardens. We have a few seats left, just a few. Um, but anyone that uh would like to attend or have more information can call our headquarters. I'll give that phone number in a moment. But although this is our 27th conference, it is the first time we will have someone that is actually a patient demonstrating all that has happened uh that's very positive based on lifestyle strategies that you adopted one year ago.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

When I when I go to see my neurologist, Dr. Alasia, he tells me point blank, I'm his best patient. He can talk to me like a doctor. I mean, he says what he said to me because I

Building Support And Staying Accountable

SPEAKER_00 6:52

I know have learned so much and have experienced so much, and I can give him so much feedback that we have a great conversation. It's usually not about drugs or anything else. We talk about how we're doing and how I'm doing, and he's very impressed, which I think is kind of interesting. I really don't have many doctors tell me that.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Well, I will also guess that he's sharing that with other patients. You know, unfortunately in our healthcare system now, we don't get this education. Our primary care, when we go for that annual physical, uh, doesn't usually sit us down and talk about lifestyle strategies to preserve brain health. It's just not happening. So we're out there teaching consumers uh instead of expecting that their provider will share it with them. So the fact that he is so impressed with what you're telling him about what's occurred for you over the last year uh tells me he's likely sharing that. And that's terrific.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

I have now started a peer group, and we have a few people that are part of that once a month. And we actually, these are people that have mild cognitive impairment, and we talk about our issues. We talk about how we feel, about what we're scared about, what we're and it's been a very, very enlightening thing, and it's helped the people that have been involved with that very much because it gives them a chance to talk to somebody that has it, that like them, you know, that we can pair notes. And it I think it's so important. And what that's one of the things I want to emphasize to people that watch this is to please let people know about this. They can sign up. It's very simple on the website. It's a it's a link on the website to sign up for the the peer-to-peer group, and they can they can join us and participate, which I think is kind of amazing. And I'm not sure there's many people that have actually done that before.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Now, mild cognitive impairment does not always progress. Uh, but again, to be preventive, someone with a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment would benefit by adopting those lifestyle strategies that we'll be talking about at the conference.

POINTER Study And Lifestyle Vs Drugs

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Uh, and our midday panel discussion uh in the general session uh will talk about lessons learned in a very important study called the U.S. Pointer Study. And the pointer study was focused on lifestyle, and they had two groups. A structured group, these were people at risk for symptoms of dementia and Alzheimer's. The structured group had a pretty rigid program for their diet, exercise, and so on. The other group was self-guided. They were given the information, but they could guide their day. Uh, who do you think did better? It's no contest. The structured group did better. People in the uh self-guided group wanted to transition to the structured group. Uh, so these are extremely important lessons. The U.S. Pointer study will be continuing, it will get larger. Um, but this is incredibly powerful. And uh just this week um I was uh sent an article uh that studied people who applied lifestyle strategies versus people who took Lakembi or Kasoonla. The lifestyle strategy group did better in cognitive improvement than those taking Lakembi and Kasoonla. And there are no potentially bad side effects from adopting good lifestyle strategies. The best diet, the exercise, socializing, taking care of hearing loss, and a few more that again we'll discuss at the conference. No scary side effects. And now, if we're seeing those groups are doing better, uh, this is such important information that we want to get to everyone. So I would encourage anybody that would like to attend, please call our headquarters, which is open Monday through Friday from 8 to 5. Uh, and that number is 561-683-2700, and just ask for education uh that you're inquiring about the education

Conference Logistics And Resources

SPEAKER_01 11:06

conference. If you're not able to attend following the conference, it'll take us a week or two, but we will distill uh the highlights from all of our speakers, and we will have those available through our website, uh, and we'll share them with David for his website as well. Uh, our website is simply allzcare.org, al-z-car e dot org. And then David, you'll be giving your website for David's Alzheimer'sfight.org. So, you know, the bottom line is let's share information, let's share with everybody what we can do while research continues. Research, of course, very important. Uh, but so far, it has not come up with a cure, it's not come up with a treatment that's safe and truly effective for all. Uh, so uh let's share what we can all do ourselves any day we choose to get started.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

And the bottom line to all this is healthy lifestyle is good for everybody. It doesn't, you don't have to be sick. Just that's what you should be doing, whether we talk about Alzheimer's or any other things that are going on. And I think we've gotten so far away from that in our in our diets and our exercise and different things in our lives that it's it's it's hard, but it's easier than you think when you get a regular routine going, because that way it keeps you it keeps you going. And I I it I just I have to say I'm amazed at myself sometimes because as I said earlier, when we first started all this, is I would forget things in the middle of the conversation and forget about what I'm talking about. Tell people I couldn't talk, I couldn't remember what I was talking about. And nobody that I talk to right now would ever believe that I have Alzheimer's. And that's what's so great about how I feel and the motivation to help others

Big Takeaways And Closing

SPEAKER_00 12:57

to do what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Those lifestyle strategies will also help to prevent or reverse type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, general metabolic disease, all of which put you at risk for stroke and for Alzheimer's. So, yes, you're absolutely right. The benefits are far reaching.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Thanks for joining us. Please tune in, and we're going to try to do some more podcasts, and we hope to see you again soon. And thank you so much for watching. We are here on this earth as humans to help others. That's what I believe. Please note this podcast provides information only. Podcasts should not be considered professional advice or a substitute for professional advice. Viewers of the speakers do not necessarily reflect those of Alzheimer's Community Care or David Ufelder. Listeners and viewers are encouraged to consult with appropriate professionals and are responsible for how the information provided is used.