Talking Brain Health and Alzheimer's Disease Awareness with Olivia Parzick

I am so excited to share this conversation with the world. Olivia and I have been planning this for a while now, and we were finally able to make it happen. I have been lucky enough to get to know Olivia through our involvement with the Miss America Opportunity, and I knew that she would be the perfect guest for this episode. 

Olivia Parzick is a neuroscience graduate, healthcare professional, Alzheimer's advocate, speaker, and former collegiate athlete. Her work focuses on the intersection of brain health, resilience, and personal growth, drawing from her experiences in healthcare, scientific research, caregiving, and leadership. Passionate about empowering others to reach their full potential, Olivia shares insights on mindset, discipline, and purpose-driven living while advocating for greater awareness of Alzheimer's disease and cognitive wellness.

I hope you enjoy the episode and gain some insight as to how to keep your brain healthy🧠💜

https://www.instagram.com/amycohen.mao?igsh=MWwyYjdlenVubzNqMA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm so excited to have you here with me today for another episode of Strong Mind Society. I'm your host, Amy Cohen, and I am so excited to bring you along for this conversation that has been in the talks for a while. First, I just wanted to give a little bit of an update as to where I'm at. Miss New Hampshire was the most incredible experience, and I had the best time with all of my friends. It is a week that I will remember forever, and I'm so excited for the upcoming local season. With that being said, I officially launched my new community service initiative, which is Visible Strength, a Chronic Illness Movement. This is inspired after my diagnosis with Lupus and my continued fight every single day. I'm so excited to bring more episodes talking about my new community service initiative and shedding light on the chronic illness community. With that being said, I'm so excited to introduce you to Olivia Parzik. Olivia is a neuroscience graduate, healthcare worker, Alzheimer's advocate, researcher, and former collegiate athlete passionate about helping others build healthier minds and stronger lives. Through her experiences in healthcare, research, athletics, caregiving, and advocacy, she has developed a deep appreciation for resilience, discipline, and purpose-driven leadership. Olivia believes that success is built through consistent effort, a growth mindset, and a commitment to serving others, and she is dedicated to empowering people to reach their full potential, both personally and professionally. I am so honored to have Olivia here with us today as she is one of my close friends and is a sister to me within the Miss New Hampshire organization. So, Olivia, thank you so much for being here today. I'm so excited to share this conversation with all of my listeners. Thank you so much for being here with me today. I know we've been talking about this episode for a while now, so I'm excited that we finally got to do it. So that the audience can get to know you a little bit. The first one I know is a trick question for you. Do you like coffee or tea?

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Gosh, that is a trick question because my answer would be neither. I actually have never I've had coffee once and I didn't really like it. And I do want to get into tea. So as of right now, it's neither. Chai tea is very good.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

I do like a good chai tea. And ice chai tea. Yeah, iced chai tea though. Um what is your go-to hair tool? Because you always have the best hair.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

That's a great question. Thank you. I love I have this like thermal brush that heats up. I forget what the name of it is. Um, it gets great blowouts, and you pair that with rollers and a good hairspray. That's my favorite tool. Love that. What is your favorite snack? Ooh, I like yogurt-covered pretzels the most. I recently rediscovered them from my childhood and I'm living off of them.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Honestly, that's so fair because I rediscovered chocolate covered pretzels the other day. Yeah. And the the Annie's cheddar bunnies from like preschool. Oh yeah. Okay. Now that we got a little get to know you, we uh we'll start talking. So obviously, you have a very uh science-based background. What originally motivated you to go into neuroscience?

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Yeah, so all throughout high school, I was always really drawn towards science. I knew I wanted a career in medicine in the medical field in some shape or form. And actually taking AP psychology with a really dynamic teacher, uh, Mr. DeAngelis, shout out. He introduced me to the world of psychology. And I learned in that class about neurodegenerative diseases, and that was my sophomore year. And then my senior year of high school, my grandfather was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease, and I didn't really know what that was and what that looked like, and my family didn't really know either. So I decided to major in neuroscience in college because I was able to talk to fellow professors who specialized in gerontology and in brain aging. So I was not only able to learn the educational background, but I was also able to talk to them after class about personal experiences my family was having and they were able to kind of point me in the right direction for support. And that's how I also found the Alzheimer's Association and got a part of that. But honestly, my personal experience really, really lit a fire under me to learn about what this disease is, why it happens, and to honestly get some questions answered by better understanding the scientific formation of the disease.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

That's like how I feel like where our paths crossed too, because like my motivation to have the science-heavy research background was my own chronic illness. Yeah. So I feel like sometimes it really does like that personal connection makes you gravitate towards a specific field. Totally. Now I know that you're a healthcare professional. So do you want to share what you're up to on your day-to-day? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

So going into medicine was always the goal. And for me, I landed in dentistry, which was kind of interesting. People always ask me what drew me there. Because it's kind of not everyone's like dream job, right? No one really loves the dentist, but I had a really unique orthodontic journey when I was younger. I was like a late bloomer, so I got braces after everyone, and it really like affected my self-confidence. And when my friends were getting their braces off, I wasn't even ready to get them on yet. And I'd always go to the dentist and I'm like, can we just like pull some teeth and get this moving? Because I would love to just look and feel confident. I had braces and glasses at the same time. I was really fighting for my life, honestly. And this is high school, by the way, so that's brutal. But I yeah. After honestly, neuroscience forms really well with the study path of dentistry. Well, I got my degree in neuroscience. I was actually only one of five graduates from the class of 2025 to get that specific degree. And then I was the only person to do it on the pre-dental track with a minor in chemistry and psychology. So I was able to really pair up the neuroscience classes with those pre-dental classes to give me a better all-encompassing educational background versus just going like the biology or the chemistry route, where also I had my personal connection to neuroscience. It just kind of tied in really well together. So right now I work as a dental assistant. I took a gap year after college. I work as a dental assistant at a great practice by my hometown with a phenomenal doctor who is a big inspiration to me. She owns her own practice and it's an all-female-led practice as well. So I've learned so much from her. And she's been my mentor in this preparation journey to applying to dental school. And one day I'd love to open my own practice. And I don't know, I don't know what specialty yet. I think time will tell, but that's kind of the next step for me.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Honestly, I would let you be my dentist. And I am a I'm a member of the not really loving to go to the dentist club. Totally. And I had I had braces and glasses at the same time too. And that was not the move at all. It's crazy. I know that you're really passionate about the connection between oral health, brain health, and overall health. I feel like a lot of people don't understand the connection between oral health and brain health. So do you want to touch on that a little bit? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

I appreciate you bringing that up because it is so important. And I think it's something that's really under discovered and not talked about as much. And already being a young face in the Alzheimer's and the dementia community, people tend to listen to what I have to say more because they're like, why is she here? Like this disease doesn't affect her, but it does. And that's a stereotype that I'm trying to break down that Alzheimer's disease and dementia is just reserved for the 65 plus community. It's really not. I was just in Washington, DC, and we had a panelist speak who her husband was diagnosed at 33. And that is insane. And they just had a young child. So I really fight for people to understand where younger people come into the picture when it comes to the dementia community. But especially I'm able to combine my studies in neuroscience with my love for dentistry and the brain and the oral health connection is so important. I always tell my patients that the same bacteria found in the mouths of patients with periodontal disease, which is like gum disease and inflammation, that same bacteria is found in the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients. So, and actually, heart health too is really interconnected because those three things are interconnected through inflammation. So when we put inflammation at bay, whether it's in our mouth or in our heart, it also is benefit benefiting our brain as well. So there's a lot of interesting educational factors. And when you put it into that perspective for patients that it's inflammation and your mouth is the gateway to the health of your body, what we can see in your mouth is like a mirror, it's a reflection of what's going on inside. So it's more than just coming to your biannual cleaning. There's so much more. It's it's lowering that inflammation in your body.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

It's so interesting that you say that because with my own personal journey with lupus, like you'd be surprised. I'm sure you know, it really messes up your dental work because of the inflammation. And I didn't realize that until probably a year after I was diagnosed, and my dentist was like, hey, by the way, this really affects your dental work. And I had no clues and I wish I knew more. But now I do a lot more to try and keep the inflammation way, way lower in my mouth. And do you have any like what's the top thing that you recommend to people to try and keep that inflammation low and try and keep that bacteria at bay?

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Yeah. So a lot of the bacteria is actually can be genetic. So the strep mutants, if your parents, if you were kissing or sharing like water bottles and straws, in childhood, those bacteria can be transferred to you. So a lot of it is a genetic factor as well, but also just keeping yourself healthy. I think eating healthy, working out, um, going to see your dentist and your PCP yearly and just kind of having a check-in with yourself and with your body and with your personal health is the best thing that you can do. The results of the US Pointer study out of the Alzheimer's Association came out this time last year. And what that study found was ways to kind of put Alzheimer's disease or dementia at bay. And at the end of the day, what is that? It's just inflammation. So inflammation in the brain. So, how we can put that at bay, the test basically said you need to see your PCP yearly. You need to eat like a the DASH diet or a more Mediterranean-based diet that's foods high in omega-3s and fatty acids, limiting your sugar intake as well. Um, and exercising. They say that cardio is the best form of exercise, and actually tennis is the most longest living sport. And it's kind of funny that I say that because tennis has been my lifelong sport, but I'm like, okay, let me keep that up now after college because it's so beneficial to your health. It's a lifelong sport and it's a really great exercise for your brain as well. So there's a lot of things you can do, but just personal wellness is the best thing.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

And leaning in on, you know, we were both athletes, we're both collegiate athletes, we were both captains. I know I talk about how being a collegiate athlete gave me these incredible skills to be a leader and to be able to advocate for myself and others. How do you think being a collegiate tennis captain helped shape you into the healthcare professional you are today and as a future dentist?

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Yeah, I would say the first thing that comes to mind is grit. That word was instilled into me from a very young age. I started taking lessons intensely at age seven. And my mom was a collegiate tennis player, my grandfather played tennis competitively as well. So it's kind of in the family. And I grew up going to an academy in my hometown that was pretty intense. He was a former professional player as well. And um, he actually not only had us playing tennis on his court, we were also writing papers about what mental toughness was, what grit was. And those are honestly lessons that I've taken outside of tennis. Um, mental toughness and grit are something that you can apply to your daily life. And when I was in high school, COVID hit, so I did lose two seasons of tennis, but that was the most exciting time for me because a lot of the girls on that team were there for fun. They had never played before. So it was about building that camaraderie, but also we were able to win a state championship one of those years. And then my senior year, we were like second place in the state championship. So it's kind of about building the team up and making sure that everyone's felt and heard equally. In tennis, it's a very individual sport. So when you translate that to a team setting, it can be definitely tricky and challenging, especially when in the beginning of the year your coach and says, Okay, everyone, like we're gonna go up against each other to determine the lineup. That's pretty intense. I know that that's caused issues in high school and in college for me, because you don't want to go up against your friends. But at the end of the day, like you want to be the n you want to be number one. So my grit and resilience have really applied to a lot of things, especially going into the medical field. It is a 1% of a 1% type career. And, you know, not everyone can do it. So they're not gonna let everyone in, which means I need to work hard, push extra hard. But, you know, also just living in the world that we live in, having grit and resilience allows me to roll things off my back and move forward and stay focused on myself.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

I love that. I definitely agree with that. And it's crazy how much like your tennis experience crosses over with cross-country and track for me too, because it is a team sport, but it is individual, and you're racing directly next to your teammates, and one person's gonna go across the finish line first, and you want it to be you at the end of the day. Because only five people count for points. Yes. Same with horseback riding, like it is very individual, but it's also a team, and I can see like the grit aspect of you know having to really push forward when things get hard. Right. I love your Brainwise New Hampshire initiative because I see your catch line as your brain is your greatest teammate in going off of athletics. Let's talk a little bit about your initiative and how you've been able to spread it around New Hampshire.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Yes. So Brainwise New Hampshire, I've been able to bring to over 14 libraries and schools across like Rockingham County and Merrimack County area. And I just love this program because it's something that I created based off my personal experiences, combined with my educational background. And my tagline, Your Brain is your greatest teammate, is something that I wanted to simplify it so kids who are or are not athletes can understand that you have to get ready and best with yourself for you to present the best version of yourself. And you can't rely on anyone else to do it except yourself. And so my Brainwise New Hampshire program trains students and young kids about the skills that our brain has. And I talk to them about growth mindset and visualization and um leadership and all the things that they can build personally to, you know, train their brain to be their greatest teammate. Because a lot of the times I've gotten on the tennis court and my head wasn't right and I wasn't training myself and keeping up with my visualization and growth mindset, and I would turn to a really negative place and it's hard. Tennis is gritty, and you're on the court for three, four hours, you're playing long matches, it's just you out there. And in a lot of cases, you can't get coached during your matches. So you have to be able to turn things around when they're going south or keep up the good work if they're going strong. I've been in positions where I've wiped my opponent out 6-0, 6-0, and I've been in a positions where it's the absolute opposite. So my program teaches kids about how to handle those opportunities. And it starts at a young age because I have benefited so much from being a young adult and having those lessons. So I also tell them about, you know, I've lived this life, but I've also studied this. My senior thesis was about the neuroscience of effective leadership. So I rely again on my personal experiences as a captain, but also the neuroscience behind what makes a good leader. And what I really learned from that opportunity was that good leaders aren't born, they're made. Yes, you can be born with some skills that make you a good leader, but through proper brain training and research, you can become a great leader.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

I love that. And I love how you talk about leadership too, because I feel like in our generation, knowing what a good leader is and like how to become a good leader, I feel like it's sometimes missing. Yeah. And I feel like in a way, it's our duty to speak up about it and try and lead the next generation so that we're cultivating a good culture going forward. And you know, I think being involved in athletics and being involved in, you know, an an initiative like yours is something that's really gonna help propel us forwards instead of moving backwards, which is something that we're all trying to avoid. And you know, I do want to touch on social media because your social media is quite aesthetic, I will say. How do you think social media impacted you? You know, we both went to high school during COVID, so I'm sure we share similar experiences. How did it impact your identity, your self-worth, your attention span like during COVID, also as an athlete during the recruiting process? Because I know that was crazy for me. Totally.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

Yeah, it's interesting. I okay, I'll start back at the beginning. I begged for Instagram, Snapchat. My parents said no for the longest time. And I was always the kid that didn't have it. And of course, at the time, this is like late middle school, early high school. At the time, of course, I hated them for that. But as I get older, I realized that was like the biggest blessing because kids nowadays, I had I went from a child to a tween to a teen to a young adult. Kids nowadays are just going from kid to teen to adult. Like we're missing a formative tween, I guess you could call it that. We're missing a formative group in an age range that kids are just skipping over because they just want to be older. And I really believe that that's because of what they're seeing on social media. Comparison is a huge thing, but comparison is the thief of joy, and everyone is so individualistic and has their own amazing traits. And it's really sad to see, you know, young kids comparing or falling into these deep trends because they just want to be like everyone else. But I think it's important to be yourself. You know, I think back to why I joined pageantry and how I've kind of handled that journey. And I went in and I said, I'm going to be 100% authentically myself. And I do attribute some of my success to that because I never wanted to fit a mold or, you know, a description. I wanted to always be myself because at the end of the day, like I have so much to give in that realm. But when I did finally get social media, there was a lot of restrictions on it for sure. I got Instagram. Actually, I downloaded Instagram behind my parents' back. They found out I got in trouble. And then that held it off for a couple more years. Um, that was pretty bad. But I also got Snapchat like mid to late high school. And I really think that that was beneficial for me at the end of the day because I wasn't a part of drama. You know, I didn't know what was going on after school with people or behind people's backs, and that like saved me a lot. Once COVID rolled around, things did change though, because I know you know social media got really dicey for a while. Yeah. And that was honestly people's form main form of connec connection. And um yeah, I definitely had to take a seat back from social media at that point in time because it really wasn't aligning with my values and the things I believed. And I did have friends, you know, turn on me and people show their true colors, and it was really disappointing. So I was like, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna log on today. I'm gonna take some time for myself.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

Yeah, I think it's so important. And, you know, I also had the experience of going from young child, like toddler to a kid to a tween, to a teen, to a young adult. And even though I graduated early, I still experienced every single phase. And I think we're so similar in that fact that you know, we had very similar values growing up. And I agree it is sad today to see kids missing this like tween. And relating it back to, you know, neuroscience, those formative years, if you're missing those and skipping ahead, what implications will that have for you like later in adulthood?

SPEAKER_01 20:25

Yeah, a lot of it has to do with social, socialness and um emotional social development. I see even in my younger brother, he was born in 07, he's graduating high school this year, and he lost two years of middle school. And everyone was like, okay, middle school sucked. It was awkward, it was embarrassing, but those are like some of your most formative years socially, emotionally, physically. I mean, I don't know what I would have done if I lost that time. And so I see a lot of Gavin, Gavin's friends, my brother, and people in his generation like rushing to grow up or lacking social graces and social skills in certain situations because they weren't in school and they didn't have those like awkward moments or those learning moments. And then we see COVID babies too, and they're either like stuck in front of an iPad or they weren't socialized with other people until like age three or four, or until their parents thought it was okay to bring them into the public, you know. So, I mean, huge social, emotional, developmental risks and setbacks for sure that you can't get that time back. And but those kids don't know that. Like they don't understand that they're missing that chunk of their life and those skills. So we're going to see a generation that is just lacking a big chunk of their life and a lot of skills, honestly. And I I've talked to my younger brother about this, and he's been great and you know, rising above, and he's very social. And he was definitely one of the lucky ones of that generation. But, you know, even me, like and you, like we lost really important years of high school, and I know everyone's like, everyone talks about that, and I. Oh my God, get over it. But when you think about it from a developmental standpoint, that was that was major.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

It was major. Like my prom was in a cafeteria with cafeteria food. Like you miss that formative experience that's like defining of your teenage years. And like, yeah, I'm over it. But also, I don't know if you'll ever be quite over it, if you know what I mean. I also think about like COVID dogs, people that got puppies during COVID and didn't socialize them at all. And now they're like, they can't be near people, they can't be away from their parents. It's crazy. And they'll literally say, Oh, it's a COVID dog. Like that's crazy. I never thought did you hear? No, yeah, that's like a thing. I've heard a bunch of people say that that got like puppies as emotional support during COVID. They're now COVID dogs. Yeah. Those dogs need emotional support. Yeah. The same thing with kids that were born, though. It's crazy. How do you think, or why do you think it's so important for people our age to advocate for things like invisible illnesses? Obviously, I advocate for chronic illness, invisible illnesses. And that also ties into Alzheimer's because it is something that you could walk by someone and you wouldn't know what they're going through. But it's important to be aware and to like take the precautions. So why do you think it's so important that like our generation stands up for something?

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Yeah, I think it's just that. I think it's important that we all have something that we're passionate about that we can stand up and talk about. I think something that Gen Z, our generation, is really good at is using our voices for whatever reason it is. I think, you know, we're really good at using our personal experiences as a platform. And for me, Alzheimer's specifically, there is that huge misconception that it's reserved for the 65 plus community. And I wanted to break that barrier because once I joined the Alzheimer's Association, I learned that all the statistics out there about Alzheimer's disease are only people in the 65 plus category. But I know like a good handful of people just from my little advocacy group in New Hampshire, at least four of them are under 55 and have the disease. And then I reflect back to that wife whose husband was diagnosed at 33, those numbers are not in our national statistics. So 7 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease, but that's only people over 65. So we're not even accounting in people who have who are 64, 63, or people who are living with the disease that A, don't know it, or B, are still fighting for a diagnosis. And when I experienced this with my grandfather, we were going through this during COVID. So we had even less opportunities, less answers. It took him a couple of years to get a diagnosis. And that I think is just like sick. Why does it take you so long to even get a diagnosis? And then on top of that, this disease doesn't have a cure. So I mean, God, what do we do? I think advocating, going, I've gone to the Hill, I've gone to DC, I've advocated and testified at our state house here in New Hampshire about bills that would better benefit individuals living with the disease and family members and caregivers. Caregivers, I mean, God, they there's like, I think it's like 180 billion dollars of like unpaid caregiving hours that family members are doing across the US for their loved ones with Alzheimer's disease. Because I mean, you would do that for your loved one, right? But there's so many injustices around this disease, and I'm sure you feel the same way. There's a lot of questions that are being unanswered, but at the same time, I also wonder, you know, what's being hidden from us? What is the reality? You know, I'm sure there are answers out there that we might never know, but that there's T to that. But I I truly believe that. So I think the best thing that I can do is um be a part of public, you know, policy and local and statewide and national advocacy. And I'm glad to say that I've seen the needle change a little bit. I was just in DC last week and I spoke to four um of our state representatives, and all four of them co-signed onto our bill that we were asking for. I mean, that's just fabulous. So I think the best thing that we can do is have our voices be heard because you don't know what change can come if you don't try, you know, if you don't speak up.

SPEAKER_00 26:06

Yeah. And I love how you talk about the caregiving too. You know, I've seen it within my family with various diseases, and it is something obviously you do for your loved one. But supporting the caregivers, I feel like is almost as important as supporting the actual patient because they're going through all of it too. I was also diagnosed with my lupus during COVID. To see what my parents were going through trying to care for me during COVID with the diagnosis, it's a lot. And it's important that we support them as well. But, you know, I think a lot of similarities. There's no cure for lupus, there's no cure for a lot of chronic illnesses. And I also do think there are answers somewhere. Yeah. Because everything is connected somehow. Absolutely. And what was your experience like, you know, advocating for in the state? How did you first get involved and actually get to testify?

SPEAKER_01 27:00

Yes. So I first got involved by attending a walk to end Alzheimer's with my family. And then I went back and did one a couple weeks later with my sorority in college because I was like, this would be really great community outreach. They knew it was something very personal to me. And at these walks, I met the people of the organization for New Hampshire. And they said, if you ever want to get involved in something bigger, you know, let me know. So I saved her card. Her name is Jenny. And I reached out to her, or she reached out to me, and she was like, Hey, like, come to this meeting. We're starting our new round of advocates. It's a new year, it's a new policy year. Um, like, just come and hear us out. And so I did. I went to the meeting, and I first went we ran around the table and everyone shared their connection to the disease. And I literally, like, everyone was crying because either they were there living with the disease, and at this time, my grandfather was in the mid to late stages. So it was really tough because I was going home as much as I could to see him and help my mom and my grandmother. And I met all these wonderful advocates. I was definitely the youngest person in the room, but they also were like, We're so happy you're here because I think a young face is going to create real change and like get real traction of people your age to understand why it's important to take care of their brain health now to even understand what this disease is. I was literally sitting with a patient yesterday in my dental office and they said, Oh, like, can you get an Alzheimer's diagnosis? I'm like, Yeah, girl, you can. Like, I think the science is just so old and there's not enough like PSA knowledge about it because you used to only be able to detect Alzheimer's post-mortem, and now you can obviously do it when you're alive. So there's so much that's changed, but there's so much more that needs to be changed. So I signed into that advocate group, and we did like, I forget what my first advocate meeting was, but I think it was going to like Senator Shaheen's office in Manchester with a couple advocates. And I was like, I'm really, I'm, I would think I was like 19 at the time, 20. I was like, I think I'm like the least prepared person here. I don't know how to run like a government official meeting. Like, what is this? And Jenny was like, no, like Olivia, the only thing you have to do is share your story. Like, share the injustices that your family has faced, like, talk about your personal experience because that's gonna sit with them more than just you throwing statistics and numbers at them because they get that all the time. And so I went in and I just shared my story and the other advocates did too. It was like honestly an emotional meeting. But um, we met with this one of her staffers, and it was for like a public policy bill here for New Hampshire, but she signed on and then it went to the governor and it actually passed. And then another bill of ours passed that we've been fighting for um this past year, and I testified on it in at in New Hampshire. It passed last week. It's now a law. So there's been some wonderful changes that have come with it. And as I kept attending those advocate meetings and meeting, you know, more of our representatives. I started to build like a rapport with the group and a can and deep connections with the other advocates. And I got invited to state days. I got to talk to last year Governor Snow New, this year Governor Ayot, and then I got an invitation to DC last year. And I was like, this is so cool. So I went, we all were our purple, and we, you know, I got to have like actual meetings on Capitol Hill, which was super cool. And then I just picked it all up more this year, and I've spoken at the Walk 10 Alzheimer's now, I've spoken at brain care conferences, I've continued to testify uh writing op-eds. Like there's so much that I have to say from my own experiences that just go hand in hand with the bills that we're trying to pass.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

Yeah, that's really cool. And such an experience too, to be able to do all of that and really be able to make a difference and be involved. I feel like that's really what our generation needs is people that are gonna be involved and trying to have change for good. Yeah. The right kind of change that we need. And, you know, I feel like medicine sometimes it gets stale or stagnant and things need to keep flowing, in my opinion. Like we're trying to get more funding for research for lupus to be able to research the connection between brain diseases and neuro diseases like MS, Alzheimer's, and the connection to patients who've been diagnosed with lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, showgrins, yeah, all of those because a lot of it comes from similar mutations or lupus a lot of the times is a mutation. Yes. And I think that having voices for good is just so, so important.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

Well, it's interesting you say that too, because the two bills that we just went down to DC to fight for were so basic, it was kind of just blowing my mind how this wasn't even just already normal practice. The first act is the Adapt Act. It's like the Alzheimer's and Dementia Training Prevention Act. And literally all it is is giving primary care providers who are the first line of people. I mean, you see them every year, at least you should. You see your PCP every year. And they're the people that are supposed to get m like mini cogs and baselines on your brain health and your memory. The literal bill was to get them more training so they could detect dementia. Like it's crazy, but 40% of PCPs feel confident detecting and diagnosing dementia. Only 40%. So 60% of PCPs across our nation don't have the adequate training to detect this, but this disease affects one in three seniors. So I don't know how that happened. I don't know where that disconnect was created, but um, that's one bill that we got all of the reps to sign on to. And I have high hopes for that because that's not just a New Hampshire issue, that's a national issue that needs to be addressed. And then the other act was also pretty simple. We were going down to DC saying like this is our mammogram moment for Alzheimer's disease because our the ASAP Act, the Alzheimer's Screening and Prevention Act, was our hugest, our biggest ask. It's a huge bill. And what it does is it literally is just Medicare coverage for blood biomarker testing. So you know how we get blood paneling for like our cholesterol or Lyme disease. We don't have anything to detect Alzheimer's disease other than like visually or a PET scan. But at that, at that point, it's too late. We only have early intervention opportunities. There's only two FDA approved drugs in the market to like help with Alzheimer's. There's no cure, but you can only get them if you intervene early. But how can you intervene early if you don't have a diagnosis? So if you're able to get your blood paneling every year and this is just something that you add on, and you know, your PCP says, hey, you do have the blood biomarker for Alzheimer's disease, it would allow both you and the provider to start getting, you know, baseline testing every year to keep an eye on it, keep a track on it to see if you actually do develop it or if it's just like dormant for the rest of your life. So I mean, this is just like a great step in the right direction. But also, as I say all these things, I'm like, why the heck aren't these even like naturally just there? I mean, it's it seems so simple, but we are so behind.

SPEAKER_00 34:12

It is literally common sense. Why are we not training the people who are supposed to be able to help us? Yeah. Makes no sense. Also, circling back to brain health in general. How important do you think it is for people to, you know, keep reading and doing things like that with their brain, you know, puzzles, board games, and doing things off of technology. Is there a clear benefit to that when it comes to brain health? There is.

SPEAKER_01 34:42

Brain training is like the scientific term for it. I study this a little bit in college and basically like doing Sudoku crossword puzzles, like there's even apps on your phone that can brain train, but obviously it's more ideal to do things off technology. Um, literally reading, just anything that exercises your brain. Some uh when people are starting to do those like New York time crosswords every day, even though it was on the phone, like that was that's great. Like that's literally a little something that you're doing every single day. Um, our brain is a muscle and it needs to be flexed. And studies have shown that if you continue your education later into life, people with, you know, master's degrees or even college-level degrees have a lower percentage of die uh, you know, getting Alzheimer's disease or dementia because you're continuously training your brain, flexing your brain muscle later into life. So the studies show yes, you need to read, you need to exercise, and even just picking up the newspaper and doing a crossword is it's gonna help you in the long run. But they also say the best things that you can do is brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand, or learn how to write with your other hand, your non-dominant hand, or p uh learn a new instrument, or teach yourself a new language, like simple things on Duolingo, a little thing here and there every single day is just gonna kind of train your brain because we're so used to getting into routines and kind of monotonous days where you do need to switch it up. Your brain's getting bored, it's getting tired, and it needs to, you know, get the cobsweb cobwebs off.

SPEAKER_00 36:09

That's really important for people to hear. I feel like in the day of technology too, like it's so easy to just pick up your phone and do something. But it's so important to like have the brick and mortar, the book in front of you, the pen and the paper. And you know, I go to classrooms and I've like tried to talk to kids and they're like, well, I'll just show you this on my iPad. And I'm like, well, why don't I show you a different way? Like, this is gonna be beneficial for you in the long run, I promise. I had a kid one time say to me that they didn't know that there were crossword puzzles on paper. They thought that they were only a thing on technology.

SPEAKER_01 36:42

Right.

SPEAKER_00 36:43

I was like, okay, that's great. Glad to hear. Let me talk to them. I was like, here's a crossword book. And she was like, it's like Christmas. I was like, uh-uh. I'm glad. I'm glad it's like Christmas for you. Please do your crosswords. It's so important. For all help, not just brain health, but like autoimmune, everything. It's all connected. So let is there any last things you want to leave the listeners with? Maybe you want to plug your own podcast if people want to keep learning about brain health.

SPEAKER_01 37:17

Yes, I do have my own podcast. It's called Mind the Gap on Spotify, and I co-host it with my good friend Claudia, who is Miss Liberty in New York, and I am currently Miss Liberty New Hampshire for the Miss America organization. So together we've been able to host our podcast. It's had national reach, and it's really cool. We talk about our own experiences as caregivers. Claudia's mother is currently living with the disease, and she has like a personal health and wellness background, and then I bring in my neuroscience background and my caregiving experiences, and we kind of just uplift young caregivers across the country. And then we also recently did a special on our podcast called Fifty States of Memory, which is a Miss America Opportunity special edition podcast series where Claudia and I invite girls from all over the country onto our podcast who are local or state title holders in the Miss America organization to talk about their community service initiative that's tied to dementia or Alzheimer's. So we've had girls from New York, Colorado, South Carolina, um, as of right now. And we're booking some more in the future. But if you want to take a listen, it's on Spotify. It's called Mind the Gap.

SPEAKER_00 38:23

And yeah, it's pretty fun. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for coming on today. I'm so glad that we finally got to do this and are able to give the listeners some learning and insights and motivate them to be healthy with their brain. Yes. Well, thank you for having me, Amy.

SPEAKER_01 38:39

Oh my