How You Can Leverage Technology To Prevent Alzheimer’s Or Dementia With Alisha Timon and Mandy Crow
Are you worried about your own risk of dementia while caring for a loved one?
If you’re a caregiver for someone with dementia, you might have asked yourself, “Could this happen to me too?” It’s a common concern, especially when you’re witnessing the challenges your loved one faces.
But here’s some good news: about 40% of dementia cases are preventable. Yes, you read that right. Nearly half of dementia cases could be avoided with the right knowledge and actions.
Our guests Alisha Timon, RN, BSN and Mandy Crow, MD, discuss the critical yet often overlooked topic of dementia prevention.
Their company, VitalOp Wellness (https://vitalopwellness.com) helps you combat chronic conditions like diabetes and obesity with over 30 years of combined patient care experience.
The app offers video-based content, nutrition guidance, health tracking tools, and access to hundreds of healthy recipes—all from medical professionals.
Stay organized, monitor key health metrics, and take control of your well-being. Download the VitalOp Wellness app today.
The Power of Prevention
One of the least discussed aspects of dementia care is the power of prevention. It’s not just about managing the disease once it’s diagnosed but about taking steps to reduce your own risk.
The information you’ll find here isn’t what most websites will tell you—it’s actionable, research-backed strategies that can make a real difference.
Movement: Your Brain’s Best Friend
You may have heard the phrase “sitting is the new smoking.” In the context of brain health, it couldn’t be truer. Regular movement is one of the most potent ways to protect your brain.
It’s not just about intense workouts—simple activities like walking can have a significant impact. Making movement a daily habit is a simple yet powerful step you can take today.
Don’t Ignore Hearing Loss
Hearing loss is often overlooked, but it’s a critical factor in dementia prevention. When hearing declines, it leads to reduced brain stimulation and social interaction—both vital for maintaining cognitive health.
If you or your loved one are experiencing hearing difficulties, addressing this issue promptly can make a big difference.
Optimize Your Health: Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar
Midlife is a critical period for managing risk factors like blood pressure and blood sugar levels. Keeping these within optimal ranges isn’t just about preventing heart disease—it’s crucial for brain health too.
Even if you’re not currently diabetic, understanding and managing insulin resistance can be a game-changer in reducing your dementia risk.
Take Small Steps for Big Changes
Being a caregiver is exhausting, and it can feel overwhelming to think about adding more to your plate. But the beauty of these strategies is that they don’t require drastic changes.
Start small. Focus on one area, like increasing your daily steps or checking your hearing. Each small step you take contributes to a healthier brain.
Empower Yourself with Knowledge
Understanding that dementia is not an inevitable part of aging empowers you to take control. You can influence your future by making informed choices today.
Prevention doesn’t just protect your health; it gives you back a sense of control, something many caregivers feel they’ve lost.
By focusing on these often-overlooked aspects of health, you can reduce your own risk of dementia while continuing to care for your loved one.
Your health matters, too—make it a priority.
Ever Wonder How To Know What Is Causing Your Caregiver Stress?
Take Our FREE Caregiver Stress Assessment Today!
Read More:
Talking About Caregiver Burnout With Michelle Gordon
Check the other podcast: https://dignicarebydesign.com/category/podcast/
Email me: lizette@dignicarebydesign.com
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Listen to the Podcast
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[0:01] If you are a family caregiver of somebody living with dementia, I know that at some point or another, the following thought has gone through your mind, and that is, am I going to get dementia myself? In this great episode we have put together for you today, I am interviewing Alicia and and Mandy, who have taken the guesswork out of how to prevent dementia. And I want you to really listen to today’s episode and then take action on one thing that you learn in this episode, because too many people believe that dementia is not preventable, and about 40% of dementia is. That’s a lot, and that gives us all an extra way of thinking about our own health and wellness in our dementia caregiving journey, because it is not inevitable that we are going to get dementia ourselves. So check out today’s episode.
[1:13] Episode. Well, I am very excited about my special guests today, and I’m excited about this for a variety of reasons. The first of all is because this is something I desperately need myself, as well as anybody who has been alive longer than a couple of minutes. My guests today are Mandy and Alicia, and they are from Vital Op Wellness, which is very near and dear to my heart because because today we’re going to talk about preventing dementia. So Mandy and Alicia, why don’t you introduce yourselves to the audience today and kind of tell them a little bit about how you guys created Vital Op Wellness. Okay, awesome. Thank you. First of all, thank you for having us. We’re excited to be here and just ready to get this message out and start spreading the word about dementia prevention.
[2:02] For sure. You know, that’s one of my, when I first started my business, that was legitimately where I started was preventing dementia. That was the very first dementia course I actually put together was what to do to prevent dementia. So I’m very excited about this because I think it’s something that’s highly not talked about at all. And we have these two schools of thought, the medical model and then the more holistic model. And I’m just excited for people to hear that there are things that we can do to help ourselves. So thank you for your mission. Absolutely. So I’m Alicia Tymon. I’m a registered I’ve been a nurse over 20 years, started out in the critical care space. So I got to take care of patients.
[2:44] At that end of life, the sickest of the sick. And so about 10 years into my career, I was sick and tired of being sick and tired of myself, the way I was not taking care of my own body and opened a health and wellness clinic and started seeing patients at my health and wellness clinic and helping them make lifestyle changes to lose weight or lower their blood pressure or decrease, you know, all the meds they were on, reverse diabetes. And so I did that for about 10 years.
[3:16] And it was just very opening to me being in the medical field that, oh, we can do things to help ourselves and, you know, instead of just putting a bandaid on them. And so it was just really great. And about, well, I guess in 2020, one of my patients tagged me in a talk that this doctor was doing on obesity. And I was like, doctors don’t normally have, you know, talks on obesity. I want to go see what she has to say. And so it was Dr. Mandy Crow. And I went and she did amazing. Everything she was talking about was stuff that I preached to my patients all the time. And so stayed after class like the nerd, you know, and we talked it just hit it off and became really good friends. And that’s how we kind of created Vital Op Wellness because we have the same passions for prevention and reversal of chronic diseases. And we wanted to find a way that we could get that message to the masses. And that’s where Vital Op was born. And I’ll let you tell, I’ll let Mandy tell a little bit about her. Yes. And I’m Dr. Mandy Crow and I’m a primary care physician. So been in the medical field a long time at.
[4:30] Always have been passionate about prevention. So you think primary care, well, of course, that’s all you do. Well, really, the way medicine is now, we spend a lot of time managing chronic illness. So taking care of problem and in the traditional model that I was in, I wasn’t able to spend the time to help people prevent illness or reverse. We never really talked about reversal of diabetes or reversal of high blood pressure. It’s like, how do we manage this? So I kind of stepped out of that traditional system and I opened my own clinic. I have a direct primary care clinic where patients pay me a monthly fee. And that way I’m able to spend a lot more time with patients. And we sit, you can see back here, I have food and sugar cubes. And we talk about what is food doing to your body and able to come off of medications and find insulin resistance early instead of waiting until blood sugars rise and just doing things a little bit differently to better align with my focus and my passion. So then, yes, me and Alicia met and we’re like, oh, my gosh.
[5:32] I love it. We already met in my life. I understand that feeling. And so, yeah, we just started grinding and like, okay, what can we do? Can we do corporate wellness? Can we do our own clinic together? And we just thought, why not technology? Because that’s accessible to everybody pretty much. Now everybody has a phone, let’s get on there and let’s get in their face on a regular basis. How can you do this? What does this look like? Let’s simplify health. And I really think that’s one of our biggest messages with Vital Op. We understand the barriers patients have to becoming healthy, and we’ve dealt with them ourselves. And the wellness message has become overcomplicated.
[6:16] For sure. It’s so confusing and so mixed up. And so we’re all out there chasing these different things, when really,
The Importance of Basic Health
[6:23] if you sit with somebody and get back to the basics, it’s not difficult. That’s really where you find health is in the basic elementary rudimentary things in everyday life. But, but we get it. It’s challenging. So sure.
[6:37] Well, I will tell you a couple of things that you said just absolutely struck with me. First of all, the reason my company is called Think Different Dementia is because I want people to think different about dementia, right? That was why I called my company Think Different Dementia. And when I started my company, my philosophy, and I’m a couple of steps behind you related to the app that we’re going to talk, you know, your business model, the app that we’re going to talk about shortly is because my husband was in Uganda on a mission trip. It was, he was going to teach there for a couple of weeks, better cell reception than I have in rural parts of South Carolina. So that was first aha moment for me. The second aha moment for me was I had been a home health occupational therapist and been in people’s houses that they have absolutely nothing, but they have a smartphone and they’re doing everything. I mean, not necessarily the great stuff. They’re scrolling on Facebook, right? But the reality, the penny that dropped that my husband has this access in the remotest parts of the world and everybody who has no money, they do not have a computer, but they have a smartphone.
[7:51] And if I can put my information on a smartphone, then people in the middle of nowhere, you know, so that sounds exactly like, you know, the, the philosophy behind why you went to an app and a cell phone is, is very similar to mine because truly this message is not geographic specific. Right. And that’s the cool part. I mean, we talk about health disparities and lack of access and all these different issues. And it’s like, wow, you can put a nurse and a doctor right into their room right there where they’re sitting and educate them on their diabetes or their high blood pressure. And it’s a great way to…
[8:33] To reach people. And, and I mean, bottom line is, like I said, you know, if the, the barrier to entry is, is low, then almost anybody in the world has access off of a cell phone. Then it’s just a question of getting the information to the right people at the right time. So I’m super proud of you ladies. So is that why you created Vital Op Wellness? I think when we came together, when our like-mindedness came together, we realized that there is a huge missing piece to the current medical system. We call it, or the world calls it healthcare, but it’s truly sick care. It’s not healthcare, right? So I don’t even use that terminology anymore. And we just realized there’s this big gap, right, of education. Now, yeah, I educated patients in ICU, but I educated them on how to take their medicines and how to, you know, I didn’t educate them on getting healthy, right? And that’s a huge issue. I understand that the medical system’s a business and the healthier people get, the lower, I mean, the lower the costs are, right? You don’t get paid to get people health. And that’s unfortunate. I wish that we could totally turn that upside down and change that way and that physicians are reimbursed, the healthier patients are, you know, that would make sense, right?
[9:50] But that’s just not the way it is. So we We knew that there was this huge missing
Creating Vital Op Wellness
[9:53] piece, and we wanted to be that missing piece. We are that missing piece to the current medical system because what we teach in our app and on our dementia prevention plan is not being taught in the current medical system. Now, do some people get this information here and there, little droplets? Absolutely. But the whole deal is that practitioners don’t have time to do this. They’re not taught this in med school. They’re not educated on health. They’re educated on disease processes and how to treat those disease processes. And so it’s not any fault of theirs. It’s just the system and the system is broken. Yeah, the system is broken for sure.
[10:32] Yes. And the cool thing is what we see in our clinics, I mean, in the stories Alicia would tell me, I was just amazed and like, oh my God, this is life changing for people. Like, these are not just numbers and like these things that, oh, we think would be cool. It’s like we’ve sat in front of people, seen their lives changed. And it’s like, how could we not do this? How could we not spread this message? Well, and what’s even more heartbreaking about that is they would say, nobody’s ever told me this.
[11:03] Those words make me hurt. Heart breaks my heart. Nobody ever told me that I could reverse my type 2 diabetes. Nobody ever told me that I wouldn’t have to take this statin for the rest of my life or this blood pressure medicine for the rest of my life. You know, actually, they’re being told the opposite. Yes, for sure. You’ll probably be on this the rest of your life. So, you know, what Vitalop truly does is it gives people hope and it gives them the authority to take control of their health. Our goal is to teach people that health is not the responsibility of your doctor. You don’t go to the doctor to find health. You go to the doctor so the doctor can help you with whatever illness you’re battling. Right. Typically, we go for wellness visits every now and then, you know, all the time. Yeah, a little bit of prevention. Yeah, a little bit of prevention. But not overall like true top to bottom health. Yeah. So we teach people, look, your health is your responsibility and your health depends on what you do every single day, not the five to seven minutes you spend with the doctor in a doctor’s office. You can’t find health in five to seven minutes.
[12:07] I love that your health is your responsibility. Absolutely. Well, you know, and for me, I was telling you guys before we got on, started recording, I’m very excited about this because like I have all of the background, the academic background, I can tell you everything I need to do. But somewhere in my own journey related to now becoming a caregiver and starting a business and my lifestyle per se, you know, not going into working for someone else, etc., has changed my whole lifestyle. And what I have noticed is that I didn’t create those healthy habits that are my responsibility of 100%. I’m responsible for what I stick in my mouth. And I know that and I’m responsible for getting up off of the couch and going and exercising and all of those things. It’s not knowledge that’s necessarily the barrier. For some people it is, right? Truly there is health disparity. Some people truly do not know. But in my specific situation, it’s not that I don’t have the knowledge. It’s that I need to recreate the structure and the discipline and the mindset.
[13:29] Yeah, the mindset’s a huge thing. I tell people, you know, everybody always says knowledge is power. Not really. Knowledge plus the application of that knowledge is where the power comes from. Because you can have all the knowledge you want, but if it just sits in your brain and you do nothing with it, it’s not beneficial, right? Right. And I think that’s where most of us start. I mean, especially you, Alicia, when you do your visit, you started here and helping them understand it starts with making this a priority. It starts with where your time and energy goes. That’s where money, energy and money is is really what’s important to you. And how would you say it? Yeah, I tell I tell people, you know, time, money, time and money are the two biggest excuses for not making healthy choices. places. And I try to debunk those by having people pull out their phone when they say they don’t have time to eat healthy. And I say, okay, let’s look at your screen time. And they’re like, their eyes get really big. And I’m like, let’s look at how many hours this week you were on social media.
[14:27] And if they were on social media, an average of two to sometimes way longer a day, and it can break it down to what apps you were on. So, you know, some of them were like, oh, I do work from my phone. Well, but let’s look at the apps. And then I bring to light, oh, I spent six hours this week scrolling through Facebook. I could have meal prepped a lot in six hours, a lot in one hour, you know, or I could have cooked some healthy meals or I could have got up and done some walking in my neighborhood, you know, all these things. And I just open people’s eyes to the reality that they’re not making it a priority. And the same goes with your money. You know, your money is what’s important to you, right? And where you spend that money can show people where your priorities are. Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. So why do you ladies have a particular interest in dementia? Well, I think so, you know, even before we started to make this a focus, the really awesome thing is what is good for the brain is good for the rest of the body. The message we were already receiving.
[15:26] Talking about with diabetes and how blood pressure and overall health translated very easily to dementia. But what really got us passionate about it is in my family. So my stepdad was diagnosed with dementia about four to five years ago. And of course, I had taken care of patients before, helped their families kind of navigate this disease. But as a primary care physician, I mean, in the last year, there has been some changes. But before that, and really still. So little resources and things we could actually do to make a huge difference. And so it was pretty discouraging and we didn’t have a lot to offer. So I never really put my focus into that box.
[16:06] But then when my stepdad was diagnosed and then my eyes were open to the reality at home, I think that was the big switch for me is when I realized what was happening at home and how that wonderful person, their dignity was being stripped away, how their place in the family and what they did for their spouse or their grandkid slowly melted away. And then that caregiver who was my mom or is my mom still, her whole life, what I say is the past, present, and future was just gone. I mean, now four or five years in, we talk about often like, mom, Mom, do you even kind of remember how it was before? I mean, she starts to lose the past as well because you start to forget some of how they were and who they were. Currently, the caretaking role, as you know, is just a huge undertaking. And then her future is also just completely different than she thought it would be. Well, the caretaker’s health starts to suffer, of course, because they are worried about somebody else instead of their self, right?
[17:05] So then that was kind of what started to spur like, we’re already talking about all these other diseases. Surely there’s something more we can do about dementia. Surely there’s more that can be done to prevent it. You know, what’s going on in that space. So that’s when we started to dive in and do a ton of research and like. Not a whole lot going on in that space. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Well, as far as research there is. Yeah.
Simplifying Healthcare for Dementia Prevention
[17:26] As far as like active prevention and all these tools and protocols already in place and being done. No. Yeah. um and those that are done are so expensive and inaccessible to people yeah and so we wanted kind of like we already were doing with vital op we wanted to to bring it and make it available for everybody we wanted to like bring this information these tools make it simple because i think that’s one thing that’s unique about me and alicia is we know the background of medicine we’ve been in the system we know the ins and outs we know the challenges um and then we’ve been on the other side, owning businesses and being outside of the system. It’s so much nicer on the outside.
[18:10] Well, yeah, it’s a whole different world. We want to bridge that gap because the system is unfortunately not going anywhere. So we’ve got to figure out how to navigate it. So we wanted to put all this dementia prevention information in one place and then make it easy to bring to the patient and then for the patient to then bring it to their doctor. So, well, and I think knowing Knowing her family and knowing her stepdad and mom, you know, just put this, I felt like there was just this burden on my shoulders. And maybe you felt like that too, maybe, to do something about that. Because whenever we were doing all the research and she told me up to 40% cases of dementia could be prevented.
[18:52] And we’re not talking about that. Yeah, I just. What are we doing? Like, we’re doing a disservice to the public. you know, by not talking about that. If we can prevent one patient from getting dementia, this has all been worth it. Oh, for sure. You know, the economical cost, Mandy was talking a little bit about the emotional cost, you know, the path and future and the present of her mom as the caregiver, nevermind her stepdad and what he is experiencing. But the economic cost is tremendous. I don’t know if you ladies have heard what one person with dementia’s economic impact is, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. Like for people who have… Yeah, I don’t care. Remember the exact amount. $400,000 lifetime cost. It’s the most expensive disease to treat.
[19:53] I don’t know if that’s including what the family is having. That includes what the family is having. That includes, I think, like the health care system and the unpaid caregiver hours. Well, I’ll tell you this. That probably is an underestimation because they may be including what my mom’s working, but probably not including what she’s having to pay out of pocket for sitters and different things, too. So I can guarantee you that’s probably higher. Yeah, for sure. And, you know, and those and how do you how do you prove the negative? Right.
[20:27] Right. You know, you’ve got and then you’ve got the impact that it makes on her health. Right. So then you’ve got the the medical costs of her in the future that might not have been had she been able to take care of herself. If that, you know, I mean, like it’s a snowball. Yeah, it is.
[20:43] I mean, thank God for Alicia. We’ve both been called to go. I mean, so it’s her is the primary care, but we’ve both been called to her house to go help. You know, when he fell, we were both around the house and we stopped what we were doing to go help. I mean, it’s just, oh, it just said trickle down, which of course we don’t mind that. No, no, no, no. I understand. I mean, that’s not at all what the conversation’s about. We do what we need to do. But when we start to actually think about the implications of, you know, you took your time away from your business to go help her, that economic cost isn’t even being factored in. You know, so it is it is very, very much a snowball. Like I know about Bredesen
Differences in Dementia Prevention Approaches
[21:28] and some of these other people. How different is what you guys are doing to some of those very expensive other people out there? Well, I think one thing is, and which I would never, ever want to say anything bad about Dale Bredesen’s program. No, no, no. We’re not either. That’s not what it is. Yeah, no, you didn’t. I just want to preface that because that’s where I started. All of my research was reading his books and looked into his protocols. And hopefully one day I will actually do his program and become one of his providers. But I think what is different right now is the simplicity. complexity.
[22:07] And I think that to me, especially for our patients in Louisiana, I mean, and I really think throughout the country, honestly, we’ve got to make it simple. We’ve got to make it really affordable, efficient, and simple if we’re really going to make a huge impact to the masses. And that’s one of the biggest differences I see. Well, and I love that he has the accountability, you know with it so that’s what Vitalop is reaching out and adding to adding to our services is that we providing the information for people but you know giving you the information of how you can reduce your risk for dementia is great but will you utilize it right we want to have that accountability aspect.
[22:50] We’re adding the health coaching aspect to what we’re doing now. So when someone gets this information, they can have that one-on-one time with a health coach that has experience in that area. And I will tell you, people who do not necessarily understand the benefits of coaching, that is eye-opening to me. Because I’m now a dementia coach, background OT, but I work as a dementia coach, and it is vastly different than a healthcare provider. That coaching component of it is truly, truly the thing that facilitates the taking action on the strategy. Like you said, you know, you can, you can know the information, but if you don’t actually do anything with the information, I, when I meet with people, I tell, like, I do a lot of presentations and I’ll tell people you can find everything that I just told you on the internet for free, but it’s not going to do you a bit of good.
[23:59] At all. Because you don’t have somebody who’s holding you accountable, who is actually there with you. Because what I’ve realized as I’ve gotten out of the healthcare field, the OT side and the thinking, the way a healthcare provider is taught to think, is that caregiving and health wellness is 100% what you think about it. Yeah. I mean, I think we talk about a lot is Because health coaches are kind of that missing, another missing piece. It’s like, I was a nurse, the doctor, the front staff, like everybody is vital, but we are not including the health coaches in this system enough. They’ve got to really be, Alicia wants to put one in every doctor’s office. Every doctor’s office. I want one in every doctor’s office.
[24:47] Well, that’s why my patients were so successful is because I was their coach and they saw me on a weekly basis. I would have patients that after a couple of weeks saw amazing results and they would think they could do it on their own, which they could. Anybody can do it if you put your mind to it, right? But they had not had that mindset change completely yet. And they would come back in a month or two saying, oh, I need you. I’m like, I know that’s what I’m here for. Come on, let’s do this. You know, and it’s just hard, especially in the life and the world that we live in, right? The world out here makes it very, very easy to be unhealthy. But we have to have more control of our own environment. And we can do that. But you have to be headstrong and say, They look, this is the way it’s going to be in my life. And the more demand that there is for dementia prevention health coaches, the more they grow. That’s what we’re trying to like open people’s mind to this concept and be like, oh, my gosh, do y’all understand how much benefit we could get from a dementia
The Role of Health Coaches in Dementia Prevention
[25:39] prevention plan and a health coach to help you implement it? I mean, it could be wonderful. Life changing. Oh, it absolutely. I mean, it truly can be life altering.
[25:52] Are you a Christian dementia caregiver struggling to cope? Does dementia caregiving really need to be this hard? I invite you to join our free monthly Ask the Dementia Coach meetup. Get personalized guidance and support from me, a pastor’s wife, occupational therapist, and Christian dementia coach. By blending evidence-based strategies with Christian principles, you can radically improve your caregiving experience. Register now for our next session of Ask the Dementia Coach. We limit registrations, so don’t miss out. Sign up today.
Empowering Caregivers: Taking Action Now
[26:38] So what can caregivers do now? Like people listening to the podcast who are in the midst of it themselves. Like probably some of it, you know, the boat might’ve sailed for the person that they’re taking care of. But most of the people who listen to me are probably between the ages of 40, early forties to 65, right? Well, yeah, there’s a couple of different ways we could approach this. I mean, I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you right now, when, when these caregivers are taking care of these patients and family members, you know, they feel out of control, right? They have no control over this disease and it, and it, we like to be in control, no matter who you are. We just like to be in control of things. And so I would encourage the caregivers to take, take our dementia plan, figure out what they need to do. And it’s not overwhelming if you take these little bitty babies.
Empowering Through Small Changes
[27:37] Take one of the actions and try to make a small change in their life and give them a little bit of control back because that feels good. They might think, oh, I don’t have the time or the energy, but you got to make the time and that control gives you more energy and fulfillment for you because the loss of control and heartbreak, it’s just devastating. And I would say two things. One, so midlife risk factors between the ages of 45 and 65 are huge. And so they’re right in that critical time period and to make the changes and stress, unfortunately, is a risk factor.
[28:15] So they kind of have a double whammy. They’re in that critical time period and they’re under a lot of stress. So a couple of things that I would say is, one, do not be afraid to ask for help and ask for help early. Early and often, and I know they’ve heard that, but what I see many times with my patients as well is they think they can handle it, and they do not see from the outside what it’s doing to them mentally, emotionally, physically. And so they just try to carry this heavy burden until they’re exhausted. So, asking early for help, even if they’re still fully capable, if that patient is still fully capable, this disease is a progressive illness. So, start to reach out to church groups, family members, friends, and say, look, this is what I’m going to be facing. What are you willing to do? Or how can, you know, people want to help. I mean, I want to help.
[29:13] Lots of people want to help, but if you don’t ask, they really don’t know what to do or how they can help. So I would say asking for help early. And if you have to pay for a sitter for a few hours for your self-care, then do that and make it a priority to take care of yourself and ask for help. The other thing is, I don’t know, you know, many times there is resources around the community, but you have to reach out. We have a program here called The Bridge that is for caregivers. I’m sure most communities have it. Do not be afraid to join support groups.
[29:45] I say all the time, I know this is a little bit different, but I could not have gotten through medical school without my friends who were doing the exact same thing with me were there to understand what I was going through and be my support. So support groups are huge. They are going through almost exactly what you were going through. And it can really bring you a lot of peace and just change your perspective a little bit. It may not change the situation, but changing Changing the way you think about the situation can make a big difference. And a lot of times there’s, you know, caregivers that really don’t have access to their, you know, a lot of support at all, whether it be family or, you know, things in the community. It might be their location, whatever. And what I would say to that is we might not can change what’s going on right now because it’s a progressive disease, right? Right. But the more you work on you by taking that little baby still, whatever it may be, can stop, can possibly stop the cycle. Like reducing your risk will help prevent this from being a burden on one of your family members. Correct. Yeah. And so even though we might not can change the current situation because there’s so many loved ones that I hear talking about. I don’t have this. I don’t have this. I don’t, you know, I can’t put this person in, in, in, in a place that’ll help me because it’s so expensive. All the things.
[31:09] But you can make small changes so we don’t keep repeating this necessarily. You know, that’s what we want to stress is if we don’t stop this cycle and increase the amount of, I mean, decrease the risk factors, we’re never going to decrease the number of patients with dementia, right? So we’ve just got to take these little baby steps and we can make a big impact in the future. So something that Mandy said a couple of minutes ago really, really struck me because I did a presentation.
[31:40] Like a two-part series for a church over the last couple of months related to how churches can help people living with dementia and their caregivers. And where I actually started talking to people was that so many people are so afraid of the stigma of dementia that they don’t tell somebody that it’s going on. And it was really interesting because the reason I brought that up was because a lot of people like in my church have somebody who has dementia in their family and they don’t talk about it. They don’t tell other people that somebody has dementia, that they’re a dementia caregiver or whatever. But what happens then is it almost makes this whole cycle that, Alicia, you were talking about worse and worse and worse, because now we’re trying to hide it. The reality of the matter is people can see something’s going on, so we cannot really hide it, but we’re trying to hide it. But all that it does is take that person who’s the care partner and isolate them even further, make their health, their own health even worse and worse. And it just keeps precipitating the cycle that we see.
[32:57] And I too believe, you know, you mentioned 40% of dementias can be prevented. I honestly believe that is the thing that we need to do in order to actually stop this cycle. Yes, some dementia cannot be prevented, but a lot of families that that could impact in a positive way. Right. You know, it’s mind blowing. But and hardly nobody’s talking about that. That’s why this plan is so simple. If people will just take it and utilize it. Right. And I love you bringing up the church aspect because the resources and the love and the ability of a church to make an impact. And I mean, it’s an untapped potential. So you can have dementia prevention groups at your church. Then you can have outreach groups that have sitters ready to, I’ll come sit an hour. You can sit an hour, you know, to help the caregivers to go to the meeting or to help themselves get better. Like, I just feel like it can be a.
[33:57] There’s so much like doing this presentation, and I know we kind of got off topic a little bit, doing this presentation for this church was really eye-opening to me because the first section, I really spoke more about dementia and dementia caregiving and the stigma and how it impacts the caregivers and so on. But the second section, which I did this past Saturday, I talked about making dementia-friendly churches and what the church can do to help people living with dementia. And it was really kind of fun because a woman that I’ve known for probably 16, 17 years, an occupational therapist, we’re both from South Africa. So we know one another real well, you know, so it’s kind of always odd when you’re doing a presentation in front of people that you know. And I asked at the end of the presentation what people found valuable. And she said, I’ve always gone to people and say, let me know what I can do to help you. What I had brought out in the presentation is somebody who is a caregiver, if you ask them that question, cannot tell you what they need. They’re overwhelmed.
Importance of Seeking Help Early
[35:01] They don’t know. You know, I teach my people make a list of things that somebody could do for you. And if they pull out the list and say, here, here’s what you can do. I love that. I think that’s a great idea, actually. She’s like, I now recognize I need to go and say to them, I have the ability to bring you a meal, what day would work, or I can come and sit with so-and-so for two hours on this day. You go do something. It changed her mindset related to how to actually offer assistance instead of the, like I agree, Mandy, people are willing to help. They do not know what to do. And you’ll hear caregivers express over and over again, but I’m isolated and nobody’s helping me. Well, it’s because the caregiver doesn’t know how to ask for help and the people around them don’t know how. What will be helpful. So they kind of just go away. So it’s, it’s like this communication gap between both sides. And if we can teach the caregiver cannot miss, well, I mean, we can teach the caregiver, but that’s going to take time, but we got to teach the people around them to offer the help that will be available to them. So tell me a little bit more about your app, because I’m getting ready to go play around.
[36:23] Okay. Well, you can talk about the app. I’ll I’ll talk about them. Yeah. So, so the app is in both stores, iOS and Android stores, Google Play Store, and it’s $9.99 a month. So $9.99 a month, you can cancel anytime. So that’s a very small price to pay for all the, the guidance and information you can get from there. And all it is, is a user goes on there and answers some medical questions. And depending on your answers, depends on a wellness journey you get set on.
Introduction to Wellness Journey App
[36:53] It’s all video-based or most of it is video-based content.
[36:57] And so what happens is every day you will get pushed content sent to your wellness journey. And so let’s say you have type 2 diabetes or you need to lose weight or you have hypertension. You’ll be on the weight loss journey and you’ll be on the hypertension journey. So there’s different journeys we have preset. And depending on your answers, it pushes specific content, video content to you. The videos are anywhere from two minutes to five minutes long. It’s super simple. And I tell people, whenever you start your journey, make it a habit. You can habit stack whatever other habit you have in the morning. Say it’s getting ready in your bathroom or drinking your coffee. Add this little habit to listen to your daily video. Because I highly encourage it in the morning because it sets the tone for the day, right? Like I said, the world out here is going to make it really easy for us to be unhealthy. healthy. But in the morning, you get Dr. Mandy and Alicia talking about something that pertains to your health and empowering you with this knowledge. It’s going to set a different tone in your mind, which we’re trying to change mindset, right, for the day. So I encourage people to do that. And then there’s also hundreds of recipes on there. We have food lists that you can print out and put on your fridge or take with you that are just guidance on. We have an eat to reverse disease food list, and it’s all whole food based.
[38:18] And then we have a eat to maintain health. So once you get your blood pressure under control or your blood sugars or your weight, you can kind of add certain things back in. And of course, these are an all-inclusive list, right? We’re just trying to provide.
[38:32] And then we have another food list that are things to avoid or to very rarely, you know, have interaction with. And then we have some articles that we’ve written in there. A lot of people don’t necessarily like to listen to a video. They want to read an article. So we’ve just got a bunch of different things. We also have a health record section in there that she loves because as a physician, this is really important.
[38:56] Medical information is fragmented. So I may go to one doctor’s office and then go to another or a hospital system, and those systems don’t talk to each other. And in 2024, that should not be the case. But whatever, we can’t change that. And so, again, it’s not just your responsibility to get healthy. It’s your responsibility to take your information and have it readily available for somebody. So the doctor doesn’t have to spend 30 minutes trying to figure out where’s
Importance of Keeping Medical Information Organized
[39:25] this test and when did you have this last. You can keep all that information within our app and then hit a button and it prints it out and when you go to the doctor you can just hand it to them or email it’s great um so there’s a lot of different you can also send you it’ll also send you reminders like if you have a pap smear that’s due in a year you know you just put in when you had it and say remind me in a year and it’s going to send you a reminder or a water reminder yes or colonoscopy it’s due in five years send me a reminder because I cannot tell you the amount of times we have to spend weeks and weeks trying to track down old reports. And then when we finally get them and they say, oh, well, that actually was due three years ago. But, you know, we’re busy. We can’t remember time, you know, and nobody’s looking out for us in that regard, especially if you’re moving or switching doctors.
[40:15] Or if your doctor’s switching networks. Yeah, that happens a lot. So if you have it in your Vital Op Wellness app and it’s all right there, then it’ll just follow you as you go. Yeah. And you’re truly taking control of your health and wellness, right? It’s all in one place. It’s comprehensive. You can track your, you know, you can track different things like your stumps and your water tanks, stuff like that. So it’s just kind of, like I said, it’s the missing piece to the current medical system. We tried to take what we did in our clinics and just put it into a nap. So instead of having to, well, of course, you still need to go to the doctor, but you use those in between your doctor visits. And instead of having to go sit at Alicia’s office, you can hear her every day on the app. I love it. So do you have like a family plan or are they all individual? It’s all individual at this time because wellness journey is going to be different depending on what they answered.
[41:10] And it is for adults, yeah. Yeah, and it’s for 18 and older. We hope to add a pediatric track at one point, but this is for 18 and older. Well, and the information we have can pertain to anybody, but we targeted 18 and older just because pediatrics can get a little challenging sometimes. Is there a difference between the wellness app and the dementia prevention one? Yes. So that is actually a whole different product. Now, on the app, we’ll have a brain health track as well to mirror the dementia prevention plan.
Overview of Dementia Prevention Plan
[41:43] But the dementia prevention plan is a website. And so you just go to the website, either on your phone or your desktop or laptop, and it’s a one and done type thing. Well, we would like you to take it again if you make changes, but you just pay $24.99 for one plan. And it’s going to take you down about 60 questions and you just click the button and answer it pertaining to your health. And then it’ll immediately give you a it’s about 17 page 17 page report based on your answers of evidence based guidance for each each individual item on there. And that’s where we kind of say someone that’s where a health coach or your physician comes in. it’ll tell you what am I doing right? What do I need to improve?
[42:32] What do I need to talk to my doctor about? And then labs. We haven’t really mentioned that, but it is critical to have not just okay, not just normal, but optimal labs throughout your lifetime. And especially starting in that midlife 45 to 65 year range. To help reduce your risk. Yeah. We want to know if if insulin resistance is occurring, what insulin resistance is. And if you already have blood sugar dysregulation, we want to optimize those and reverse that. We need to make sure our vitamins are in optimal range and look at cholesterol and cholesterol damage and all kinds of different. Well, and the reason why the dementia plan is 17 pages is because we don’t just say, do this. We tell you the rationale. Why are we even talking about this? How does this pertain to brain health anyways, like olive oil. We ask you about olive oil. Do you, do you use olive oil at all? But why do we even care about that with brain health? So we, we want people to know, not just tell you what to do, but know why you’re doing it because it makes it more important. And so we give you the rationale as to why we’re asking this. And then we give you the take actions.
[43:46] So we say, okay, this is why we’re doing it. Now, this is what you should do. And it’s really nice because it’s not just a point in the finger like, okay, you need to do this. But why? When I know the why, it makes it a lot easier. I know the why. I just need to do it now. Yeah, and that’s where that third step comes in. The desire has to be there. Accountability, yeah. So hooking up with, I mean, and I love what you said about the church, like getting in a group where y’all talk every week about, okay, what are we going to talk about this week on dementia prevention? Okay. Let’s talk about sleep apnea. Okay. All right. Who in here is snoring? Who in here is waking up tired? You know, cause we need that blood flow through up to our brains every single night. So if we are not sleeping well and we have sleep apnea and it’s not been diagnosed or treated or reversed, we are harming our brain. So it could just be a simple little zoom group that you and your friends do every week or every, every month to keep that accountability there. Accountability is key. We’re excited about adding the health coaching.
[44:49] To our Vital Op Wellness website. And that website is vitalopwellness.com for everybody listening. But, and that’s where the dementia prevention plan is. And soon we will have access to the health coaches through there too. So that accountability really, really, really is important. How are you envisioning doing the health coaching? So it’s just going to be where, that you can purchase however many visits through our website. It’ll include the app. So in between your health coaching visits, you’ll have that and then a dementia prevention plan and then the one-on-one health coaching and it’ll be telehealth. Oh, I love that. I’m very excited about what you ladies are doing. It’s really, really very exciting. And for people listening, you know, the barrier of entry is very low.
Accessibility and Affordability of Wellness Resources
[45:37] So $25 for a full dementia prevention plan is very reasonable, very accessible. And even $10 a month for a wellness app, I think is, I mean, people spend $10 going to Starbucks. That’s what I’m saying. They spend way more than that on coffee. The average person that goes to coffee spends over $100 a month on coffee. I definitely don’t do that.
[46:03] I did a lot of research on that because I knew that was going to be one of the, you know, things. So we did a lot of research on what people spend more money on and it’s ridiculous.
[46:12] It’s definitely not their health. no no and and i really um you know to something that you said right at the beginning which really struck me about the the fact that people that you show people their social media on their phone is ridiculous like i do social media you know some in trying to repost things that videos and stuff that but i i definitely do not sit on social media as much as as a lot of people do and i’m like where on earth are they doing this you know because i’m telling you the screen time if you have patients who who ever use the excuse i don’t have time ask them to pull out their phone and look at their screen time and it is mind-blowing except for maybe caregivers but i would also say caregivers do it a fair amount too because that is their escape well i guess if they’re just sitting there with the yeah i mean that’s true their way of escaping um the situation and we were we’re um i’m just going to circle back to support groups support groups are vital they are absolutely vital but i also want people to know that not all support groups are created equal absolutely and if you go to a support group that is only the um allowing people to To emotionally vent.
[47:40] It actually is harmful, in my opinion, because what happens is, like you said, you know, it’s mindset. What you believe about caregiving is what your journey is going to be. If you believe dementia is hard, it’s overwhelming, there’s nothing you can do. It’s just if that’s what you believe, that is the result you get. And so I would encourage people to be very careful about Facebook groups.
[48:13] They can be helpful, but they’re verbal vomit. People just go spew their complaints because they feel anonymous and safe. There are good Facebook groups out there, but you have to be discerning. And same thing with the face-to-face support group. If the support group is very negative, then it’s almost more harmful for you to be in that environment because that’s what you then believe your journey is going to be. Well, and let me tell you this too, that goes with medical and health and wellness apps too, right? And I want to let everyone know that Vital Op Wellness is privately funded. We do not take funds from any associations or big companies to preach their message, right? Everything that Vital Op teaches or guides people on is evidence-based information.
[49:10] And we are not swayed by dollar signs. And a couple of things I wanted to add. One, when we were talking about lifestyle change and how hard it could be. I mean, I think for Alicia, I can definitely say this. And then for me too, but I still have kids at home, but me as well. Once you get this framework and this foundation laid down and you learn these things, it’s like not anything you have to think about anymore. Yeah, it’s difficult for me to be unhealthy because the last 10 years I’ve been making healthy choices. So you learn the tools and the tricks as you go out to eat or on trips. All that stuff just becomes second nature. So yes, in the beginning, it can be difficult. You can spend a lot more time shopping and looking at labels and figuring out what to do. But once that groundwork is down and it becomes habit, it’s just who you are. It’s just what you do. Well, and I’d rather spend a little extra time shopping and learning how to be healthy instead of later spending it in the doctor’s office and taking medications and spending my money there. So I tell people- In the hospital. Correct. Hard, hard now, hard now. Yeah, hard now. Pick your hard. Which one do you want to do? Pick your hard. I’d rather invest in my health, because it wasn’t that difficult. I mean, maybe for a few weeks, I was like, oh my gosh, all I think about is food. I’m reading labels. I didn’t read my first label till I was 36 years old, you know, cause I didn’t care.
[50:33] But, but now it’s just my lifestyle. So it’s like getting up and getting dressed in the morning. It’s just a thing, you know? And then the other thing I wanted to mention, you know, of course I want everybody to go take this dementia prevention plan, but you know what, if you don’t, I want to give you a few things to take away. Number one is move more. I don’t know if y’all heard the quote,
Significance of Movement and Exercise
[50:54] sitting is the new smoking, but we do not move enough. We are too sedentary and movement and exercise, resistance training, cardio, all these things do so many great things for our brain. And it is one of the most powerful risk factor reducing things we can do. No supplement, no pill, no anything is as powerful is movement and exercise. And you can walk in circles in your living room. I’ve done it. Yes. So if there is one thing you take away, it would be to move, to move more and to exercise.
Optimizing Blood Pressure and Insulin Resistance
[51:30] And then a couple, I wouldn’t say these are necessarily in order, but optimizing blood pressure. So our targets are too high in medicine and we need to bring those down. And we’re looking at, for most individuals, 120 over 80. Now, as you get older, that can be dangerous because you can increase risk of falls and different things. But if you’re looking at 45 to 65 years old, you want to optimize blood pressure and lower it. Insulin resistance. So it is a epidemic. It is a silent epidemic because so many people do not realize they have that going on. Now, if you already are pre-diabetic or have type 2 diabetes, there’s insulin resistance already going on. You don’t have to look for it. You just need to reverse it. But if you’re unsure, you need to know what insulin resistance is, how to check for it, and all that is in the Dementia Prevention Plan. It is critical to have normal blood sugars throughout your life and normal insulin levels. That’s how metabolically efficient you are. If you have low insulin, your body is using very little energy and very little work to keep your blood sugars normal. We want to be very metabolically efficient throughout life. So movement, blood pressure, know about insulin resistance. And tell them your typical doctor visit doesn’t address insulin resistance. No, no. We’re looking at blood sugars in the traditional system. So you have to go to your doctor and say, this is what I want.
Addressing Hearing Loss for Brain Health
[52:52] To help protect my health. Yep. Yeah. And hearing loss is a big one. And I’ve been really attuned to this lately, not to mention because I busted my eardrum and couldn’t hear for a while and freaked me out. But I started to hear all these people, oh, well, mom can’t hear. And they just think, oh, it’s not a big deal. You must reverse hearing loss. Hearing aid, go to the ear doctor, whatever you need to do, get your hearing checked, get it improved, because a couple of different things. That’s stimulation, so stimulation to our brain. And we don’t realize how much not having our hearing affects our cognition and long-term brain health. And then social interaction is such a huge part of this is we slowly withdraw because we can’t hear.
[53:39] That’s another risk factor. So it is a really big deal and it’s top risk factors for dementia. So there’s many more. I mean, we can’t fix, plug all the holes today, but that’s the other key. there’s not one magic pill. There’s not one magic bullet. It’s not one thing. I don’t think that will ever be the answer.
Multiple Factors for Brain Health
[53:58] It’s, it’s multiple things we’ve got to do. Let’s slowly laying the groundwork one piece at a time with the knowledge, with the accountability and making it a priority. Absolutely. Thank you so much. So for people to reach out vitalopwellness.com, then the app is also vitalopwellness. I know I’m going to go take the dementia prevention intervention assessment. I already know everything that’s wrong. Now it’s a question of reversing what I already know that I need to do. And my husband and I’ve been talking about it for a while and it’s been odd because it really just has been, you know, we downsized and moved so that I could take care of my parents and then start the business. But it just, a change in your routine can either be a good change or a bad change. And it’s just, it was habit stacking the wrong way.
[54:53] We’ve all been there. Oh yeah, for sure. But anyway, so ladies, thank you very much. I really enjoyed this. This has been something I really feel strongly about and I know what I need to do. And so it’s, I’ve already decided now it’s just implementing it again.
[55:11] And yeah, I look Look forward to getting on the app and taking a look. Yes. And after, give us feedback on the next one. Because I mean, we want this to grow and to morph and to optimize it as well. And, you know, things are coming out with biomarkers and polygenic risk scores for dementia. So things are only going to get more accurate and better. And we’re hoping to grow along with that. For sure. Well, I’m definitely going to be looking and then I’m going to be visiting you guys some more. Awesome. We look forward to it.
