Rhythmic Exercises For Dementia Wellness

Opening Story and Podcast Introduction 0:00

This was a man who had forgotten how to swallow, could no longer chew, who was at the end of his ability for his brain to keep his body functioning. I saw lying there, Antonio. I could see him looking at me, and all of a sudden he's doing these. He's doing the moves right that we had done in class. And he is. They were part of his body, right? And a man who couldn't swallow could dance lying down and dead. And then he died that night. This is doctor talks. Welcome back to this episode of the Reverse Alzheimer's Summit.

I'm your host, doctor Heather Sandison, and I'm delighted to introduce you to Jill Simpson today. She is seniors fitness and healthy aging specialist. She's a woman on a mission to change the way we think about aging. Jill has spent the past decade inspiring and empowering older adults to be their best possible selves selves every age, and then teaching them how to do it. Jill. It's so exciting to have you here. Welcome. Yeah, I'm happy to be here. So first I want you to share with everyone. When when we first met, I was so impressed by just how many people you have interfaced with around healthy exercise.

Safe, healthy exercise as they age.

Jill Simpson's Background in Dance and Senior Fitness 1:29

So can you just give everyone a little bit of a background into your experience? Oh, okay. Well, I was a dancer. I was a professional dancer, and after homeschooling my children, which took up 15 years of my life, I decided to go back to teaching. And I was asked to go back and teach, seniors fitness of all things. And I thought, okay, that sounds good. So I went to do my certification, and I had just started teaching for the city Parks and rec department, and my boss took me into her office and she was like, we have had complaints about you.

And I was like, okay, what have I done? And she said, well, one lady said that she felt things we were moving to the beat of the music, and that's not how a fitness class went that seemed to dance for her. And then of this other person had complained. I made them sweat during their exercise class, and she'd done this class for five years and she'd never sweated. And she wanted to make a formal complaint. And I thought, okay, well, I don't know what to say anyhow, my boss went on to say, that the Alzheimer's Society had contacted her, so she took care of this whole huge district of people, and they were looking at asking her to recommend somebody to, teach a pilot program that they had developed with called minds in Motion.

And she said, you don't seem to be able to do anything inside the box. I think you would be perfect. So she said, I've set up an interview. Go do it. And I met the my supervisor at the Alzheimer's Society, and we were like ten minutes into the conversation and she said, okay, you've got the job, you've got the right attitude. Let's go. So it turned out that there was almost there was a very short timeline when the grant approval. All these things run on grants, right? Had actually been the grant had actually going to approve.

So before the grant, they had spent all this time designing. There were two parts to this program. One was a physical exercise for an hour, and one was a cognitive social engagement, where people sat together in a little room and did activities. And they had spent all this time on the social engagement. And nobody caused by that time. They thought they weren't getting the grant, had put any thought into what they were going to do for a class specifically for people with dementia. So the class went.

It was for people with dementia and a care partner, which was the best thing about it. And they both did the same class simultaneously in the same way, which is great. Anyhow, we got to day one, which was only like five days later after, and my supervisor said, I just want you to know that the Alzheimer's Society, I hate exercise. I love it, and I've never been to an exercise class. I've never exercise, and you are 100% on your own. So just do whatever you do best, right? So I it was a terrible venue.

It was in the basement of this all community center, and it felt like it got down to the morgue level at the hospital or something, right? No natural light. And there were I walked in and there were 15 people with Alzheimer's and 15 care partners and volunteers from the Alzheimer's Society trying to put them through this battery of tests where they were testing strength and cardiovascular capacity and all of this. And it was rather chaotic. And it was really obvious that these people, the people with Alzheimer's, they were not happy about being there.

It was like going and getting tested. It's where you get tested, prodded and poked right when you go to. So there it was. It was a lot of noise and struggle, and I don't want to do this. And I had going on and I'm thinking this is not a good beginning. And there was this one woman, Faye, and she had Tourette's also. So she was peppering the air, constantly swearing and cursing away at everybody was getting super entertaining. So finally the test came on. Or the testing was over. They gathered their statistics beforehand for the grant, and my boss looks at me and she says, well, it's all yours.

Discovering Movement's Impact on Dementia 5:55

I was like, everything I had planned to do in this class just went out the window like I knew nothing was going to work that I had preconceived. So I, I, I just sort of did a wing it routine and I had everybody pull their chairs into this giant circle. So we had we also and I also insisted that the staff from the Alzheimer's Society took the class tips, and this was her first fitness class ever. So we pulled them into a big circle and I dumped her, my music on the iPod, because what I had chosen was not what was going to work and found something.

And I just asked people, I said, there's no right and wrong. I'd do anything in this class. If you're moving here breathing, here's filing. That's good enough for me. But you don't have to do it the same way I do. Whatever. So I turned on this music. I had them sit down, and I did really just simple little movements. And to my surprise, everybody just sort of everybody was able to follow. Right. Whether you were actually some of the people with Alzheimer's did far better following well, than my boss did, actually. And so I thought, oh, that was interesting.

So I upped the ante that okay, well, we'll make this a little more complicated. We'll move more parts of our body. And everybody was able to follow. So I acted again and said, okay, so this is not what I was expecting. But everybody, that visual, everybody was able to translate what I was doing into their body, not not in the same way, but in no class does it work that way. So then I asked them to get up and we put the chairs away. And I found this. I remember this moment distinctly. It was a 1957 to called Ain't Got No Home.

And, I turned up the music really loud and just said, okay, whatever. I do, you guys just follow, right? And just enjoy yourself. And I turned up the music and 15 minutes into the class, they had quit swearing. Everybody quit complaining. And all this anxiety and angst about being there was just totally gone. And people were smiling and they were laughing and I was like, wow, what just happened? Right? So it was a really pivotal moment in my life because I had taken care of my dad, who had Lewy Body, and I had never thought about dancing, and I had never crossed my mind.

I was like, oh, this is a way that I, as a dancer and a fitness instructor, I have a way to communicate with. I can communicate with movement. And so it just grew from there. It was just an amazing moment and I thought, I have to understand more about this. And then I spent a decade studying the brain and how it works and why it doesn't work. So that's the story. How exciting. And so since then, you have really dedicated your career to supporting people with neurodegenerative disease through movement.

So give us a little sense of what the classes that you offer and the different type of people that you work with right now. Covid changed everything. A lot of the programs that I was doing, I worked with, wonderful residential home facility for people, I'm going to say from 20 to 50 that had cognitive issues at birth. So a lot of kids with Down's and cerebral palsy, a lot of them in wheelchairs. And we danced and we drummed and we performed. We would go around the community and perform and I worked with people that I worked for, the Ms.

side, the Parkinson's Society. I did the training with the National Ballet, the dancing with for dancing and with Parkinson's. Yeah, I sort of worked with everybody, but I the fitness for Your Aging Brain, which is my big focus right now, is has two strings. And it started off that it was just it came out of this grant, this grant and this pilot study. My about week for this lady came up to me and Camilla said, I want to tell you something privately. So we went off and she said, something strange is happening to her husband, Johnny, at home.

He had early onset, and had had it since his mid 50s. Early? Yeah, about 65, she said. She said when we go home from class, we have this photo album and I always leave it on the table. Right. And it's sitting in its sitting on the table. And Johnny went home from class a couple of weeks ago when he opened the photo album, and he started talking about the people in the album. And so he said. She said he hasn't remembered or recognized a single person in that album for two years. And so she said every week she would go home and they'd open the album, and she she directed that for a couple of days, right?

And then that that would fade. I thought that was really interesting. And I had a group of people in this Alzheimer's class got together, and they wanted to know what was going to happen to them at the end of the pilot. Right. It was only eight weeks. And so one lady stood up and said, so what are you going to do with us at the end of eight weeks? You can't make us.

COVID Adaptation and Exercise Kits 11:34

That's not fair to make us feel better and then check us out. So along with my boss, she encouraged me to set up a program where they could go. And this was 2014, and a lot of them were with me right until Covid shut us down in 2020. Wow. That went on for quite a while. And then we really embraced zoom and being able to provide fitness classes online. Is that right? Well, what happened when Covid hit? I had a lot of people that I was working with live. I had never taught on zoom before, never recorded, and it was, my gosh, what am I going to do?

So I cut these companies and my suppliers and to give me a super discount, and I made 150 little kits in bags, and I threw them in the trunk of the car, and I went to the parking lot because we weren't allowed to go in and everybody would meet. People thought I was selling illegal hand sanitizer in the beginning because this is like the first three weeks of Covid lockdown. Sorry, everybody had a kiss or those who couldn't do it. I made it out of household items and like two and a half, three weeks after Covid hit, we were doing the classes online.

So I went, I want to talk High-Level. I want everybody to know what's in the kit. And then let's tell them why these kits, why? So what's in the kit? Well, there is there is a dryer ball. I like to know the little spiky, hard kind that we use to help people train their balance. So it stimulates the account. We stimulate the mechanoreceptors, the nerves in your hands and your feet. And then we work on balance. And then I teach them to do this at home. So a lot of people, especially people who might have had chemo, I have trouble with feeling in their limbs.

They said it was extremely helpful. Balance improves demand. Say we work a lot on balance. We have balls that we bounce, we have cones or these funny little things that you can throw a ball and catch in the air. We have big balls, we have weighted balls. They weigh like 2 or 3 pounds, and they're about the size of your hand and you feel like you're insert a Soleil doing. That's right. It's easy to catch, but there's a real sense of accomplishment because of the weight is it hits in your hand. But we have fans, all different kinds of like Theraband that we don't traditionally use in the same way.

We have little rhythm instruments, because when you move tiny, tiny little movements well up your heart rate more and going for a walk, you can up your heart rate sitting on the coach, shaking a little bottle of, with rice and a, you can put your heart rate in a minute and you sit on the couch. Right. And then my favorite item is the dollar store brews that, just the handle out of the bathroom used to be a dollar. It's now up to $1.50. But the best piece of fitness equipment that we have in that market.

So, and we're using it in different ways all the time. If you use something in the same way, your brain has no challenge. So you've got to do everything has to be different. Every class has to be novel. Every class has to be a challenge. I think when I first heard you say, you're dropping these kids off, I was like, okay, what's in their socks? They're still, but yeah, they're they're these props, basically that your use is the exercise and that is helping with what we call. There's another interview here on the Reversing Alzheimer's Summit with Ryan Glatt from the Pacific Neuroscience Institute.

And we're talking about dual task exercises and really diving into the science of why it's important to engage your brain at the same time that you're engaging physically. And it sounds like a lot of your exercises do just that. So tell us what a typical exercise routine with you would be like. Our class would be like with you. Is it 30 minutes? Is it an hour? How does it start? What do you do during it? How does it and then and why? Is there a particular way you've set up classes specifically for people with dementia?

The dementia and the ones specifically for dementia are not really particularly different. The concept from those who are trying to prevent dementia because we all the basic principles are the same. If you do the same thing over and over, your brain goes, I'm going to sleep. And brains to me are like my I remember my teenagers. They they would do the least possible work around my house. My lawn would grow a foot and a half, that they were innately lazy. And your brain is like that. It's conserving energy, right?

So it's going to put it into something else only if it's forced to do it. So there is no typical class. Every day is absolutely different. Sometimes we're working with words as we work with our body, but it's always a combination of physical and cognitive. And you said dual task. So in a class we are multitasking. We might be doing 3 or 4 different things. And most important we are timing it to music. So the rhythm of the music, upping the dopamine in your brain and people, especially with dementia, can follow the music very well.

And they have that sense in, you know, that that rhythm and that music is such a stimulant. So whatever it is, we're always doing it to music, and I try to make it different,

How Brain-Focused Classes Work 17:18

and I try to make it fun so that people want to be there. Right? There's so many great points you have there. I think a lot of people who aren't professionally working in the Alzheimer's space don't realize that music is. And rhythm is one of the last things that a classic Alzheimer's patient will lose. And so at Paramount, we have a resident who's quite progress, but she still knows the words to Jingle Bells. So, so these really familiar rhythms, or especially if there's an emotional attachment, if it was, say, a song played at your wedding or your prom or something that really stood out to you, those will be ingrained and you'll have access to that, either the lyrics or at least a familiarity with the rhythm.

And those memories of those moments might also come back. And then this idea that variety is the name of the game here, right? We want to make it clean it up continually. And then you also encourage people to get involved. We talked about these props and even making the props. Yeah. So if for people online, actually can I just go back and tell you a little story? So you had a gentleman in my Alzheimer's class, and, he was in his mid 90s and he was pretty progressed in terms of Alzheimer's, but he had all these other body health issues, right, as well.

And his daughter, who took came to the class with him every week, called me. He'd been away for a couple weeks and she called me and she said, dad's in hospice. And, would it be possible if you could tell me what some of the music you played in the class was? Because he loved that, and he had been a singer and we always played really boppy, rhythmic music. I said, well, I'll, I'll do better than that. We will bring the class to the hospice. So a bunch of us, I talked to everybody in the class, and a group of us took the music and our class to his room in the hospice.

It was the loudest room in the whole hospice because we had the music cranked up and Tom was there and he was lying in bed. And the minute I turned the music on, this was a man who had forgotten how to swallow. He could no longer chew, who was at the end of his ability for his brain to keep his body functioning. I saw lying there, and tonsil was I mean, I could see him looking at me and all of a sudden he's doing these, he's doing the moves right that we had done in class. And he they were part of his body. Right.

And a man who couldn't swallow could dance lying down in bed. And then he died that night. Oh, we had a lovely class. It was just it was great. What an incredible goodbye. And this idea that it's fun, right? That it's an end in his when he's, like, essentially going in the direction, taking his last breaths that he would find the energy and capacity to join you. But part of that is because it's fun and it's enjoyable, right? So there's motivation to keep coming back. And the other variety is really important.

Consistency is also important. Continuing to lapse is how we get the benefits right. If you show up once, you're not going to get the benefit. And I share this with my patients, I, I say all the time, you know, if doing some online cognitive challenge games, if you're not having fun, skip it. And let's think about something else that you can do that will be fun. What motivates you? Is it the social piece? Is it looking good? Is it the capacity to be able to, you know, do things around the house remain independent?

What is it that motivates you? Let's connect to that and then let's also make it really fun so that you want to be there, because then it's more likely that you're going to continue to show up and get the benefit. So what are the things that you do to make it fun? I'm unabashedly silly. I can I am not totally not self-conscious of what I do, and if I mess up, they love it. If we're if we're tossing the ball and I miss it is the highlight of their class, you know. And that's one thing with the Alzheimer's group watching, they're working in partners or with care partners, right.

So it doesn't have to be 1 to 1. But watching your care partner struggling to do this two creates a lot of laughter. And not I mean, the exercises aren't there's nothing to accomplish. And I make that really clear. There's no right and wrong way. Right. What is important is the process. So we're doing the same exercise. You get it right away. I don't get it. Well, my brain is working harder than yours because you're. We're so aren't and slack off. Mine is still on high alert. Right. And I think part of it too, is people come out feeling the words they made up is brain buzz.

And they say, I wish I'd come out and I'd go, I've got this sort of tingle. It feels like my brain's tingling. And my theory is that primitive man drumming, drumming and music, all of this is part of, you know, you think back to a very tribal culture. There's this drumming music dance that connects people beyond themselves. Right? So that is an important thing, is to connect with others beyond yourself. But then people would say, oh, you know, they go into a trance. Well, I think my interpretation is they didn't have the word neurotransmitters, and it's just this flood of cocktails that are this cocktail and flood of neurotransmitters and chemicals and proteins in your brain.

When you exercise, when you hear the music, all that stimulation, they're at once. And I think they were just having a brain buzz but didn't have a good word for it. That's great. Have fun. Yeah, it sounds like people are often energized by this, right? I think well imagine exercise. Oh, I'm going to be so depleted and so tired after that. They're actually walking out feeling energized. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Engage. How fun. So I want people to understand, you know, if they're doing exercise right now, what are a couple 2 or 3 tips that you can give them to make their exercise basically better for their brain?

I'm hearing drumming and music in here. Is that always part of your your courses your classes or what are your what's what are some of the key things? That is somebody who's maybe not going to work with you would want to incorporate into their routine?

Music, Rhythm, and Dual-Task Exercise 23:58

Well, that's the key thing is the benefit to the brain is the lead follow relationship. Lots of them. It's a research on why dance is so good for your brain as a neuroprotective activity. And not only are we using all parts of our body, but when you're dancing, you're not using them. Symmetrically. My left hand might be doing one thing while my right hand is doing something else, and my feet are doing something else. I'm coordinating it to the music. But where the real benefit comes in is picking up a cue from somebody else turning on the music.

Dancing around your living room is cardiovascular exercise. It is not cognitive exercise. All right. And that needs to be really clear where the benefit is is the quick reaction time. So I'm doing this. You're sitting watching me and you have to go one hand. What is she doing with the other hand. Which hand is she doing it. What do I have. One that was there is mine. Right. And what's she doing? She's doing that. So what's the follow and lead? So interestingly, in ballroom. Ballroom is really good because you've got one partner giving a cue and then you've got the other partner responding to the cue, and the cue is not verbal.

So we're communicating in a different way. I used to teach ballroom. I thought it was an exercise in telling people, teaching people how to communicate in a way that didn't involve words. But tango is one of the best things for your brain. All ballroom dances. And I was like, why would that be? But in a waltz, it's a slow beat and you have on a slow beat to give the cue. And for the person to respond. In tango, it's faster. Dum dum dum, right that it's half the time or less that that person has to respond.

Right? So I teach you in a certain way, and you got to be in position one be later. You got to be there because we're going that direction. Right. So it's subtle. And in a fitness class it's you following me right? Are you? I will have everybody in the class lead sometimes just make make up anything. Tell me what you do in a day. Household thing. So they would say, oh, well, I'm doing the dishes, so we'll turn that into, we'll turn that into a cardio exercise. Right. And everybody will lead in the class.

So it's not always me leading. We follow other people, but it's that relationship between giving it to you and translating that into your body. How neat. Okay, so yeah, not everyone is going to have access to you, but if somebody did want to work with you, they did want to join a fitness class with you. How could they do that? You could certainly go. My website would be a good, easy place to go. And it's just better with fitness. Dot com. Great.com. And if you're interested in fitness for your aging brain.

So I teach you other things as well. So I on better with fitness there is an online seniors exercise program. Everything I do, whether it's fitness for your aging brain, the emphasis is that we exercise to keep our brain healthy enough so that it can keep our body functioning well for as long as possible. So I want people to be their best possible selves at 95 or 100. What do you have to do? Well, you gotta start now, right? Don't wait till you're 94 to decide you want to be set at 90. Thought, so that you can do it.

And then fitness for your aging brain. I have, online YouTube. I have a YouTube channel and no, those are prerecorded classes. People do them at their own time, or groups will do them on their own schedule. And if you just Google fitness for your aging brain or one word aging is spelled Canadian way without any aging fitness for reaching brain, you'll just, you know, pop up as a search and I'll take you to the YouTube channel and there's information, and there'll be a couple of free classes that you can try at home.

So that's that. I sell by subscription, and we're going to do this pilot at Marama. I'm really excited for a live stream dementia the dementias class. Right. And after after we do the pilot and I get all this feedback and tweak and then it will go live as well. How exciting. How fun it is. Just this in age makes so much more accessible. And I really what I applaud you for embracing that, because so many seniors are sometimes isolated by their circumstances, right? They don't have a driver's license anymore or they're quite far.

Maybe there's not something available for miles and miles around. And so having this come into the living room through the TV is just such a great way to make it more accessible. And I hear you really recommending that they do it with a care partner. So to have someone else there with them, are there any other kind of safety issues that come up? You know, I think many people as they age worry about getting exercise because they're afraid they're going to get hurt. How do you prevent that from happening?

Well, that is hard when people are, at a distance. I only recommend the care partner doing it with a care partner

Making Exercise Safe, Fun, and Accessible 29:28

if one partner has Alzheimer's. Okay. The dementia prevention stream that is on YouTube, lots of people do it on their own. I always have notes. This is what you need for the class, and then I'm counseling, reminding them. Look at the floor. You know, look around at the floor. Make sure it's safe. Where's your dog? You know, if you're going to bounce a ball, that dog is thinking you're going to play. You're playing and you're doing that for him. And I've had three people not online, but in their regular life, you know, have major breaks, because they're playing with the dog or some of these dog wrap solution them or, you know, I bet it it just happens.

So that safety. So we set it up in a safe way. I'm using it like I will describe exactly what you need to do. And as we're using equipment I am very very oh I forgot we always have drums and drumsticks too. Lovely and loud and and so I'm always watching. Now on an online class, I can see you on, like on zoom. I can see you, you can see me. And I could go, oh, wait a minute. Prerecorded people have to be cognizant. And I tried to warn them during the class. Hey, have you checked this? Yeah. Good, good. Yeah.

There's, it's such a catch 22, I think, for so many people as they age that they want to go in the direction of, of of, Excuse me. Exercise is an exercise for a healthy brain. And yet there's this fear. And so making it feel safe and accessible. I think is, is a really, great point and something that I'm glad that you're obviously, considering. Is there anything else that people should consider as well? They're looking towards getting more exercise as they age? Well, I think the most important thing is not to buy into our society's message about aging.

So it's a constant bombardment telling us that about what we are not supposed to be able to do. So let me give you an example. My pet peeve drives me crazy. Wrote to the head of this company, a big pharmacy chain across Canada. They just set up a set of 55 plus 55 plus parking stalls, designated parking stalls right in front of the door. So you got the handicaps, parking spots. Those are very handy and useful. And then right, equally distant is the 55 plus. Well, what's that message that messages at 55, you should be concerned that you're unable to walk across a small parking lot.

What we should be doing is we should be taking the seniors parking and sticking it at the far, far end of the parking lot, right? Because as you age, you need to do more. So society says, hey kid, back over your kid 65 retire. All of these things just take life easy. But the reality is we have to work harder to keep our brain active. The world is closing in as soon as you retire, and we need to broaden, And then physically, we need to do more. My son, who's 27, can take a month off of the gym and go back and not notice.

My people take. I like Mike, people in my classes take a week of Christmas off. Last year they took Christmas off. This year they said, can we just do one drop in and between because I felt awful after Christmas, ten days. It was a lot of eating too. But you know, you have to be consistent. You have to do more and you have to do it, above your capacity. You're stretching your capacity, sitting in a chair in a seniors fitness class, sitting down and lifting a 1 pound weight is not going to help you.

Age. I age well, right. You're not going to increase your healthspan and you're not going to increase cardiovascular capacity. So my advice is when you're exercising, find a class that is real exercise. And so many are I. I hate to use the term that I was saying dumb down and patronizing. Right. You know, oh, you should sit in the chair while you exercise. No, I need to be able to stand up because I want to be able to stand there, buy a bungalow. You'll never, you know, and three weeks later, you can't do stairs.

Right? All these messages about what we can't do. And I want people to focus on what they want to be at 95 and what all they can do, because there's no reason at 95, you can't do that. I had this great patient yesterday. She's 87, and she said she always surprises everyone because she can sprint basically up and down the stairs. And she's like, it's because I have stairs in my house. I have snow all day long, my bedrooms upstairs, and the kitchen is downstairs. And she's still cooking very traditional Mexican food for a big extended family.

She's the matriarch and everyone comes to her house and she wants. She's worked her whole life to kind of create this family and this this home, this place where they can gather and have their parties, and she wants to keep it. And that was so motivating for her. And so it was just really sweet and amazing to see how hard she works at it. And I appreciate what you're saying is it's not as easy. Just doing the minimum up is not going to allow us to maintain capacity, maintain ability as we age. We've got to push ourselves and really envision where do we want to be, who do we want to be, and what do we want to be able to do and then put into motion, put into practice these exercises, into these classes, whatever it is, it's going to keep you fit and strong and able.

And, I it's really important what you said about having a reason, going to a fitness class can be I go there because I know what's good for me. Right. Wanting to be my best possible self at 95. Wanting to be nobody have ever asked. You know, I always had people at first class tell me what you what you look like 95. What do you envision? What can you do?

A Powerful Memory-Recovery Story 35:48

Nobody's ever said, oh, I am, I'm in a care facility. You're ready and everybody's taking care of me. I'm unable to do anything. Everybody has this great vision. So when you're exercising, usually tapping into that vision and having a purpose because you are that purpose and all those little incremental gains just reinforce what you can do as opposed to society reinforcing what you can't. All right. Right. This mindset piece is such a such a big component. Well Joe, this has been fantastic. Really really wonderful.

I, I've learned so much from you and I'm so excited to get the pilot program started at Miramar and have you sharing your wisdom and all of this experience with our residents there, but also with everyone who's joined us here on the Reverse Alzheimer's Summit. Is there any other parting gift or words you want to share with our audience? I share a little story, please. Okay, this is probably my most unusual, atypical person in my class. So very early on, right after the Alzheimer's pilot and I was running this fitness for aging brain where people could come out of the pilot.

So it was advertised, in the city, little brochure or whatever has a class for people with Alzheimer's. And this lady walked into the classrooms and handed me this piece of paper, says, this is my registration. And it was and I she was 23 years old. And I thought, what went wrong? So we talked. I said, what brought you here? And she said, I have all the signs of Alzheimer's. And I she had what was, I would say, medically induced dementia. That's my term. I don't know if there is some subculture, but she had had intractable depression as a teenager.

Then she'd come out of that and she'd gone to university. She'd done a degree, she'd gotten honors. She got depressed after the afterwards, and they given her electroshock, shot electro shock therapy, and it had wiped her memory. She showed me her piece of paper. It was her degree. She said, I have no idea what the what I got a degree in, I don't know anything. She couldn't read. She couldn't find the words like he would. And, you know, a couple of minutes to tell me something in a short sentence anyhow.

So she would just sort of I was it she would get overwhelmed so fast and because because we were busy. So I called her just to close their eyes and go into herself, sit there. And when she was ready to come back, she could open her eyes or get up and join the circle. Then about week six, she starts running out of the room like and and she. The expression was like panic, right? I said, wow, I don't know what I've done that's caused her this panic. So after the class, I said, you know, Lucy, what is it?

How can I help you not be overwhelmed? Right. What can I do that will make this work? And she was like, oh no, no, it's not that. She said as I'm moving these movements, they're triggering memories. And I have, I have I'm remembering things. I would have thought I lost forever. And she said, I'm going out of the room. And she ran to the cloakroom, a butter book. And I sit in the cloakroom in the closet, and I write them down before I forget them again. And then she asked me. I was doing a conference in Texas, a workshop for people with PTSD, and she had told me a lot about her life and an abuse of life.

And that, and that's why she had gotten into this psychological state. She said, I want to make a video and I want to tell my story. So that's what we did. And she was just an amazing woman. But the fact that the movement had triggered these memories, that were not that she thought she'd lost forever, know how incredible the power stories look? Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you so much, Jill. This is so exciting, what you're doing. And just really creating accessibility to well informed exercise that's safe and again, accessible is so key and fun the people want to show up for.

Thank you so much for doing the work you're doing and your dedication to those who are struggling. It's it's really inspiring. Well, fulfilling is likewise. Thanks. Thank you for tuning in to Doctor Talks. We hope today's episode has enlightened and inspired you on your path to optimal health. Each day is a new opportunity to make choices but empower your wellbeing. For more insights and strategies, subscribe to our podcast and visit our website.www.drtalks.com. Stay connected, stay healthy and join us next time on Doctor Talks.

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