Cognitive Decline with Dr. David Bernstein & Michael Parker

Senior Care Show

 Hello and welcome into the Senior Care Show where're to discuss the latest tips and resources for elder and senior care services. Now, each episode of the show will be talking with industry experts and caregivers to bring you some valuable information and insights helping you navigate the complex world of senior care.

Whether you're looking for information on assisted living facilities, in-home care, or other options, we've got you covered. So join us as we explore the sen, the world of senior care, and help you make informed. For yourself and your loved ones. One of our principal members here on the senior care show is Michael Watkins.

Michael is an author, and of course someone who's worked in this field for a while protecting your assets with tax-free long-term care as his book. Tell us a little bit about your book and how you decided to come up with this idea for the senior care show. Michael.

Yeah. So I work in the long-term care space and more importantly, just a, a total retirement planning picture.

Gotcha. But I wanted to write the book to let people know there are different resources that they can tap into, whether they're a veteran. There's ways to move your assets around to, you know, protect yourself against this thing. Right now, we don't know whether or not we're gonna. . Right. Okay. My hope is I die in my sleep next to my wife, , but guess what?

I don't get to choose. Right. So with that being said protecting yourself from with long-term care insurance is a good idea. However, there's so many things in life, you know? Yeah. We can't control and one of. Happens to be our cognitive abilities as we age. And so I've run into a lot of people in the industry and I've invited two guests to join us today that are going to talk to us specifically about cognitive impairment.

Okay.

Are the senior care show. Tell us about these guests that you've brought on.

Well, Dr. Bernstein, Dr. David Bernstein and Michael Parker. There they are, and Dr. Bernstein is a, a retired physician, and Michael Parker has a new, I, I would just call it a Netflix for. , all types of cognitive. This

is really cool what you guys hear about this.

Yeah. Dr. Bernstein, tell us a little bit about your your experience

here. I practiced internal medicine at Geriatrics for 40 years, and then in the final 15 years of that, I started expressing myself through writing and as it relates to retirement and cognitive impairment. There's a lot of things I observed and I, and I talk about and wrote.

and, and so it's exciting for me to be able to share all this stuff all the time. So given this opportunity, I, I would say that, It, it's one of the things that people fear the most in life, that they'll lose some of their cognitive abilities. And, and so I explored that and I came up with five ways in which we can do things to help ourselves and prevent that.

And, and I think it's really important to talk about and, and really the things that are. Common as causes of illness or heart disease, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, cognitive impairment, and, and there are things we can do about it. So I'll just take right off and tell you that sugar and sweets are really hazardous for us.

So I, I tell people to avoid sweets and adjust their eating lifestyle. . A second is I tell people that stress contributes to ch chemical changes in our body. Absolutely. And there are things we can do to reduce our stress. It may require changing jobs or changing employers, but it also requires finding time to meditate or do things that we really enjoy and take our minds off of.

right? Things we don't enjoy. That's an absolute skill for sure. And, and then the third one is get more sweat. Exercise. 30 to 60 minutes a day, five days a week, has been shown to reduce the risk of cognitive decline. And it's also one of the key features that people would benefit from if they're receiving chemotherapy for cancer prevention.

And then their sleep. And in the final years in my practice, I discovered an immense number of patients who had sleep disorders, particularly sleep apnea. And the, the lack of sleep and the lack of rest during that sleep period also contributed to cognitive decline. And lastly, since if anybody's noticed, every one of my items that I've mentioned so far begins with letter S.

So the final one is sex. Now I put sex in my power of five because sex sells. And our generation was brought up that sex cells. So it's there, but it's really about socialization. It's about connections. It's about. And, and I write about it because intimacy or the, the opposite of intimacy is loneliness.

And that's a health hazard. And older adults, as they, they move toward retirement, they lose some of their connections. People die and they find themselves stranded on an island, and that's as hazardous as smoking 15 cigarettes a day or being obese. . So combining those five letters, the five S's in my Power of Five Formula, puts together a structure that people can incorporate into their lives that will contribute to a reduction in the risk for cognitive decline.

And, and I make it re a couple of statements. Number one it's never too early to start this, and it's also never too late. The, the second is that, , you can do a little bit at a time, but it requires intention because it's not gonna knock on your door and show up and say, here I am. I'm here to reduce your risk for dementia or decline.

And the other thing that I really stress is that we're This reduces our risk, but doesn't prevent, right. Nothing's been shown to prevent. I, I will say that I've learned recently that scientists are really exploring the features of what people can do to re in the future. Right? That there'll be some pills or, or some substances that can.

Reset and go back a year. But that's about 10 or 15 years off maybe. So we need to take it into our own hands to reduce our risk. And that's a really important factor of all of this. Dr. David

Bernstein, power Five Life. You can get power five life.com. Also some more information. So that's something that most people fear.

That idea that I'm gonna wake up and maybe I, I I start to realize some, some decline in me. You're saying be proactive

about it. Don't. Exactly, and it's the same thing that Michael talked about, about doing your finances. And, and, and that's probably why this show is gonna be so important because it's a team effort and we have to take our own responsibility for this.

Our healthcare system is not doing as an effective job as we think it should be. We, we spend a lot of money but don't get as much in return. And so it's a disease care. And the healthcare system is dependent upon us and what we can do for ourselves. And so I stress that a lot. It, it's, it's up to ourselves that it, nobody's gonna do it for

us.

We can seek that information [e-mail]. But the whole idea that you're educating yourself, Michael talks a lot about it as well. This is information that doesn't. Come to most folks through ed, their standard education. This is something you've gotta set out to learn on your own. And it's, it's much like educating yourself about finances, educating yourself about your health.

It's just not readily available from a trusted advisor that you can find out. You gotta put some effort into learning this information.

Exactly. E Exactly. And, and, and then incorporate it into your life and make it what I call lifestyle. Mm-hmm. , because it's it, and it may deviate from what everybody else in your family is doing, but you know it's your life and you wanna be able to enjoy it until the last moment.

And then die in your sleep. Well, I think it and, and that's what good healthcare would, good disease management or having a great health span is all about. That's

great. I think if I just told somebody that had a weight issue that, hey, a diet would be healthy for you, that would be some inspiration for them.

But I, if I said that your cognitive health may depend on your being physically healthy, I think that would inspire them quite a bit more.

I would agree. And it's important for all of us to incorporate that in messages no matter where we. What

other information can folks [e-mail]?

There's a great deal of stuff I have on my website. Since my wife is an occupational therapist and certified chef, she publishes healthy recipes. Twice a month I write blogs that encourage people to do just what we talked about. I, I'll stress sweat one month and. Give people some ideas about how they can do it or how they can keep track of what they're doing, because keeping a journal is important or, or keeping track of what you're eating and what your exercise is and how much your sleep is.

And, and I sh highlight the books that I've written and what's coming out next. So there's a wealth of information that I'm happy to have people visit us and. , take part in this process and learn more and more about it and incorporate it into lives. Cause you only get one, right?

You can empower yourself here instead of waiting for something to happen.

You've gotta take it, take it on yourself and learn as much as you can and take advantage of these resources that are provided for you. This, this whole concept that Michael's put together, a kind of like a, a dream team here. Talk a little bit about it, Michael.

Yeah. So just what you said you know, it's not gonna come to you.

You have to seek. and so we felt that, you know, creating the senior care. would it, it is just a great vehicle to bring awareness to people and to help to educate them. And so, you know, just like our guests today you know, in the future we're just gonna have so many thoughtful people that have been there, done that, and understand some of the.

Pitfalls that retirees could be facing. What a great idea. Okay.

This is the senior care show. We've got another guest say, don't we Michael, who's you got? Who's you got over there? Yeah.

Michael Parker is here. And Michael is the, I guess the inventor, or the creator of Throwback Network. And when Michael came to my office and shared this with me, I was absolutely.

Blown away. I mean, it just, it, it's so needed in so many settings. And I'll just let Michael tell us a about his

project, please. Yep. Oh, thank you very much. Throwback again is it's a stream stream independent streaming network that is designed specifically for various levels of cognitive ability.

You're taking a, a platform with now, which now has become very familiar to everybody, which is a streaming platform, whether it be a Netflix or a Hulu, it doesn't matter. That format is taking over the industry. So we thought that the del, the delivery platform for throwback network would be this be the same.

And all the games and exercises that, and entertainment that we've designed is specifically. for that environment. It's conducive to to a digestive pace, I guess you could say, of consumption for them. That is, that is specifically designed for those that can't accept modern media at the pace that it's delivered to us.

You and I, we can all absorb certain television programs at the rate that they're produced now. Right. And they can. Let's just simply put, I love

this concept. It's, it takes, it, it doesn't feel like homework at all. It feels like you're having fun

and that's it. We're taking your past, we're repackaging it.

We're giving you things that build, that take your confidence level for, for people afflicted with dementia, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's it goes away over time because you can't do what you used to. Right? Right. So if we re-deliver them things that they. and things that can help build confidence every day.

So little games, little steps that they can say, Hey, I can do this again. And they can participate in a world where they, some they feel left behind. It's

amazing how music videos, certain things jar your memory and spark kind of a uh, an emotion. You said you've seen it in some of the patients immediately pick up, wake up, all of a sudden they're alive.

They feel like, I I I recall that. And that kind of opens the door to them.

Correct. And the primary example was in 2017, the last time I saw my mother she passed away in 2020 from complications due to. But in 2017, I had a week that I could see her and every day I would go see her and she didn't know who I was.

And it took about a 20 minute dance for her to figure out who I was. And then when that was done, she had a specific inventory of things that she would speak about with me, and she had a readily available list of things to talk about. So the fourth day, I showed up with a collection of DVDs from the Carol Burnett.

and she looked at me no differently than every other day and said, I don't know who you are, right? And I said, well, why don't we watch these? She goes, I don't know who that is. And I said, well, let's just watch. Anyway, so we sat down and sh, we played the DVD and within 45 seconds or so, she put her hand on my shoulder and she said, we watched that when you were little

and it almost took it's like a, it's like a barrel of beer. There's all the grains and everything are at the bottom, and it gets stirred up. And so it stirred the sediment. It created a whole new pathway of conversations. It woke up a completely different set of memories that were just in a different com.

somewhere.

One domino hits the other. Yeah. And then off we go.

And so amazing, that idea laid dormant in me. You know, she passed and I didn't really think much of it. And then my significant other, we were taking a drive and she basically told me, well, wait a minute. You've got something here. Mm-hmm.

let's turn this into something. And January of last year is when we started. conceptualization of this right network and we just kept moving forward and kept plowing through it. And we've developed a list of programming that we think can cover varying degrees of cognitive ability and do so in an environment that's not overwhelming or, and it puts a residence or patients in a position where they can feel accomplishment.

And like you said, just like the Netflix model or a lot of these streaming services. , this is something they can navigate to go through on their own. You, you, a caregiver can do this, even a patient probably. And

when Dr. David Bernstein and I met, one of the emphasis levels that he had was also employee wellness.

Ah, wasn't just the resident. Yeah. Right. Talk a little bit about that. Yeah. And he, again, as, as the medical field becomes more and. Challenging I guess from, because again, we're dealing with a society that's going to double in 20 years. Wow. And the concentration in that age group is gonna cause the requirement for twice as many facilities, for twice as many employees as there are twice as many people that are gonna go into them.

So this whole thing's gonna double and you're going to have to have resources as an owner of a business like. In order to fill the day's, hours with activities, but then where's the employee availability come from, right. Gonna come from? And where's the quality of employee gonna come from? More importantly, and where are, what are we going to do to take care of them, give them tools that they can enjoy along with the resident.

We make happier people that way. Great idea.

So tell us about putting this in ac you, you came up with the idea and you started, what's the first thing you have to do? How do you take on

something like that? Well, and thankfully Dr. Bernstein provided a a very much appreciated recommendation as far as the service and, and, and what it's for.

And his endorsement for our purpose is, is very crucial in people under. that there is a real need for this in that market. So right now we're testing and we're testing in several facilities, and they're assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing. So it's varied. And we're in the stage now where we're seeking funding and we have a representation firm that's helping us get out there so that we can acquire not only the, the finances necessary, but the right finance.

You know, and our intention is to build staffing, build content depth, and do so, so that we can launch in the fourth quarter of this year and be fully available to Florida first. And when we launch in Florida and we make sure that everything is satisfied based on our base platform, we'll go national after that.

Wow. So

exciting, exciting developments. You talked a little about caregivers. It's something many of us don't. , well, it can be hard on the whole family, hard on the people around the patient, hard on those giving 'em care. The idea that you could see some progress or some, you know, them light up a little bit, be very rewarding for a caregiver or a doctor.

I

can imagine. It was wonderful. There was a facility in Clearwater that we have it in, and there is a a prominent cardiothoracic surgeon that is unfortunately now in memory care. And I won't divulge his name out of privacy for him, but, They, he resides in that facility and they pay for additional assistance to be with him every day.

So there's another person that basically follows him everywhere. He goes every step of the way. And the day we installed it, his wife happened to be there. And I have a game called name the actress, and I give 10 actresses, and you have to guess who they are based on the clips that I play. . Well, he was sitting next to me when we played it and he got the first one correct and then his confidence started to grow.

he got the second one correct. His confidence grew even more to where he was verbalizing. His answers louder and louder as time went on and we were done and Charlotte and I were leaving. And his wife, who did not know who we were in respect to what they were watching, she didn't know we made it. She looked at Charlotte and said, thank you.

You had fun today. How

about that? And that's how, again, we talk about the reward of course, for the patient, the caregivers out there, the what a heart on these people, you know, to, to see that kind of thing. It's gotta be heartwarming for them and give them some encouragement to keep

pushing. Correct. Same facility, different game called name the band and their, their staff is dancing with the residents to the songs that are playing.

Yeah. And that's what we. Because in order for this segment of the market to withstand that pressure that's gonna come in the next 20 years, we really need to do exactly what Michael says, exactly what Dr. David Bernstein says, and hopefully a tool like Charlotte and I have developed. Is going to be helpful in that accomplishment.

Dr. Burstein, you've seen that idea of a positive impact lifting up other patients or maybe other caregivers or that kind of thing. It creates a, a ground swell.

Absolutely. I mean, it's so important to do this and find activities that our senior patients with cognitive decline have, because right now we don't have any.

And, and I wanna make a couple additional points. There is science that backs up what Michael was just talking about it. And then there's Dr. Bernstein's personal experience this, this past month with my 98 year old mother-in-law. And I knew to play her music. I knew that she used to sing. And I took my, my, my mobile phone and put it up next to her here and she sang along with Broadway Show Tune.

And she loved it. And I could see her lips. And she did try to sing and she did sing . And, and then I was being a smarty pants with her. And, and I pulled up a, a song, a music piece of music called Saber Dance. And it's orchestral piece. Okay. And I said, do you know this one? And sure enough, she was able to use her tongue and, and, and make the sounds of a.

There was a, in that song and she knew it. I didn't give her any clues. And so the science that shows where that data is stored and Michael's program figures out a way to access that information and, and allow the patient to utilize it. . And so the same science that that has demonstrated, that has been the same science that I used in my formula.

And we relying on science re relying on technological advances such as what Michael came up with, is really an exciting melding of that, those ideas and that

distribution method. Michael, I think that's critical the way you've kind of seen the streaming services become the model that that makes it even a wider

availability.

Yes. That's gonna be able to put this pretty much anywhere people. , that's awesome. And that's what's gonna be important. And with certain medical coverages it'll be not only accessible, but in many cases very affordable. Boy, that

is great news. So if you're somebody out there who has a family member this is something you want to get in touch with as soon as possible.

We wanna be proactive, just like Dr. Bernstein said just part of your health, you know, in terms of nutrition and exercise and doing the right thing. Now we've got all these other tools thanks to these guys up here. We're starting to make chip away a little bit. And then put some new information and some new techniques out there for folks that you could use as tools in this fight.

Michael Watkins, tell us a little bit more your dream team. I love this concept. What else can we look forward to here? We're gonna learn a bunch of things, aren't we?

Oh yeah. We're gonna learn about in-home healthcare how to successfully prepare yourself for this. And yeah, we, we have a lot of, of really cool guests lined up.

We're looking forward to more episodes. I wanna make sure I give

everybody an opportunity to, to make some more points in case I've neglected Dr. Bernstein. Anything you want to in summary talk about today? Well,

it's five things are easy to remember. They all begin with the letter S avoid sweets, avoid stress, get more sleep, sweat and sex.

That it's never too early. So if you're the parents of people who are making these decisions, start early. If you're someone who has dementia in your. start early and be aggressive and learn as much as you can. There's a lot of good research, right. And stuff written. And, and the whole point I think we're talking about today is being proactive and taking the opportunity before things, before the horses out of the barn.

Right. And, and I certainly in my career, tr treated a a lot of people who the horse was out of the barn and there was nothing we could do to get it back. And the contrary was I saw also, I saw people who took great care of themselves and in, in all likelihood, they delayed the onset of their cognitive impairment just by doing that.

So I think that those are important concepts to remember. We could all do something to make ourselves better.

That's right. Michael Parker you've got a lot going on. You've talked a little bit about the timetable for this. Tell us about the future, where we're going. Yeah.

So right now we're in the mode of.

Building content depth as much as possible so that we can expand the network and create as many varied programs either on an entertainment or activity level as well as a therapy level so we can give tools back to the facility that can interact with their residents and patients with. And do so medically appropriate?

Correct. So we're working with speech therapists now to develop content so that they can utilize it in their practice. And then of course our goal is to be streaming live in the fourth quarter of this year. So, exciting. Everything we can do, we're doing.

Michael, anything else? I forgot. Tell me.

Yeah, so I think the listeners can. can gather the importance of being prepared. Right? These are two gentlemen just ha ha have brought to the surface things that I, I don't think the norm, the average person is absolutely is thinking of, and, and I'll, I'll just say this. One of the sweetest love letters that you could write to a spouse or a l loved one is through long-term care.

and it really says, I care as much about you, potential caretakers as I do for myself. So it really takes a, a large burden emotionally and physically and financially right off of your loved ones.

Yeah. Well, I, I tell you what, the senior care show, I can't wait to watch the rest of these episodes. I'm excited to be the host here of the Senior Care Show.

Michael, I wanna thank you for putting this together and I wanna let you close.

Okay. Well thank you so much for watching us and you can go to the website and look at all the show guests there and you'll be able to get in touch with them directly.

It's the senior care show and we're available on the Worldwide Web Senior Care show.net.