March is Brain Month.
All over the world, people like you are thinking about the way their brain works and what can be done to guard against memory loss. You’ve already taken important steps in this direction and below we bring you more quick reminders. You’ll find exercise tips, a video about what Alzheimer’s does to the brain, how brain injury affects memory …. and so much more!
Free Brain Awareness Month events in NZ with Neurological Foundation
Check your area
Enrol in a Brainfit® for Life class
Find a class
Helen asks: Tell me how I can prevent Alzheimer’s.
Helen was exhausted. Not only from caring for her father with AD but also from worry about whether she might get the disease herself. Share Helen’s list with your friends.
Read Dr. Lamont’s advice to Helen.
Can we prevent Alzheimer’s? Recent research says YES!
Read the research
How Alzheimer’s spreads throughout the brain
There are many technical articles written about Alzheimer’s, but this short video is one of the best we have found that explains very simply what happens when the disease occurs. It shows what happens to the different parts of memory.
Watch the video
How do brain Injuries affect memory?
This is a frequently asked question. Here is the link to an excellent Brain Map that tells you about the impact brain injury will have on various areas of the brain.
Brain Map
Looking for a useful gift for yourself or a friend?
Memory Foundation have a number of titles available in hard copy (a book!) or for smartphones, iPad or Kindle
Find a gift
A simple, five-minute, low-impact exercise routine that will keep all of your muscles active.
We’ve repeated this because it proved to be so popular last time. Most of you will be able to do it without looking at the diagrams by now. It works for all ages, all fitness levels and almost all levels of mobility.
Best-ever 5-minute exercise routine
Read about Gillian Eadie and Allison Lamont in NZ Listener:
Stay Sharp for Life
Can you help?
Forwarding this message to other friends will help spread the Healthy Brain message, too. Encourage them to enrol for their free Memory Check.
Don’t forget you can contact us at any time. We are here to help you.
Gillian Eadie MEd, BA, Dip.Tchg, LTCL, Churchill Fellow, HFNZITP
Allison Lamont, PhD (Psychol), MA (Hons), CPsychol (BPS), NZPsS, NZAC, ASSBI, APS
https://brainfit.world
Contact Us
Hi Allison, Gillian
Seeing that March is Brain Awareness month, and you have wonderful tips and tricks about how to do this and that to keep your brain calm in certain situations Don’t get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for what you do. I know because I attended one of your classes years ago.
Here is a puzzle to work out, can I ask for your help to keep my sanity while I still have a little bit left?
Picture this:
1. You wait at the traffic lights in the middle of town to turn green, along with other cars and people chatting calmly away. The next second, whamm, whamm, whamm!!! A person sitting on a Harley and ref his heart out and all of us, my 72 years and all younger and older, some sick, almost climbing out of their cars running to nowhere. You sit back, your neck starting to get red, you can’t hear properly, a siren in your ears. And all gone in a minute, leaving you with all the bad feelings, the deafening sound still in your brain….. what do you do?
2. You sitting in your lounge, soaking up all the natural voices and sounds. So nice, but what is that sound, a chainsaw, a compact hammer? You go out to investigate just in case someone had an accident and you may be of help. No, it is a fire! About a block from your house you see a ball of smoke and this eerie sound. Now the sound changes in towards another area, nearer to your home. People walking past and some on bikes wondering what is the matter! All of a sudden that awful sound comes from the corner of your street towards you! Along with the ball of smoke! A dog ran across the street into a fence, trying to get away. Past your house, you take a video of it, your hands shaking so much because the ball of smoke ( a boy racer) almost hit the girl next door in her car while she was just about to ride of to wherever she planned to go.
Your legs turn to rubber, hands are shaking, try to call the police, no answer. Then the real shock is kicking in…… the girl, cyclist, walker or dog could have been killed. You just sit in front of the desktop, the tears started to come and you can’t stop! Between the tears you try to find the police website, found it and now you have to relive (type) the story, but the first point on the form they ask you to describe the vehicle and registration number!! You cannot type it was a ball of smoke! So there, you leave everything and just cry and relive the incident for ever in your brain.
But wait, there is more!….. you know I can go on forever and I don’t want to bother you with all the detail. All I want is to ask you how do one keep sane in a ‘then’ wonderful and peaceful town in New Zealand?
Can you solve this puzzle please? I will be forever thankful.
Thank you for your time
Regards
Esther
Hello Esther – these are traumatic events that, of course, have had a strong effect on you. The amygdala in your brain responds immediately to such events by trying to protect you; normal processing is halted and you leap straight into fight-flight mode. The cortisol released into your system races round to give you the focus to jump out of the way, leap in to help or whatever is the response you take at the time. Then, when things calm down, it will take some time before the cortisol (adrenalin) level returns to normal. Tears flow, your heart-rate slows and your normal breathing resumes.
You will relive the events for a while but not, thank goodness, forever. Or at least, the recalled memory will not ‘forever’ bring back the strong emotional reaction you had to these two events.
Here is a strategy that Dr Lamont has used with her clients:
After some time has passed, when the bad memory tries to come back, take control and say to yourself – “I’m not going to think about you now – come back at 2pm and I will give you 5 minutes.” Gradually, the impact will lessen and maybe even disappear. Do give it a try?
Thank you Gillian, as I was reading your reply the tears were running off my cheeks. The first incident happened two months ago and the second one a week and a half ago next to my GP’s building. I was so sick with the flu and went for a Covid test. My sister and I went to a wedding in Marlborough Sounds and on our returning back I started to get sick.
You may think that I am a bit of a drama queen, and I tend to think it is becoming reality. The truth is that those incidents was not a once off, this is what we have to put up with on a daily basis. Even the police is becoming ignorant.
Anyway, thank you for listening to me, it was just my way to making you aware of such stresses and strains on the brain can deprive one from having and enjoying a peaceful retirement life. Happy Brain Awareness month.
Esther