Are you in search of information related to brain health? Do you care for a person with a form of dementia like Alzheimer's, Lewy Body, Vascular, or Frontotemporal? Looking for a way to support someone caring for another with dementia? Then please check out our Brain Health Bulletin! Please feel free to forward this to anyone who may find benefit in receiving it! The Brain Health Bulletin is designed to be your quick reference to the latest information about brain health, dementia research, technology, cultural awareness for effective, inclusive, and compassionate dementia treatment, care partner tools, and more!

1. Brain Health Bulletin
V O L U M E 1 4
From Dementia Care Specialists ADRC Southwest Wisconsin Jan 11, 2023

2. Disclaimer
Reference in this Brain Health Bulletin to any
specific commercial products, processes, or
services, or the use of any trade, firm, or
corporation name is for the information and
convenience of the public, and does not
constitute endorsement, recommendation, or
favoring by the ADRC, or its officers, employees
or agents.

3. Source: https://envhealthcenters.usc.edu/2021/08/new-infographic-impacts-of-air-pollution-on-brain-
health.html
Health Impacts of Climate Change
As people get older, their bodies are less able to compensate for air pollution.
Older adults are more likely to have health conditions that make them more sensitive to
climate hazards like heat and air pollution.
Limited mobility increases risks during extreme weather.
Many medications change the body’s ability to respond to heat.
Source: https://rb.gy/pndaoi

4. Care Daily's Artificially Intelligent Virtual Assistant
Teach it new tricks and give it a new name.
Every solution provider will need a more distributed, more intelligent, more
autonomous computing fabric. One they can use to rapidly build, manage, and
deploy real-world services that feel and act human, under their brand.
Arti helps do just that. By sensing and learning about the physical world through
an ever-expanding list of connected products, Arti establishes baselines and
knows when lifestyle patterns break unexpectedly. What’s more, Arti helps
organize families and teams of professionals to collaborate and care daily for
what matters most. And Arti never sleeps, so you can. In fact, out of Arti is the
first non-drug intervention scientifically published to protect sleep quality and
significantly reduce anxiety in family caregivers!
Arti is built on the world’s most intelligent and patented AI+IoT Platform for
people and physical spaces. Your team can start with Arti, teach it new tricks,
and give it a new name. The Care Daily AI+IoT Platform has been independently
selected, vetted, and commercially launched by the largest brand name
solutions providers in the world.
Source: https://www.caredaily.ai/
Technology

5. Review informational resources and services recommended by LBDA
Find, organize, and coordinate care for themselves and those they care for
Build and securely communicate with a care community of their choosing
Decide what information in the LewyCompass they will share with each
member of their care community
Plan many aspects of their health and caregiving journeys
App to Assist Those Serving a Person with Lewy Body Dementia
The LewyCompass is a care navigation app providing a simple way for those
living with LBD and their care partners to manage daily activities, maintain
complete health records, and create a plan for the care journey directly from
their phone, tablet or computer. LewyCompass provides a complete view of
individual care with everything in one place and the ability to share information
with a chosen group of family, friends and care providers.
LewyCompass benefits those living with LBD and their care partners by giving
them the ability to:
Source: https://rb.gy/aky7jx
Technology

6. Get Set Up
GetSetUp is an online community of people who want to learn new skills,
connect with others and unlock new life experiences. We believe older adults
can do anything when they have the tools to discover, learn and connect.
Source: https://www.getsetup.io/
Technology

7. Research
Updates
Can the AI driving ChatGPT help to detect early signs of Alzheimer's disease?
"The artificial intelligence algorithms behind the chatbot program ChatGPT -- which
has drawn attention for its ability to generate humanlike written responses to some
of the most creative queries -- might one day be able to help doctors detect
Alzheimer's Disease in its early stages. Research recently demonstrated that
OpenAI's GPT-3 program can identify clues from spontaneous speech that are 80%
accurate in predicting the early stages of dementia."
Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain/dementia/
Message from the CEO of Alzheimer's Association:
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted accelerated approval to
lecanemab, brand name Leqembi, for patients confirmed to be in early stage
Alzheimer’s disease. As we shared with you previously, rigorous clinical trials show
this drug can meaningfully change the course of the disease.
This treatment slows disease progression and offers the promise of more time —
more time to participate in their daily lives, live independently, or attend a
graduation, the birth of a grandchild, or other experiences that mean the most to the
person living with the disease.
(Continued on next page)

8. Research
Updates
And many additional treatments are in the pipeline that can continue to move us
forward from this important announcement. That’s important because Leqembi will
only help those in the early stages of the disease; we have much more work to do to
develop treatments when the disease has progressed. This is why we have worked so
tirelessly to advocate for access to effective treatments like Lequembi, and we
should all celebrate this major milestone.
And yet, our celebration is dampened by a painful reality. Medicare has already put in
place unprecedented barriers to access that have never existed for FDA-approved
drugs for any other disease. The result: The only people on Medicare who will have
access to this new drug will be those who can afford to pay for it out of pocket. This is
unacceptable.
The Alzheimer’s Association and the Alzheimer’s Impact Movement have filed a
formal request for Medicare to provide full, unrestricted coverage for FDA-approved
Alzheimer’s treatments. With your help, we have elevated the vital voices of people
living with dementia and will continue to do so in the months ahead.
-Message above from Dr. Pike, CEO of the Alzheimer's Association
on January 6, 2023

9. "Increased anxiety and depression
may not be the only extra challenge
Hispanics face when dealing with
aging, according to Andrea Ochoa
Lopez, a doctoral student at the
University of Houston. Her research
has found that dementia alters the
daily lives of Hispanics much more
than it does the lives of Black or white
patients. And that for Hispanics,
activities of daily living — bathing,
dressing, shopping and paying bills —
may be a better measure of disease
progression than tests of memory
and thinking ability, which may be
subject to cultural bias.
"Cognitive tests are helpful,” she said.
“But they don't tell the whole story.
The way people perform on these
measures is influenced by other
factors, like language, race and
ethnicity.”
In her research she used information
collected by the University of
Michigan Health and Retirement
Study (HRS).
Source:
https://www.aarp.org/health/dementi
a/info-2021/latinos-dementia-
symptoms.html
C U L T U R A L L Y R E S P O N S I V E
R E S O U R C E S

10. Check out The Resilient Caregiver Podcast!
Make sure to subscribe to catch all of our
interviews with amazing experts who can
empower you be resilient during your journey
of caregiving!
Learn more at
https://anchor.fm/theresilientcaregiver

11. Make sure to Like and Follow the
Dementia Care Specialist Page on
Facebook @adrcswwi.dementia! If you
have any friends or clients who would
benefit from getting information about
how to be a resilient caregiver, please
recommend this page to them!

12. Want to let your voice be heard as the State of
Wisconsin prepares its 2024-2028 Dementia Plan?
Attend a listening session on
January 20, 2023 12:30pm-1:30pm
or
February 10, 2023 12:30pm-1:30pm
You can also attend via this Zoom link:
January:
https://gchsd.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcqduuqrz8tGNOmICTU4rGIbJhBu7
rkFowy
February https://gchsd.zoom.us/j/82719370013

16. Questions?
Want a brain wellness check? Reach out
today at
(800) 514-0066
bbeam@gchsd.org
bbiddick@gchsd.org

17. Disclaimer
Reference in this Brain Health Bulletin to any
specific commercial products, processes, or
services, or the use of any trade, firm, or
corporation name is for the information and
convenience of the public, and does not
constitute endorsement, recommendation, or
favoring by the ADRC, or its officers, employees
or agents.