The Brain Health Doctor: Do This To Reduce Your Risk Of Dementia!

30:08And that's really important because toxins interfere with your brain's ability to function well. It's very vulnerable to toxins, but it's also very vulnerable to beta amyloid, which is one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. And that is cleared at nighttime when you sleep. Sleep, prioritize it. So important. Let me ask you something. How important is napping? OK, so napping is really, really interesting. OK, we definitely are what's called diurnal. You know, we have a dip mid-afternoon when we would like to nap. Okay. So that's what we did naturally. I think the thing is, napping is good.

30:47You must do it strategically, however. Yes. Okay. So don't nap too late. Yes. So it affects your sleep. It affects your sleep at night. Right. Because it will, you know, decrease the chemical signals that tell you to go to sleep. However, napping strategically is very important. And, you know, if you feel like a nap every day, go for that nap every day.

31:13Basically, an important thing is the timing of when you take your nap, but also the duration. How long? The duration. Yeah. So, you know this. So, basically, no more than 15 minutes. And if you're going more than 15 minutes, then you need to go for 90 minutes. Right? Oh, my God. Fascinating. If you wake up in between those two times, you wake up sleep drunk and you feel really, really awful. So some people who say to me, oh, I can't nap. I can't nap. I just feel awful. And I say, well, that's because you're doing it for the wrong amount of time. Yeah. So 15 minutes can be enough. And that's why that, you know, the drink driving.

31:4715 minutes would be my favorite. I do a 10 minute. When I'm writing a book mid-afternoon, I go, oh, God. Set me long. I don't even. Do you set me long? I actually don't even really have to. kind of just after the kind of 10 minutes, you know, or else I switch an activity or else I'll go out and do some gardening. Because if you change an activity, that can give your brain a rest as well. And so, yes. So that's it. Yeah. So 90 minutes is a full sleep cycle. So you can wake up refreshed or 15 minutes and you can, you know, sleep debt, you have to repay it. So if you've lost sleep, you know, that's what I say to people, nap strategically.

32:27You know, if you know you're going to be without sleep or you're going to have a late night have a little nap before you go out and schedule a nap kind of the next day or or vice versa but yeah sleep is critical um it's just really really important and i mean that's a thing then in menopause when you talk about menopause and brain yeah and brain fog i had perimenopause was just hardly ever slept through the night yeah yeah and that's so that's so that's how um mainly the the impact you know what we see the symptoms we see from menopause are to do with um estrogen uh you know dropping but um progesterone plays a role in that it disrupts our sleep but also progesterone ordinarily um uh supports GABA release it it makes us calm and less anxious and so we become more anxious so So, you know, the contributing factors to brain fog are, the lifestyle contributing factors to brain fog are disrupted sleep, poorly managed chronic stress, poor diet.

33:33What else am I missing? Can I just ask you something just before we move on to the disruptives? Are those the three main things that can help? So exercise. Exercise, social engagement and learning. So they're your activity. And then lifestyle factors are heart health, sleep and looking after your hearing. Age-related hearing increases your risk of developing dementia. Get your hearing tested every year. Say that again. Age-related hearing loss actually is the biggest, is the biggest. This is mega. No, this is mega, folks. Age-related hearing loss accounts, you know, there's 12 modifiable risk factors that I'm going to talk about that add up to 40%.

34:2040 % of all cases of Alzheimer's disease are attributable to those 12 modifiable risk factor. The biggest one is age-related hearing loss. OK, get your hearing tested, protect your hearing. If you work near noise, wear ear defenders. If you listen to stuff on your earbuds, turn the volume down. If you're on your own, don't use the earbuds. Listen ordinarily. Get your hearing checked regularly. It really is critical. And if you are prescribed, and let's get rid of the stigma associated with hearing aids. This is the thing, you know, because I think, I know that if and when that happens to me, it's made me feel emotional I will feel embarrassed Oh absolutely and I have written about this in the newspapers in Ireland It's really sad, why do we feel like that?

35:13It will really help us in the future No absolutely, I've tried to figure out I was embarrassed when I was 15 and was I told I needed glasses so you got the pink National Health glasses sort of thing, that's changed now people wear glasses who don't even need them, they wear them for fashion you tried on Mel Robbins glasses. You know, I just got cool for my birthday. I got meta AI. Oh, great. Oh, they're brilliant. Brilliant. But hearing aids are still in that somehow. If a person wears the hearing aid and, you know, they're gone a bit stupid as well. No, they're not. And the thing is, the hearing aids now are, oh, my God, you don't see them.

35:54And they interact with the apps on your phone and you can turn volume up and down and you can play around with them. The attitude ones are, so we've got lifestyle, physical, social, mental. Sorry, that's activity. Lifestyle is heart, sleep, hearing. And then attitude is managed stress. There's nothing wrong with stress. There is nothing wrong with stress. You need the stress response to reach the challenges, to learn new things, to do new things. But it has to be at your stress sweet spot. Poorly managed chronic stress is where we end up in big trouble. because I heard you talking to the guy about the chimp brain because basically what happens is when stress is poorly managed and chronic, it enhances neuroplasticity in your amygdala, which is your fear centre, and it suppresses it in your frontal lobes.

36:43So ordinarily in a stress situation, the information about the stressor comes to your brain through two routes, a fast route and a slow route. It goes directly to your amygdala, loud noise, jump out of the way without thinking. Got to react quickly. Then the slow route comes through your frontal lobes that have access to all of the information. Yeah. And can send a message then to the amygdala to say false alarm, car back firing or oh shit, there's a gunman over there. You need to prepare to fight, flee or freeze. Don't move. Right. So your frontal lobes are meant to override your amygdala because they have access to all of the information.

37:23When you become chronically, so at the end then there's a feedback loop that says turn off cortisol, we've dealt with the stressor. That gets broken when stress is chronically released. So cortisol is constantly released and what happens is it makes the amygdala stronger. It gets bigger because neuroplasticity is enhanced. Your frontal lobes get weaker and suddenly your amygdala is overriding everything that you do. So you're not thinking rationally. You're reacting reflectively. you are reacting through fear. You're not thinking through your actions. You're not assessing the full situation. And you start to see threat where there is none.

38:01So managing stress is critical. And when I say it suppresses neuroplasticity, that means your brain is shrinking, that part. Similarly, it suppresses neuroplasticity in your hippocampus, which is a part of your brain involved in memory. So it will impact on your memory. So stress impacts on how your brain functions but also the structure it changes the structure on it also which isn't talked about enough too little stress is not good for you if you have too little stress in your life your brain cannot afford to waste energy on brain cells that aren't being used and so through a process called apoptosis it goes around and it clears them away and your brain will shrink also you have got to have just a right amount of stress in your life you've got to be do we know what the right amount of stress is.

38:50Yes, it's different for everybody because for me, you know, for some people going on a roller coaster is just incredible, amazing. It's kind of, oh, not so sure about it. You know, for some people going up on stage and talking or doing something like this, I love it. I love it. I need it. Do you do that? I can't sit down and do nothing. That makes me really stressed. Really stressed. because I start thinking about things and I get that too much energy sort of thing. I think it really is about where, and what I say to people when I give talks is, okay, close your eyes and think for a minute about that feeling that you get in your gut when you're really, really stressed.

39:34Okay, now forget about that. Now close your eyes. Think about that feeling that you get when you're really, really excited about something. What's the difference? I was just going to say it's exactly the same. It's the same. What's the difference? How you've named it. You've named one stress and you've named the other excitement. And that is critical. That's the power of your brain. You have the power to change all those things. And it really is quite simple. It's not easy. There's a difference between simple and easy. It's simple and straightforward. That's how I describe all these things. But it takes work and time and effort.

40:14But if you do, you can then learn. So managing stress and my favourite one, being present in the moment is also kind of good. But my favourite one on the attitude side of things is to have fun, to enjoy life, to smile, to laugh. Laughter is nature's natural stress buster. It actually lowers cortisol levels. It actually does. and also smiling releases endorphins it releases serotonin it lowers your blood pressure it boosts your immune function I've got another brilliant thing about smiling yeah smiling a new age it doesn't matter how old you are you will look beautiful I agree with you when you smile I agree with you smiling is absolutely brilliant and spread the health benefits because it's very hard not to smile back at somebody this is amazing so having fun so often again as we forget to have fun you forget you forget schedule some fun every day in your life wear the outfit yes you know be naughty yes be spicy yes be saucy the other thing that i thought was interesting you said about stress um and about that i was thinking like your your relationship if you're stressed will suffer because everything's struggling.

41:33You'll interpret things correctly. Yeah, and also like love. Irritable, you're more irritable. Being intimate together is affected by stress. You don't want to be intimate for somebody who's more stressed out. I have a headache. And I mean, I mean, you know, I'm really, I have. Yeah, yeah, yeah, really I have. So moving on then to the risk factors for dementia. As I said, 12 modifiable risk factors. If we could eradicate them completely, we could get rid of 40 % of all cases of Alzheimer's disease. There's 50 million people globally have Alzheimer's disease. That would be incredible. We are not going to eradicate all of those.

42:10But we can reduce the numbers and we can on an individual basis be aware of the things that impact your risk for developing dementia and make choices. So a lot of them are related to cardiovascular health. So you mentioned that. smoking low levels of physical exercise type 2 diabetes well that's metabolic and midlife high blood pressure get your blood pressure tested regularly high blood pressure has no symptoms yeah yeah high blood pressure has no symptoms and then you can mitigate that risk then if you you know follow the the lifestyle advice or the medication that you're given it's the same with the hearing loss you're mitigating it by um wearing a hearing aid depression um social isolation um the things you're talking about in terms of like isolation can make you a bit depressed yes um not having fun losing that kind of will social social engagement social engagement but hearing loss right we're not sure exactly why that happens some of it can be that you have a degraded signal coming in uh that's one theory another theory is that the amount of cognitive of resources that you have to put into hearing and understanding is taking it away from memory or somewhere else but another aspect and I suspect it's all three is that when people have hearing loss they don't want to be embarrassed going out and they don't have to keep saying pardon what did you say um and so they start to retreat and isolate and shut down then they get a bit depressed because they're isolated and then they turn to things like drinking more alcohol.

43:49So alcohol is another one. Excess alcohol consumption. But we also know that actually from research, we used to say that moderate alcohol was OK, but actually research shows that people who drink alcohol, people who don't drink alcohol have better cognitive function than people who even drink moderately. Now, that's not talking about Alzheimer's disease. It's just when you test people on cognitive tests, mental tests, those who don't drink alcohol score better than those who even drink a small amount of alcohol. And midlife obesity. That's also a biggie. And I'm very hopeful that drugs like Ozempic and those kind of ones, when they can when they can help people with type 2 diabetes and with obesity, that that will help really reduce the risks.

44:43You know, the amount of people who go on to develop dementia. That's really, really important. Interestingly about midlife obesity, that flips. Okay, in later life, if you are underweight and frail, that becomes a risk. So we've got to keep healthy. You've got to keep exercising like you do. muscle strength is absolutely critical and so too is balance balance exercises I'm I'm always amazed by this so this um so funny I was asked on a shoot the other day to stand on a little box um on one leg yes kick the front leg up and lean backwards oh gosh that's hard and close my eyes and laugh and did you follow um I just I was I was wobbly I was really wobbly and I was like well god why am I finding this so hard and it made me think of all the times that I've read balance on one foot for 45 seconds can you do it with your eyes when I'm giving talks when I talk about that bit I do it on one foot and the reason that's important is when you fall once when you get older you're more likely to fall again and falling predicts decline again for complex reasons too it could be that there's something going on in your cardiovascular system that makes you a bit dizzy and you're falling.

46:00But also when you fall, then people become afraid that they might fall again and they don't go out and they isolate and they overeat or excuse me, whatever to compensate. So they're those risk factors. I do want to talk about caring for people with dementia. Can we just quickly talk about that as well? Because what I love is the three sections in this book. Yes. Which is absolutely amazing. So the self-care section is really good about like how we can look after ourselves that whole first part of the book is for the person who is caring for the person with dementia which is really important yeah you don't look after yourself you can't look after anyone else yeah and and you know don't be acting on guilt you know you are entitled to have a life you are entitled um you know to be you to and that's where the still me in that book comes from too because in some way I think carers end up feeling selfish if they want to do something yeah no self-care is not yeah no no what I say is it's it's it's not selfish it's really good it's so important it's really important um and then the second part of the book makes always makes me a bit I guess because

47:15yeah what I was trying to tell my boyfriend after I'd had the operation was I'm still here but I didn't know how to tell him without him thinking you're just telling me that oh my god but that I'm coming I'm coming back oh my god and every day or every week I'd go I'm back and I'd think I know I said this last week but I'm better than I was last week but I used to think now he just thinks I'm just saying it willy-nilly because it's what I it's what he wants to hear it was really interesting like trying to say I am still in here like I'm yeah and I think that's really challenging for people who have been injured it didn't feel to him like I was.

48:02That you were there? No, he was struggling with that. Like I was different. So, right. Yes. Yes. So this to me, this is immensely powerful. So you weren't just dealing with the aftermath of the actual physical surgery. You were dealing with that trauma of going in thinking you might never come out or that you might come out different. different yeah well what I didn't I knew I'd come out different I knew that there'd be an effect on my short-term memory I just wasn't aware of like quite how massive it could be on my relationship I was thinking like I'd like to go back and give talks to anybody that has the same operation go it could be like this yes and this is what you need to do about it do it you're brilliant yes yes no no no I'd like to do that but I also I also felt that it was a trauma but it was such a gift and I know you're this person that letting go which is the hardest thing I think in the world to do and I'm not really good good at it before I went on into the operating theater was the greatest gift I've ever been given because I have let go of dying really I am not afraid of dying really no really no wow Oh, gosh, that's kind of big, isn't it?

49:26It's kind of big. Such a liberating feeling.

49:33I suppose, like in a way, it's funny, it's in this book actually, I think, that I talk about, you know, people talking about an afterlife. I don't mind. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, believe whatever you want. But I kind of feel, well, if it's the absence, your brain is not there. So there is no suffering. There's no feeling, if you know what I mean. And do you follow any hospice nurses online? No. So they are amazing. So they talk about and they film sometimes at the end of life. People often go like that. Wow. Yeah. And it's like they see someone or something. it is it is it is like you say that you say that about your mum yeah yeah as well yeah about like going to see like people like that it's that it's okay you're going on a journey I think it's yeah I said I told my dad he was going to the best party ever did you know the hearings the last thing to go yes absolutely and it's like yeah you are going to the best part ever like your mum's there your dad's there yeah I think people don't realize the very later stages are very different, very challenging.

50:44I think people with dementia should be out in the community more. There's nothing to be afraid. But this is what I love about this chapter, just bringing it back to the book for a moment. If anybody is out there and they know anybody or they are taking care of anybody, please get this book because this chapter, Still Me, is what everybody needs to read. It is a great and deep understanding of what the person who has dementia is going through and what they are experiencing. And I wish that I'd had this book so much. And the last chapter, which was my absolute favourite. Oh, the last section then is all the things that you do to live well.

51:30So look, people think, I hate when people say, you know, I'd say, how's your parents or whatever? Oh, dad has dementia. he's gone. No, he's not gone. He's in there. You just have to work a little bit harder to find him. He still feels love. He still feels depressed. He still has all of those feelings. You've got to work at it. And it doesn't matter whether they don't know your name or what you did yesterday. They know that if you go in and have a good time with them, they will be happy to see you. If you go in and keep criticising them and reminding what they're missing and all that, they won't want to see you particularly because they know they'll feel bad about themselves.

52:06So they are absolutely still there and it's important to treat them with dignity, with respect. Your father is always your father. They're not a child. It's absolutely critical. You were, oh yes, yes, yes. What I wanted to say there as you were talking about the last chapter. The last chapter is I talk about maximising the good stuff, you know, do as much of the good stuff as you can, minimising the tough stuff. There is tough stuff and there's stuff in there. I don't need anybody to read about it unless they encounter it because you don't want to depress yourself reading it. You may never encounter it.

52:39And then it is really just, you know, it's just maximizing, making the most of what you got, maximizing. The thing is, dementia may steal many things, but they're only stealing aspects of your cognitive function. It might be memory or language or whatever. They do not steal what makes life worth living for all of us. They do not steal the ability to smell a rose, to feel the sun on your face. Yes, to hear music. To hug someone. Yes, physical touch. That's a big one, isn't it? It doesn't. So you can do all those things with your loved one when you have dementia. And you can do it if you're caring for someone with dementia.

53:19And in fact, the thing about dementia is the biggest piece of advice if I was to give anybody caring for someone with dementia is to be present in the moment with the person. Forget about the future. forget what was or what might have been. Just be in the moment and have fun. And I think that's brilliant advice for life, isn't it? Just be in the moment. So interesting because my dad ended up being very much the person that he was when he was a lot. The things that he loved were the same. And yes, the things that my mum loved the same. She loved music. My mum changed. And this is an interesting thing.

53:56And I'm not the only person who has experienced this. My mum and I did not have a great relationship, really, throughout my childhood, my teens. We had a very appropriate relationship. I visited as we should and all that. We were never best friends. No. I always envied people who had a mum who was best friends. Never had that. My mum was very controlling and my mum could also completely withhold her love. So as a child, if I did something that she didn't like, she could not talk to me for six weeks. Oh, like she really just punished, could really withhold.

54:35But when and she also, which is why my family completely fell apart. I think if you're a strong family together, when someone has dementia, you can become stronger and closer. I think if you're fractured and dysfunctional as my family were, it's very hard to get through that dementia journey. And that's why I share that in the book. This is not a book me saying, hey, look what I did caring for dementia. this is a book that I wish I'd had and here's the mistakes I made and here's the things I did that actually kind of worked but I didn't do all perfect stuff and I didn't I cared for mum but I didn't I wasn't able to give up my job to care for my mum I wasn't able you know I was putting my kids through university we had a mortgage this is what happens yes but whatever amount of caring you're doing is still caring for that person and and and it makes a difference but um yeah our our Our family sort of fell apart.

55:23But what was really interesting with mum with dementia was that the dementia took away all those. It took away expectations. It was just we were there in the moment and we were just having fun in the moment, whether it was singing nursery rhymes. It healed you in a weird way. It kind of did. We did. We had, yeah, we had a much, because there was things like, I remember disclosing something to my mum that had happened that an uncle had done. Oh, God's sake, not you as well. Your sister said that. God's sake. And that was it like, do you know? So there was a lot of things, but I do think that when you're in something like that, it can make you realise that actually they don't matter.

56:14This is what matters now. And we had fun and it helped immensely that I had a really supportive husband and also helped immensely that my mother, she had sort of frontal dementia, so she became quite disinhibited. so she just fancied him unashamedly and he would play along and it just made her so happy. My granny fell in love with my husband. Did she? Yeah. It's rich by the tweets actually. It was really funny and she was really apologising for having an affair with him. Oh, I love it. She was like, you're not angry with me and I was like, no, I totally understand. She was like, thank you, thank you.

56:54It was really funny. Oh, that's so lovely. And I think that's a really strong message is you have got to be there in the moment with them, with their reality. Don't say, oh, no, you know, Nana or Gran, you didn't have an affair. It's okay. You know, and I think it's just acknowledge. So my mum would have moments of insight as well. So when mum had delirium in the first instance, that's kind of what accelerated and brought the dementia to core from a urine retract infection. It's really important. If you're older, can I say this? Yeah. This is a message I think. This is really big. Public health services, this would be, oh, this would just make a huge difference to the number of people who accelerate their journey on dementia.

57:37When we get older, we do not, our capacity to mount a temperature is not as good as it was before. A lot of older people think you're not sick unless you have a temperature. You can have a really severe urinary tract infection and not have a temperature. So that's what happened to my mum and thousands like her. Drink, drink, drink, drink water. And often people with dementia have to be reminded to drink and to eat. And my mum loved going into town every day. That was kind of her social thing and mass in the morning time. And she just was peeing all the time. So she said, feck that, I can't even get into town.

58:19So she stopped drinking tea, water, coffee. right so when then your brain becomes dehydrated your brain is a really thirsty organ forget about even if you're older drink drink water water your brain needs water because cytokines gather in your brain and they cause delirium so my mom got acute delirium into hospital and basically you delirium can resolve if you got a severe infection and you got delirium and you're fit and you're strong and you're healthy it may last a couple of days could last longer but it will resolve yes come out if If you have any underlying mild cognitive impairment or are already slightly starting on that journey, delirium will just completely accelerate that.

59:01It's quite frightening. It's very frightening. My granny was in her 90s. She was trying to escape, trying to climb out of a window. It was all consuming. That's what happened to me. My mum, I'd been on the phone to her and she asked me, would I meet you for coffee? And I said, I can't have meetings all day. But I said, tomorrow is Saturday. I'll meet you for coffee. Next thing, I got a phone call from my brother. I have a brother who kind of needed to stay living with my parents. and he rang and he said, can you come quickly? Mum's acting crazy. I said, what are you doing? She's trying to leave the house and she's not dressed.

59:30And then she threw a lamp at him, I think. And, you know, she was really quite challenging to manage. When I got there, she was really, no, I'm going, I'm going, you know, and quite strong. So I told her, yeah, no, no, no. And I had to, I knew I did, because I was working with a geriatric psychiatrist and I went and I said, can't come to the meeting, told him what happened. And he says, that's delirium that's UTI try and get a a urine sample off her if you can and get her to a hospital and she's in a bad way if it's just kind of happened like that and yeah I had to tell I had to tell a little porky I said you know what mum there's a lovely hotel why don't you come over with me and we'll go stay there and we went over to a private hospital and they took her in and she was three days in there and she was going she sang nursery rhymes 24 hours a day and did Irish dancing for three weeks wow but then there was loads of other things But I also as well, here's an interesting thing just to listen to.

1:00:25Just as an aside, one of the times I went in to visit her, she said, they brought me to the top of the house. I think they want me to run the place. They put me in a spaceship and sent me off. Right. And I said, OK, there's something in this, something in this. So I asked the nurse, I said, was mum anywhere today? Oh, yeah, she was brought for an MRI scan. I said, where is that? Oh, it's on the top of the house. So do, these are the kind of things I talk about in the book that as well, if you are living with someone and they're having, you know, and they're trying to figure out sometimes actually what they're talking about.

1:01:00It's truth. Yeah, absolutely. Truth. She was just figuring it out. I want to show you something because my dad had delirium and couldn't really speak for the last six months. Oh, that's tough. But the day before he died, I went to see him and he'd been awful the week before. Yeah. and it is hard at the end I went to see him and he had color in his face and he looked amazing and my very handsome man yeah my mom and my sister were in Australia and I woke them up in the middle of the night and I said we've got to FaceTime dad looks unbelievable he's so good he's singing and he he kind of mumbled at them for a bit but they were like oh wow thank you He looks so good.

1:01:44Yeah. And the next day I got a call in the morning and they said, he's dying. He's going to die today. Yeah. Yeah, they know. So it's amazing, isn't it? And me and Michael went and we were there with my auntie Becca when he went and it was beautiful. It was amazing. How good. But this, I got it on film because I was like, oh, wow, he's really so good. And I thought I'm going to film this. and I put on some music and he was mumbling along and then this happened. Okay.

1:02:21Hello, Daddy. I love you. No, what? I love you. I love you too. Oh! Oh, my God. That was the first thing he'd said in weeks. He smiled. And he looked straight at me. He hadn't looked at me. Oh, that's lovely. That's so lovely. Yeah, and my mum as well, because when you get to the end, I don't think people realise, but it's hard to swallow, start to eat. Yes. You know, they start to drown, you know. It was, you know, and my mother was just bones in the bed. So there is a release, you know, and they keep getting pneumonia and they keep making them better. And I kind of go sometimes, you know what?

1:03:14Yes. Maybe pneumonia is just a kindness of nature to say, you know, to say the end. But my mum, I write about this in the book because, again, it was a big mistake that I made. And this was, mum was well on at this stage. And just out of the blue one day, she just said to me. Sitting in the kitchen and she said, Sabina, why does your dad not come visit me? Then I went, Oh, Mum, Dad's dead. What? When? When? Oh, my God. Oh, Davina, it was awful. And my two sons were sitting there. And there was so many things going on in my head that she was lucid enough, all I kept thinking was she's all this time in this nursing home wondering why her husband hasn't come to visit her number one number two she literally it was grief like you just said there and she cried and cried my kids were in floods of tears the thing that that I think makes me really really adamant that you've got to understand that there's a living, breathing, feeling, loving individual inside that person is that I did everything I could that afternoon to I mean I let her cry and we all cried and we hugged and she made me tell him tell her exactly what had happened so we all had to kind of live through that again and then um I tried to distract her and I distracted her and we did other things and we spoke and so that was a Saturday and so we would take mom out during the day so about nine o 'clock my husband was out playing football actually and And so when he came back, oh, God, Dave, you're not going to believe what happened.

1:05:06It was awful. Our mood was all really low. He brought her back up to the hospital. And when she arrived into the nursing home, you know, they would open the door to the room. And the nurse that she knew, because she'd been living there. Yes. I don't know, maybe two years at that stage, it opened the door. And she said, oh, my God, I can't remember the girl's name. Let's say it was Helen. Oh, my God, Helen, my pat is dead. So she had spent hours in my house. she'd forgotten about it yes playing along I think

1:05:40that with whatever I was saying she remembered but what I'm saying is I don't know that I think she was just maybe she was playing along and I I don't know but it was there I hadn't distracted her from it it was it was there to the forefront a few hours later anyway yes love them love them like you've always loved them and yeah treat them and this is a blueprint and what I love I'm going to finish here yeah but what I love about this book is the simplicity of it I think there are some very wordy weighty tones with language that is um hard to decipher and when you're in this situation of caring for somebody or somebody you love is going into this you just need tools and this is full of them so thank you oh thank you so much another thing I wanted to say and ask you to do just to finish off this amazing interview.

1:06:32Thank you. Oh, thank you for it. It's been lovely. Is to read Still Me to us, please. You read it? No, you read it. Oh, I don't know. Will you read it? Really? Yes. It's so beautiful from you. Well, whatever you want. You wrote this. Yes, I did. For those who care, still me I have dementia

1:07:02and I am still me

1:07:09when I'm confused and frightened hold me close calm my heart and still me I care for you and I am still me When my patience wears thin and I ache to be free, when I wish for you to be you and me to be me, I'll pause, deep breath and let our love still me. Together we walk through fog and stormy sea Bound by our love and the truth that You are still you And I am still me Thank you so much Oh! Do you know, that's your book, isn't it? In a nutshell, you know, chapter one, chapter two It kind of is, really And chapter three Yeah But honestly, let's shout about this a lot Like this is so great. Thank you so much for coming.

1:08:13And actually also loving this. Like what got you here was this. No way. Like, no, but what got me here was manifest. Do you know what I mean? And I like your slightly different take on that. Anyway, all your books are amazing. Thank you. Like everything you've done. I know we were here to talk about Still Me. Yes. But they all are all interrelated. If you like what we've talked about today on this podcast, go forensic on Dr. Sabina Brennan's books and enjoy. I love you. Oh, God. Oh, thank you so much.

1:09:10Thank you.