BY CINDY PERSKY
What do you do when you are a retired R.N for basically 22 years, a stay at home mom for 25 years, an empty nester, and want to get back into the workforce? I got lucky and became an independent consultant for Beautycounter, a company whose mission is to get safer products into the hands of everyone.
A lover of health and wellness alternatives and a product junkie, this company was right up my alley. As I started cleaning up all aspects of my life, reading everything I could get my eyes on, and listening to brain health podcasts by Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. David Perlmmutter, Shawn Stevenson, and Max Lugavere, I became interested in how to protect my brain.
I then heard Maria Shriver talk at a Beautycounter Leadership Summit and fell in love with her architects of change series and her initiative in The Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement. This got me thinking about my own family background with Alzheimer’s. Both of my grandmothers and my husband’s mother died from the disease, and my father has dementia.
Upon learning that two-thirds of all people afflicted with Alzheimer’s are women–plus the fact that three of my children are girls–I knew I needed to do something to protect my family as well as others.
I decided I was going to be a force for good in the world, an architect of change on a local level, and use my skills as an educator and advocator for more health protective laws. I formed a team of like-minded individuals to help raise money for the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement for research to help find a cure.
Our task force decided to create our own event called Boost Your Brain Power. A local doctor, Carolyn Nemec, a family physician and women’s health specialist, agreed to be our keynote speaker. Her practice at Revati Wellness offers a special program on preventing and reversing Alzheimer’s. Gretchen Spetz, MS, RDN, LD spoke on behalf of food as medicine and the need to consider supplements. Because movement is an important part of Alzheimer’s prevention, the event’s programming incorporated three break-out sessions offering different forms of yoga; one being a guided meditation, followed up by a Q&A session.
Boost Your Brain Power had over 80 participants and raised $6.000! This experience has shown me that people are not only interested in helping to prevent Alzheimer’s from occurring in their own families, but are they are also voices for change, donating their hard-earned dollars to more research. In fact, they also became part of this “architects of change movement.”
I couldn’t be more proud to be able to lead the charge of giving back to WAM, inspiring others to do the same, and helping to fund more research in a field where there is no cure—yet!
Wherever you are, whenever you’re able, you can plan your own event to raise awareness of brain health and benefit The Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement. Click here to learn how.