Nourishing Memory and Brain Function

By Peggy Buchanan, director of fitness at Vista del Monte Retirement Community

November is Alzheimer’s Awareness Month. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, five million Americans live with the disease with that number expected to triple by 2050. But the good news is, even though it’s the second most feared health condition after cancer, lifestyle choices make a difference in how the condition progresses because our brains have the ability to reorganize by forming new neural connections throughout life in a process called “neuroplasticity.” Here are a few lifestyle tips to digest for preventing and/or reversing cognitive decline.

Read article in full at bloomerboomer.com

Exploring Music & Memory

What is a song you really enjoy, that energizes you and puts you in a good mood?  What is it about that song that has that type of affect on you?  Maybe these are songs to which you play while working out or when driving with the top down.  

I don’t like to dance but with a peppy song with a good beat my feet start tapping and my body may begin to sway, especially if it is one of my favorites like the musical Phantom of the Opera, songs by Michael Jackson or the Top Gun soundtrack.  As we know, music can provide focus.  Relaxing music slows down our breathing, heart rate and blood pressure. But music provides more than that; it can take us back in time and fill us with a wave of emotions.  

As the communications manager for Front Porch, a non-profit offering independent living, assisted living, memory care and care centers, a recent documentary about a therapy program called Music& Memory piqued my interest.

Social worker and educator Dan Cohen, a Baby Boomer, started Music & Memory in 2010 in New York based on a simple premise – how could he continue to enjoy his favorite music if and when he moved into a retirement community?  With his background in social work and computers, he decided to bring iPods to assisted living communities and care centers.  Working with the residents, families and staff, he created personalized playlists for each resident. The result was profound emotional experience for all involved.

In the documentary, Dan explained that the part of the brain that registers music is not usually affected by dementia/Alzheimer’s so it is like a “backdoor into the mind.”  Music provides a stimulus; it activates the areas of the brain that are affected by rhythm, such as, coordination and emotion.  As Dr. Oliver Sacks M.D, neurologist, said, “Music is not separable from emotion … and personal experience. So it is not just a physiological stimulus.  If it works at all, it will call the whole person and many different parts of their brain and the memories and emotions that go with that and this is why … it is so potent.”

The documentary demonstrated many awe inspiring transformations.  A resident named Gil, a military veteran, transformed from agitated to calm with a smile across his face when he started hearing one of his favorite songs.  He would even start singing along to the song.  Henry, a resident, who seemed closed-off and unresponsive, would become energized and passionate when music from his heyday would play.  He would share the joy music gave him and some memories of when he heard that music.  Music opened their worlds again.  It connected them to their true selves with only an iPod, headphones and a personalized playlist of songs that are significant to them.

I started thinking about how some songs have the ability to bring back a specific feeling or memory.  I recently heard “The Rainbow Connection” sung by Kermit the Frog and found myself singing along and feeling a wave of nostalgia.  Songs from the musical Paint Your Wagon bring me back to when my mom would play the tape in the car when I was a child.  It was one of her favorite musicals.  John Lennon’s “Imagine” always reminds me of when I sang it with my class during our eighth-grade graduation.  Some songs have a more negative affect.  Some songs I would not want on a personalized iPod, such as, “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin as I experience a wave of awkward teen experiences since it was always the last song played at our middle-school dances.  But even though “Mad World” by Michael Andrews is somber, I would want it added since I visualize the beautiful choreography I saw arranged to it.  Our lives, in a way, have their own individual soundtracks. 

At Front Porch we believe in the spirit of the individual and nurturing the mind, body and soul.  With the support of the Front Porch Center for Innovation and Wellbeing, I look forward to the Music & Memory program being brought to our memory support communities, which include our award-winning Summer House communities that serve those with Alzheimer’s and related dementias.

What songs would you want on a personalized iPod to spur a wave of emotion and wonderful memories? — Michele Pomerance

CARING Housing Ministries to Co‐Sponsor Homebuilding Project led by Habitat for Humanity

Artist's rendering of the completed Chestnut Homes project.

This summer, about 95 staff from Front Porch partner CARING Housing Ministries will co-sponsor a homebuilding project led by Habitat for Humanity of the San Gabriel Valley in Glendale, CA. This will be the first time staff from CARING Housing Ministries, which manages affordable housing communities in California and Arizona, will undertake a community benefit project of this scope as a team. You can READ MORE about this project here.

My Hero

We all have heroes. Some of our heroes are important people who have changed the world. Others are ordinary people who do extraordinary things or who have touched us in a special way in what they do, say or act. At front Porch many of our heroes are the residents we see and interact with each day.

Please visit the Front Porch web site “Videos” page and click on the My Hero videos or visit the Front Porch You Tube channel to hear and see what makes our heroes so special.

What is Humanly Possible?

In January, Front Porch sent out a rallying cry to its staff -- everyone from it's front line workers to it's management team. It came in the form of a groundbreaking new strategic approach to “innovation with a cause” and greater collaboration -- Humanly Possible.

“When describing what Humanly Possible is, it’s important to first describe what Humanly Possible is not,” said Kari Olson, chief innovation and technology officer for Front Porch. “It’s not a tag line, it’s not a short-term initiative, it’s not the latest fad. This is really something significant and profound that builds on the past history of Front Porch and the spirit of the people in it and is designed to take us to new levels of achievement.”

This bold and transformative commitment is an authentic expression of Front Porch’s passion to create new opportunities and forge new directions. It is an organization-wide focus for “disruptive innovation, strategic development and partnership.” 

Do you want to hear and see more? Visit the Front Porch web site and watch the What is Humanly Possible? video. 

Let Front Porch Help You ... Create Your Own Path

Happy New Year! With 2014 upon us, now is the perfect time to plan for the future. At Front Porch we can help. “Creating Your Path” is a step-by-step tool to help you identify the obstacles that might stand in the way of you living the most fulfilling life possible, and to help you move from where you are today, to where you want to be tomorrow. May 2014 be a productive year – a year during which you Create Your Own Path. Start Here

Share Your Passion! -- These Folks Did ...

At Front Porch we believe in passion, we love passion and encourage everyone to express their passion. It’s a great, healthy way to live. As Front Porch’s director of communications it was my pleasure to organize the very first Front Porch Share Your Passion! Contest this year through my department. In doing so, Front Porch residents, employees, board members and donors were asked to submit a two-minute video or a two-page essay expressing their passion or someone else’s passion that inspired them.

Earlier this year we featured the Share Your Passion! Contest winners on the Front Porch web site. The contest proved so popular that others at Front Porch submitted Share Your Passion! videos after the contest was over. Here are just a few ...

A Passion for Art -- by Julie Weaverling

A Passion for Genieology -- by Tony Teems

Be sure to check back to this blog from time to time for more videos.

— Mike Martinez