Like all too many families around the world, Kim Campbell, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) advocate and widow of Grammy Hall of Fame and Award-winning music legend Glen Campbell, knows firsthand both the toll that disease took on her husband and the musical talent that sustained him.

With a combination of video and stories, Ms. Campbell addressed hundreds of academic neurologists and neuroscientists gathered at the Marriott St. Louis Grand for the 144th annual meeting of the American Neurological Association (ANA). Ms. Campbell described the insights gained during her family’s extraordinary journey, as her husband of 34 years defied the limitations of his Alzheimer’s diagnosis by traveling across America on a Farewell Tour, documented in the 2014 documentary “Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me.”

“We started out aiming to do a five-week tour, and I was so afraid that people wouldn’t want to see the show,” Ms. Campbell said. “But it was the opposite. It was completely sold out, standing room only, they were just cheering for him and rooting for him. He was enjoying it so much, making music and being with his family on the road. Instead of five weeks it was a year and a half.” Doctors said that his music and touring probably helped delay the progression of his disease, she added.

Her husband became “childlike” in many ways in the middle stages of his disease, Ms. Campbell said. “Every sunset he saw was the most beautiful sunset he’d ever seen in his life. Every hamburger he ate was the best he’d ever tasted.”

Sometimes, those childlike moments were devastating. Ms. Campbell described a moment on tour in which she stopped Glen from buying an unneeded bottle of Pepto-Bismol at a gift shop. She later discovered that it had been intended as a Mother’s Day present for her, because, he’d said, “Kim loves pink.” When she found out, “It broke my heart in two. I missed a chance for him to show his love for me. I urge caregivers to take the time to find out what your loved one is thinking so that you don’t miss a moment.”

And people with Alzheimer’s can surprise you, Ms. Campbell said. The actress Jane Seymour, who was the executive producer of “I’ll Be Me,” is also a painter. We got Glen into the studio, and he had never painted in his life, and he painted and had a great time. People with Alzheimer’s disease can still learn new things,” she said.

In the late stages of the disease, Glen Campbell lost the ability to understand speech or communicate beyond a few repeated phrases. He became erratic, aggressive and afraid. “I couldn’t drive him anywhere because he would try to jump out of the car while I was driving. He’d panic. It was exhausting. It is so depressing to lose someone you love to this disease.”

Despite being surrounded by their children, caregiving for Glen began to take a noticeable toll on Ms. Campbell’s physical and emotional health. “Forty percent of caregivers die before the person they’re caring for does,” she noted. “It can take years off your life because of the strain, fatigue and depression.” Finally, Glen’s Physician recommended a memory care community in Nashville, where he lived until his death in 2017 at age 81. “I didn’t even know these places existed,” Ms. Campbell said. The community provided the kind of care her husband needed, as well as a community of support for the whole family.

Also therapeutic was the launch of a blog, CareLiving.org, with advice for other caregivers. Since then, Ms. Campbell has established the Kim & Glen Campbell Foundation for the research of music as Medicine; lobbied for additional funding for neurological research at the national level; and became an honorary faculty member of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Erickson School, connecting aging services research with industry leaders. 

Story Courtesy of American Neurological Association and Newswise

The Benefits Of A ‘Thoughtful’ Workout

Running and lifting weights might be a crucial step in helping your body delay the effects of aging, but those exercises may be only part of the story.

In a new article published in Psychological Bulletin, a University of Georgia researcher found that the type of activity you choose may also have an effect on your brain’s response to aging—and, according to the data reviewed, may even help improve your cognitive function.

Philip Tomporowski, co-author and professor of kinesiology in the UGA College of Education, and Caterina Pesce of the University of Rome in Italy researched more than 70 reviews of previous studies comparing the benefits of exercise alone with the benefits of exercise plus some type of cognitive component. They found more improvement among participants when exercise was paired with some type of skill than with exercise alone.

“The people that were in training programs that were more complex performed better on tests of executive function and memory,” compared with tests that only involved exercise, he said. This means that an activity that requires some sort of extra thought or skill while you’re doing it—for example, choreographed dancing, running through an obstacle course, mountain biking or even low-impact activities, such as juggling—can be beneficial not only in that they get you moving, but they also help improve your brain function.

“People navigate a complex world in those activities, and it’s the navigation of your body as you move that we are hypothesizing, that’s influencing how people process information, problem solve and remember things,” he added. “The fundamental factor is the amount of mental engagement that’s in the task.”

This may be an important factor to consider as we age. There’s mounting evidence that our brain slows as we get older, along with declines in muscle and bone health. But if there was a possibility that the activities we choose as we age could help stave off those effects, it may cause some to re-evaluate their exercise routine.

“Right now the recommendation is that you have to do an aerobic activity three days a week, and you want to improve your physical fitness because that changes your brain,” said Tomporowski. “But the data is suggesting that may not be sufficient. There are more and more studies out there that suggest that it takes more than mindlessly exercising on a bicycle or a treadmill.”

The research aligns with an after-school program Tomporowski has championed for several years called PAL, or Physical Activity and Learning, where elementary-age children learn games that require specific skills or problem solving, as well as physical activity. While Tomporowski and his colleagues haven’t evaluated the success of the program on children’s mental functioning, he said similar programs do have the studies to back them up.

Bottom line: it’s not just running or lifting weights—along with doing crossword puzzles—that may slow the aging process. Rather, he said, it’s the combination of the mental and physical activity that seems to hold the most benefit, no matter your age.

“Let’s put the two together and include the process of skill acquisition,” he said. “It sounds simple, but science isn’t always simple.”

Story courtesy of University of Georgia and Newswise