January 22, 2024 • 54 mins
"A Paradise for Parents" is not your ordinary assisted-living facility. While the past four years have witnessed elder care descend to what can only be described as abusive levels of isolation and neglect, Hal Cranmer, who heads up "A Paradise for Parents'" five locations in Arizona, does things very differently.
We talk about Hal's approach to giving his elderly residents their best possible lives, including a commitment to dietary and exercise regimes that have helped many to improve both physical and mental health. Hal says they've actually had seven residents go back to their own homes because their conditions improved to the point where they no longer needed supportive care.
We talk about the remarkable effects of a low-carb diet and the promise it holds for those struggling with memory issues, and about Hal's partnership with "A Mind for All Seasons", an organization that is doing groundbreaking work to slow cognitive decline.
We also talk about Hal's recent Twitter spat with former US Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who was not happy to hear that "A Paradise for Parents" was not locking down its residents out of fear of a virus.
The elder-care industry could stand to learn a lot from Hal Cranmer.
Links:
A Paradise for Parents (with the Bohemian Rhapsody parody video).
A Mind for All Seasons.
Apollo Health.
The Bredesen Protocol.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the podcast that's all about
solutions.
If you're tired of complainingabout tyranny and you want to
take action to create a freerworld, this is the place for you
.
Join us as we ask what, then,must we do?
All right, I am here today withHal Cranmer.
(00:27):
Hal and his wife are the ownersof a paradise for parents.
I am very excited about this.
I found you on Tom Woods Schoolof Life and then I've seen you
on Twitter and it sounds likewhat you're doing and this is
correct me if I'm wrong, butthis is like.
This is an elder care facility,an elder care home, and I'll
(00:51):
ask you to sort of describeeverything that you do, but it
sounds like you're doing.
You're really doing things yourown way, in a lot of different,
on a lot of different levels,which is very unusual in this
industry.
So welcome to the show, andcould you maybe just start by
(01:11):
telling us what is a paradisefor parents?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Sure, thanks for having me.
I really appreciate it.
So we own my wife and I ownfour assisted living homes in
the greater Phoenix area.
If people know Phoenix they'rein surprise Goodyear and Mesa,
arizona, which are kind ofsuburbs of Phoenix, and they're
(01:36):
basically residential homes thathave been converted into
assisted living facilities.
They're large homes, they'reone story, so people don't have
to go up and down stairs andeach of them are licensed by the
Department of Health Servicesfor 10, up to 10 residents at a
time, and currently we have allof them filled except one.
(01:58):
We have an opening one.
So we basically take care ofelderly people.
What you imagine is assistedliving with basics, but it's in
a residential home rather than abig facility.
People don't have apartments,they have rooms like bedrooms
here, but then they live andinteract like it's a regular
(02:20):
home.
We have usually two, maybethree caregivers, depending on
how much care is needed hereduring the day, and we have one
caregiver who's here at night.
When I got into this industryit really bugged me to see
people sort of being warehoused.
I don't want to disparage thisindustry.
(02:43):
There's an awful lot of reallygood caring people but sort of
the system is it's a bigcompliance industry.
We have to follow a ton ofhealth care regulations, many
very well-intentioned andunderstandable but the emphasis
seems to be on pharmaceuticaldrugs to help our residents.
(03:05):
There doesn't seem to be anyemphasis on hey, we got to
really work on making themhealthy, because it's sort of
the later stages of mostpeople's lives, so it's sort of
let's manage the decline betterand I don't know.
(03:28):
I'm a big believer that God gaveus one life to live and that
every day is precious.
We have the first day, themiddle day or the last day of
your life, and so why not fightfor every one of them?
And so I thought well, it seemslike there's other stuff we can
do and, like I said, martinHealth's very particular about
(03:49):
regulating what medications wegive them, that doctors are
overseeing them, that all safetyprocedures are followed and
doctors' orders are followed,all that kind of stuff.
But there's a lot of lifestylestuff that could help these
people and I'm seeing help thesepeople.
That doesn't really getemphasized.
(04:13):
I mean, everyone wants to seetheir mom participate in
activities, everyone wants tosee their mom be happy and
things like that.
But it's not a requirement.
I don't know how you'd reallymake it a requirement.
I used to call that mandatoryfund with my kids.
But that activity, that movingand things like that helps your
(04:35):
body at any age.
Good food helps your body atany age.
Sunshine, good sleep there's abunch of stuff that can help and
improve the quality of the lifeyou have left, and that's kind
of what we're trying to do here.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
I can just interject there because I've got a
personal story I want to shareAn elderly family member in my
family.
When you say exercise canimprove the quality of your life
, that's an easy thing.
People say that all the time.
I think it actually saved thelife of this family member.
This person had a heart attackand when they went in they got
(05:16):
all the scans and everything andthey were told well, your body
has created these.
What are they called?
Corollary arteries?
Is it corollaries?
Yeah, it's corollary.
It creates its own Corollaryarteries.
No, they're called.
I'm pretty sure they'recorollary arteries.
It's like your body creating itsown bypass.
So you've got a corollaryartery and your body creates
(05:40):
this thing that goes around theblockage.
Yeah, that goes around theblockage.
This person had created threeof these.
No, this person was in their80s, still was in their 80s and
had been doing tai chi andshigong several times a week,
and the doctors said that's whythat activity is what allowed
(06:03):
your body to be strong enough tocreate these corollaries.
I know that's the wrong word.
Now I'll think of what it is.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
But it makes sense what you're saying, that it
creates a bypass around theblockage.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Yeah, yeah.
So it's not trivial to just sayexercise is good for you.
It can actually save your life.
It can actually make you strongenough that you can withstand a
lot of things.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Oh, I totally believe it.
Yeah, I mean, I see peopletransform with exercise, not
just to lose weight, but just itimproves your metabolism and
gets things healing.
Yeah, not just weight.
You're feeling better, yeah.
Yeah, it's not just to make youa new bodybuilder.
(06:48):
It's really good for people.
I mean, my parents are in theeight.
They're eighties and I callthem up and ask them if they're
exercising all the time.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it's one of the most
important things I actually.
I wanted to also ask you,though, because you mentioned
you talked about regulations,and you said that they're really
they're aimed at that.
The focus is getting people inthese homes to be on pharma
solutions.
Can you explain a little bithow that works?
(07:20):
How is it that the regulationsencourage or sort of push people
in that direction?
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Okay, sure.
So everyone who comes in ourhome has a what we call a PCP, a
primary care physician, andeven when they go on hospice
they use the hospice doctors,their PCP, and that physician,
primarily, is just in charge ofadministering medications.
(07:53):
So the regulations really areskewed towards.
How should I say it?
You know there's lots ofregulations around the
medications.
We can't give a resident title,and all without a doctor's
(08:17):
prescription.
Okay, we can't give them skinointment without a doctor's
permission or documentedprescription authority.
You know, anything you canorder off Amazon is doctor
prescribed.
The only thing we can do isnon-alcoholic beverages and food
that we can put in a residentwithout a doctor's prescription.
(08:39):
So, that being said, you know Ioften wonder could a doctor
prescribe heroin, and everyone'sfine with it as long as we're
giving the right dosage?
You know I'm being a littlefacetious, but it's amazing.
You know I've had doctorsprescribe marijuana.
Obviously now that it's legaland no problem from the
Department of Health standpoint,you just have to have the
(09:01):
prescription.
We are looking at someprotocols that have supplements.
So if we, you know, ordervitamin C or something like that
, it has to have a doctor'sprescription.
So everything is geared towardsdon't give them anything
without a doctor's prescription.
Well, that just leads into youknow.
Well, they've got this wrongwith them.
(09:24):
There's a pharmaceuticalsolution to that.
And then when they have a sideeffect from that, Because
another person.
They don't want to like takethem off that medication, so
they prescribe something else toyou know fix the side effect.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And is this because of?
Is this the Department ofHealth that's imposing this?
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Is this your like?
Well, I think it's acombination of, I mean, I think,
the CDC, fda, all the federalgovernment sort of set the
standard of care guidelines.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Right.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
And that flows down to the Department of Health and
then they say, okay, this is howyou do it.
I know that's the case becausewe have to do a bunch of
tuberculosis testing when peoplecome into our homes, do a TB
test, and then we were supposedto do that every year.
Well, the CDC guidance now saysif you know they get an initial
(10:18):
test and they don't show anysymptoms, you know, you just
need to sort of, you don't needto give it to them every year.
Well, as soon as the CDC cameout with that, the Arizona
Department of Health lifted ourrequirement to test them every
year.
And now it becomes we just fillout a form saying they don't
show any symptoms.
(10:39):
So it starts up high and thenit gets blowed down.
The Department of Health sortof puts their own spin on it.
Locally.
We don't really deal with acounty Department of Health, our
city.
We deal with the state prettymuch.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Okay, and that's because of your licensing.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yeah, we're licensed by the state, so we follow the
state regulations.
The only interaction I've everhad with the Maricopa County,
which is our county's Departmentof Health, is they call us to
offer the COVID shots.
Other than that, I've neverdealt with them at all.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Right, okay, okay, the reason I'm interested in
that is that I'm very interestedin the private membership
association model.
I don't know if you're familiarwith that, so my grandmother
was.
So this is something that usedto be very prevalent in America
(11:38):
were private associations, andthey had schools, care
facilities, hospitals and alsojust sort of welfare type
insurance.
They were like fraternityassociations, where you provide
(11:58):
a certain level of insurance orwelfare for members, so if
somebody gets sick or ifsomebody loses their job or
whatever, there's this pool, butit's a voluntary, it's private.
My grandmother was part of onecalled the PEO in the Midwest
and what it was was.
It was an association forwomen's school teachers and they
(12:21):
did a lot of things.
They have a university that'sstill operating.
They funded women's education,but one of the things they did
was if you were a member in goodstanding and you were ready to
go into assisted living, youcould go into any one of their
homes and they were a little bitas you described.
They were not institutional atall, they were actual homes.
(12:41):
The one my grandmother was inwas like this Victorian home in
Nebraska Everyone had a room, itwas nicely appointed,
everything was felt homey, theyate together, and it was because
it was a private membershipassociation.
They were not licensed, theywere not subject to licensing
(13:05):
requirements and health andsafety stuff.
It was within the private realm.
And so I spoke at length withthe woman who was running it at
the time and she described howthey were able to provide an
excellent level of care really,really low ratio of staff to
(13:27):
residents or I should say, highratio of staff to residents,
just amazing care.
We just always felt like shewas very, very well cared for
there, and the director told mea big reason for that is that
we're not subject to a lot ofthe very costly requirements
that we would be if we were alicensed facility.
(13:49):
So I was here.
I didn't know when I firsttalked with you, I didn't know
if you guys were operating as aPMA or if you were licensed, but
it sounds like you're withinthe system, working to do things
your way.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Right.
I think that might be very hardto do.
In Arizona the rules are if youhave more than like two
residents in your homes, youhave to be licensed.
So I mean I'd love to have thatmuch not be inspected.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
I can send you more information about it.
It's oops, you froze up alittle bit there.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
At the present time, and if you hear about that in
Arizona, I'd love to learn moreabout it.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I'll send you some.
Basically, the idea is you'retaking your.
It's no longer a business.
It's not serving the public,it's you know it's kind of like
the part of the associationright.
Right, you're serving membersrather than the public.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I'll send you some information.
How do they fund it?
Do they pay?
From the pool of everyoneputting money in.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Basically, yes.
So that was funded at the timeand the state, the state of
Nebraska, actually did end upcracking down on this.
I think they might have beenable to fight it, but they
didn't.
But at the time when mygrandmother was there, the way
it was funded was when you wereready to go into one of these
(15:23):
homes, you would sell yourproperty Like you had a home.
You would sell your home andthen give a some percentage I'm
guessing a large percentage ofwhat you got for your home to
the association.
They would then invest it and,you know, with their other funds
.
And so basically what ended uphappening was you know, some of
(15:45):
the members you know might havea million dollar house my
grandmother in a small town inNebraska and I think her house,
you know she sold it for likeless than $20,000.
It was, you know it was to keepyou going at a commercial
facility for maybe a few months,but they pooled resources.
I mean, I was kind of amazedthat they were able to do what
(16:07):
they did financially, but therewas that there was, you know,
the contribution that you makeas you when you come in.
And then there were the funds,the membership funds you know
from the organization as a whole.
Again, I'm, I'm.
I look at that as like how canthat possibly be enough?
But it was pretty, prettyamazing.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
I may that you said they I think you said they have
like sort of monthly dues forregular medical care and stuff
like that as well, too right.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
No, I think the dues were just for membership, and so
that would be, you know, pretty.
You know, maybe a hundred ayear or something nothing.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Oh, very low.
Okay, I thought maybe theypooled it like an insurance
thing.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
No, but.
But anyone living in the homes,I think, would again at that
time still had their owninsurance.
So their insurance would coverlike medical things.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
It wouldn't, you know , it wouldn't cover.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Oh, okay, I was thinking like younger families
might use it also to pay thedoctors and things like that.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
No, no, no, no, no no .
Speaker 2 (17:13):
It wasn't like that this is more to get you ready
for an investment early on, toget you ready for what's coming
later.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Um, yes, yes, it really only applied.
That that particular benefitreally only applied when you
were at the stage where you'reready to go into assisted living
.
You didn't get any, any otherbenefit, any.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Okay, because I'd heard of associations of like
lower income people and theythey'd hire a doctor, like a
hundred of them, and just saywe'll pay you a salary, just be
available with one of us getsick, kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah, yeah, and that's what the, that's what the
fraternal associations used todo back in like the 19th century
was.
There was, say, an associationof, you know, I don't know
factory workers or dock workersor something, or or immigrants,
and they would very often theyhad this lodge doctor and the
lodge doctor would serve thatgroup of people.
(18:11):
Might you know?
They might come in once a weekand say, okay, we've got lodge
doctor hours or when can come inand get seen, or whatever.
They would do house calls.
They would, you know there wasa sort of dedicated person and
so you know, the AMA reallycracked down on that.
They.
They started once they sort ofgot a grip on medicine, on
doctors, they started saying, ifyou're going to be, you know,
(18:34):
if you're going to be one of us,you can't be a lodge doctor
anymore, you can't, Wow, yeahyeah, it's a racket, total
racket, total racket.
But anyway, let's get back towhat you're doing.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
That's really interesting stuff.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Yeah, the whole history of that is really
fascinating.
I can, I'll send you.
I'll send you more stuff aboutthat because it's very
interesting.
But so what do you do?
That's different.
How are you able you're upagainst this sort of regulatory
structure that's pushing thepharma model, that really
restricts you know what you cando with your residents.
How do you fight that?
(19:08):
How do you?
How do you?
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Well, it doesn't restrict what you do with your
resident.
It really restricts.
It's very.
It oversees the pharma,suitical aspects of it in great
detail.
What it doesn't do is you knowwhat kind of activities you do?
They don't seem to be.
There's not a real big emphasison what kind of food you serve
(19:32):
them, things like that.
So I mean, their restrictionsare a lot of sort of compliance
stuff.
Do your caregivers have all thecertifications and training they
need?
You know, have you, as yourhouse, been inspected by the
fire department recently?
You know, is there is the foodin the fridge past its
(19:54):
expiration date or not?
Those kind of things.
You know paperwork, compliancekind of stuff.
But in terms of day to day, youknow they come in and check
that the residents seemreasonably healthy and happy.
And that's kind of hard to saybecause you know there's a bunch
of residents that are onhospice or something that you
know might be a week away frompassing away and it's hard to
(20:18):
say, oh, you're abusing them.
You know as well they're prettyclose.
You know, as long as there'snot bruises all over their
bodies, they're probably not.
So, that's every assisted living.
I mean, that's the purpose ofassisted living.
We, they don't like.
Most people don't leaveassisted living alive, put it
that way, right?
(20:39):
You know, if they do, most ofthe time it's because they're
dissatisfied with how theassisted living is treating, and
fortunately I haven't had muchof that at all.
We've kicked some people out,you know, but we have a very low
rate of voluntary peopleleaving, unless we do have a
(21:00):
bunch that left because theywere healthy enough they could
go live on their own at homeagain, which is wonderful.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
They came and got healthier.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
What's that?
Speaker 1 (21:08):
They came to you and they got healthier.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
And they got healthier, exactly so.
So the food, the Department ofHealth their big emphasis on
food is that you have a menuposted that you can show for the
next week what you're going toserve and that you're probably
going to serve that.
And those change because peopleare like I don't want, you know
, steak today or something likethat.
(21:31):
I don't want fish, I don't likefish.
So we we vary.
You know we try to project aweek out but if you know, if
they say no, adjust it.
But they want to see it postedand you know there's no, they
don't check.
On exercise, you know if, if aphysical therapy comes in to our
(21:55):
assisted living home, they'llcheck.
Do you have a prescription forphysical therapy?
They're not checking how thephysical therapist do it.
I'm sure they regulate physicaltherapists or whatever.
So we have like a personaltrainer that comes to our home
and exercises with the residents, you know, ability permitting.
There's a couple of bedboundand you know have serious
(22:17):
dimension, it's not going towork, but as much as we can.
And then we try to do verynutritious food and I've, you
know, done a lot of research,gone through a lot of phases of
different diets and what worksand things like that and sort of
came upon.
A low carb diet seems to be themost healthy diet for lots of
(22:41):
people, including elderly.
Especially.
It's very good for people withcognitive issues.
It was developed for peoplewith epilepsy, so it's already a
brain kind of diet.
And then people with dementiahave a really hard time using
glucose in your brain for energy.
But they can use ketones thatare come up in your body when
(23:06):
you're doing it in a low carbstate and help burn those
ketones for energy.
And having that energy helpsthe brain heal and it has been
shown that the brain can heal,yeah.
So so the big thing is we donutrition, we do exercise.
We have For the dementia stuff.
(23:28):
We have been lately working witha company called a Mind for All
Seasons.
They're located in Idaho andimplementing some cognitive
protocols that help people'smemories improve or at least
decline a lot slower.
We did have one lady who gotback in the normal range for her
(23:51):
memory.
She came to us early on intheir dementia journey and she's
living in an apartment inWashington now.
She moved out in September.
We've seen this can work thatother people are working with.
We do see memory improvement.
We do see improvement in healthoverall.
(24:15):
We see people on diabetes.
We've got one lady here who'soffered diabetes medicine, who's
offered insulin.
Came to us taking a lot ofinsulin.
She doesn't take any anymore.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
That's all diet and exercise.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Diet and exercise.
We get them out in the sun thedementia ones.
There's other protocols we use.
We use some red light therapy,we use saunas.
We have something called audiovisual entrainment, which is a
pair of glasses and a headsetand two little electrodes that
(24:49):
clip on the ears.
It sends different wavelengthsof light and different
wavelength pulses of sound, andsome electrical simulation Was
developed in World War II whenthey first came out with radar.
The guys who were watching thegreen screens with the line
going around for radar werefalling asleep at their screens
(25:11):
a lot.
Once they realized they're notjust lazy, they found that the
wavelengths of light that werecoming out and hitting their
eyes were actually trainingtheir brain to slow down and
relax.
It was putting them to sleep.
This has different wavelengthsof light, either to help you
sleep or to get you excited.
(25:34):
The brain will follow whatthose wavelengths are doing.
There's certain programs thatwork to help relax the brain and
allow it to heal.
We use that as well.
We're trying to do somehyperbaric oxygen therapy, but
it's very difficult logistically.
(25:55):
They're quite a ways away.
We have to sit in the chamberwith them because a lot of the
dementia people don't knowwhat's going on.
They either get veryclaustrophobic in a small
chamber or they want to get upand walk out, and so you have to
sit with them because they haveto wear oxygen masks or
breathing pure oxygen when theydo it.
(26:15):
It's challenging one, but theother therapies seem to be
helping.
We take a lot of blood and do alot of blood work and testing,
because there's a whole lot ofthings that contribute to
dementia that scientists arefinding more and more.
It's not just you get plaquesin your brain and you've got
dementia.
(26:36):
What causes the plaques?
How did they get there?
What can we do to reduce them?
And all this kind of stuffTurns out dementia has three
main components Inflammation,lack of vitamins, minerals and
toxicity.
If you've got a lot of toxinsin your body, it can contribute.
We take a lot of blood work tosee what your levels are.
(26:59):
For each of those things, thiscompany I work with creates a
plan of okay, this is what weneed to do.
Besides the exercise and dietand all that, we have a
supplement program that willhelp boost a lot of those
markers.
Some of those markers can bechanged by diet and exercise.
Some of them might needsupplementation.
(27:20):
We do that.
It's taken me a while but Ifound a doctor who is willing to
prescribe a bunch of those,because there's some stuff like
hormones or big contributor todementia.
We find a lot of people arevery deficient in hormones,
especially at that age.
However, prevailing wisdom isthat if you have a history of
(27:43):
breast cancer or cancer of anykind, giving you hormones might
reactivate that.
A lot of doctors are like Idon't want to touch hormones
because there's a cancer risk.
If you don't have a history ofcancer, there's really
practically no risk if you'vedied.
In the science Interesting it'skind of dependent on well, how
(28:05):
long ago did you have it, whatare the risks, when did you have
it?
There's a bunch of stuff thatgoes into it, but it's still
possible to do some kind ofhormone therapy.
It took me a while I had tofind a doctor who is on board
with all this.
She's actually a nursepractitioner.
She very much helps us with theprescriptions and things like
(28:27):
that.
We stay implying with theDepartment of Health but we're
doing stuff that's not just youknow what Merck and Pfizer
recommend.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Right.
Can I ask you about a specifickind of going out of a tangent
here?
Are you familiar withpro-resolving mediators?
Speaker 2 (28:44):
No, not at all.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
I'll send you information about that too.
So our daughter has a geneticcondition and it results in she
was having seizures.
She's not now, thankfully,partly because of the ketogenic
diet, but one of the things thatreally made a difference for
her cognitively and the reason Ifound out about this was by
talking with a doctor who wasworking with dementia patients
(29:06):
and gave them pro-resolvingmediators.
It's kind of like it's fish oilbased and it's kind of like we
get a lot of fish oil here.
Okay, I'll send you informationabout this.
It's kind of like fish oil onsteroids, but not literal
steroids, but I'll send you somestuff on it.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
One of the big components we look at is the
ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 andsee if we can improve that,
because a lot of people comehere with lots of Omega 6 and
not much Omega 3.
We serve a lot of fish here, alot of salmon, a lot of proteins
, oysters, things like that.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Can I ask you how are you funded, how are your
centers funded?
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Most of my residents are private pay.
Assisted living is kind of atough business because it's part
of medicine that isn't fundedby Medicare.
There's no Medicare thing.
If you want assistance inpaying for assisted living,
there are basically three waysyou can do it.
(30:17):
One is long-term care insurance.
If people bought that when theywere younger, a lot of
insurance companies realizedpeople are living a lot longer
than we were planning on.
They're really cutting back onthat insurance policy.
It's great now because whenthey introduced it it was 20, 30
(30:39):
years ago.
All the people are coming intoassisted living and had it.
I think that's going to declineas companies get out of it or
charge crazy amounts for it.
The other way is if you're aveteran.
The Veterans Administration hasa benefit called aid and
attendance that will pay, Ithink, for the veteran will pay
(31:02):
$2,000 a month.
For the spouse they paysomething like $1,600 a month.
Don't quote me on that, butsomething like that.
They pay it to the family, so Idon't see it.
It's included in the check theywrite me.
You have to be below a certainincome level.
If you're Ross Perot that was aveteran but a mega millionaire
(31:23):
you're not going to be eligiblefor it.
The only other way is beyondMedicaid.
They have Medicaid programs topay for assisted living.
I have two homes that qualifyfor Medicaid.
I'm not a big fan of it becausethey don't pay much.
They have all kinds of rulesthat make it very hard on the
(31:46):
assisted living homeowner.
That is a way, but those aren'tthe people necessarily that I
can do a lot with, because Ijust don't get much funding to
do stuff with them.
Unfortunately, we still getcreative and try but it's not as
good as a full-blown protocolto try to help people with
(32:09):
dementia and stuff.
Their assisted living is prettymuch mostly private pay and
Medicaid is the vast majority.
Lots of people sell their homesor get reverse mortgages or
something to go into assistedliving.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
You got into a Twitter spat recently.
You want to talk about that.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, it was with the SurgeonGeneral of the United States,
and for the ex-surgeon general,he was the Surgeon General under
President Trump.
So he loves to post about masksand vaccines and I'm not a big
(33:02):
fan of either one.
When COVID came through myhomes, the more I read about
masks, the more I realized theydon't really do anything.
So, yeah, we followed all theDepartment of Health rules.
We didn't let people in here,at least until I could, but I
found ways around it.
(33:22):
But we took our residents, wefed them a lot of vitamins, we
put them outside.
This was before any vaccinescame out or anything In the
sunshine.
Now we can do that in Arizonabetter than a lot of other
places.
All of them had mild symptoms.
No one got really sick.
We had people approaching their100th birthday and we're doing,
(33:42):
you know, with all kinds ofissues, and they all survived
just fine.
I had one guy who refused to doany of it, wanted to hide in
his room, for it got pretty sickand we sent him to the hospital
and they put him on aventilator and then actually he
passed away.
But other than that, we hadlike no problem with COVID.
We had COVID come through, butit wasn't.
(34:04):
And I just think you know, themasks, the vaccines, obviously
don't seem to be workinganywhere near how they were
touted.
So one morning he put on or no,it was a Friday night he put on
his Twitter and he drove ninehours to see his mom.
And this is, you know, a weekor two ago we're talking 2020,
end of 2023.
(34:24):
And they turned him awaybecause his mom tested positive
for COVID was having to wear amask and lock the place with
lockdown and I'm like that'sridiculous.
And we just had an outbreak ofCOVID.
Like three or four people gotin one of our homes.
We didn't do a whole lot, youknow.
(34:45):
They kind of stayed in theirroom during the day, but we're a
house so bad to come out andeat and everything.
You know, people who wanted tocould wear a mask if they wanted
, but I'm not enforcing it.
We're like over all that stuff.
So I said we didn't really doanything and in a two or three
weeks everyone was fine and sothat blew up with tons of people
(35:10):
liking it and saying great job,you know, and I did say we did,
you know, feed them nutritiousmeals, did some white exercise,
took them outside, which is whatwe do, regardless if they're
sick or well, and they had awhole bunch of people like you
know.
How dare you neglect them?
(35:31):
And you're going to kill allthese people and everything.
And I'm thinking well, first ofall, they're all supposed to be
vaccinated, so why are youworried, right?
Secondly, you know, no one died, like everyone just got a cold
and got over it.
There's no, you know.
But everyone was saying, oh,you're going to get long COVID
and all that kind of stuff.
Well, no, everyone.
(35:52):
I'm at the house right now,it's fine.
And so then I had, like somepeople, put reviews on my
website, like on Google.
You know this house killed myuncle due to their poor COVID
protocols.
You know they should be suedout of existence and all this
(36:13):
stuff.
So I'd put comments like I'mrecording this to Google.
This person's never been in myhouse before.
And most of them got taken down.
I just got a.
I just got a notification fromthe nursing board, who licenses
me as an assisted living manager, that they have a complaint
from a reporter and that I haveto justify you know my own
(36:36):
professional conduct, so don'tmatter now.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Not a customer.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
No, no, because some said it he was a concerned
citizen.
No, if you look at my websiteand the Google reviews, they're
all five star.
We love it here, kind of thing,and I try to keep a very good
and I think I have a very goodreputation.
I guess I've got three callstoday of people who are
interested in moving into myhome.
(37:02):
So I don't, I really go out ofmy way to treat the residents of
my home with the utmost careand caution.
I thought lockdowns reallyworked and I thought masks
really kept people from COVID.
I'd be more than happy to dothose, but I just don't.
So yeah, and then you know, itwent back and forth between me
(37:23):
and Jerome Powell.
He said something like I, orJerome Adams sorry, jerome
Powell's, the head of the Fed,you know he said I don't have
any compassion.
I'm like compassion, you'relocking your mom away, you know,
and you're the one touting thevaccines how great they are.
So I just ended up deleting thetweet because I'm like I'm
(37:46):
probably going to get in troublefor this.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
So I can't link to that and show people.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
Yeah, I'm sorry, but it just it's story.
It just blew me away how muchof a religion COVID still is.
You know, no assisted livinghomes other than Jerome Adams
mom's assisted living homesseems to be doing that anymore.
And I told my caregivers thestory.
They're like what are youtalking about?
(38:11):
No one's doing that, you know,but all of a sudden everyone
just totally freaked out aboutit.
So I'm like I don't know, Ithink I'll stick with.
Hey, you know, we had anotherresident come off hospice today
because we fed them well ratherthan.
You know, all these COVIDmeasures suck.
(38:32):
I need to get out of that COVIDdebate.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Right, right, right.
And I mean, as with thevaccines, they don't want people
like you, they don't want acontrol group, they don't want,
they don't want to have peoplelike you who are doing it
differently.
And hey, not only is everyonenot dying from COVID, but
they're getting better and goinghome.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Right.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Doesn't make their methodology look that.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
No, it's not profitable.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
It's not profitable for them.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
Yeah no-transcript.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
It's crazy to me that someone who tops the vaccine so
highly, my Medicaid homes I hadto have everyone vaccinated.
That was the rule to acceptMedicaid.
So we did.
But all of my private pay homesI was like up to you, if you
want to get vaccinated, I don'tcare.
Yeah, and same with thecaregivers.
(39:29):
So not everyone had to bevaccinated and I think, like any
medical decision, it should beyour personal choice to do it or
not.
But the freakish nature of theresponse to my tweet tells me
that deep down, they know thevaccines don't work, or else
(39:49):
they'd be like is everyonevaccinated?
Yes, ok, then no problem right.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Because that was the whole narrative, right.
I mean, that was the whole idea.
Was well, once we've got thevaccine, we can stop all these
crazy lockdowns and isolatingelderly, which I think is one of
the greatest crimes thathappens during this time.
That was the whole flame.
Was well, once you have thevaccine, you don't have to have
the masks, you don't have toisolate, you don't have to drive
(40:16):
nine hours to see grandma andthen get shot.
I mean, their narrative doesn'tmake sense.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
No, it doesn't, it's just pure emotion and it just
it's weird to me that it getsthat way.
It's sort of politics, religionand COVID now, because it you
know, off limits to talk aroundthe dinner table and I don't
know how it got that way, but itreally did, and it's really sad
(40:44):
.
Fear.
There's so many other medicalconditions that are a whole lot
more serious Dementia, heartdisease, diabetes, cancer, all
these things Right, no onereally talks about those all a
lot, but COVID, oh my God, youknow everyone's going to die.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, it's all I think it justit was a campaign of fear and
unfortunately it worked.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Yeah, it broke a lot of people, I think.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I had a question aboutsomething that you mentioned
earlier.
Oh, you mentioned a mind forall seasons.
Can you just say a little bitabout, like you talked about,
some of the protocols?
Who are they and like what?
Is this something that like,say, somebody has an elderly
(41:36):
relative who could possiblybenefit from their protocols?
Can they contact them?
Can they work with them?
Speaker 2 (41:43):
Yeah, I can't stand up for things about a mind for
all seasons.
I love them.
So I found them when I wasresearching.
Ok, I just started looking outhow can we help people with
dementia and I found this doctornamed Dale Bredesen, who used
to run the UCLA Center on Aging,who dedicated pretty much his
life to the study of Alzheimer'sand he's come up with a way to
(42:06):
reverse Alzheimer's and he'sdone it in several thousand
people.
Lots of caveats got to catch itearly.
You know it doesn't work foreveryone, all these kind of
things, but he's the one whocame up with those three things
of contributing factors,alzheimer's, all that.
So he developed this thingcalled the Bredesen protocol.
So I signed up with his companycalled Apollo Health to do the
(42:28):
Bredesen protocol and so we usetheir resources.
But basically what they say isyou've got to work with one of
our certified health coaches,practitioners, medical personnel
, doctor, nurse that's certifiedin our protocol as part of the
(42:49):
ongoing because it's a six monthto a year long process at least
.
So I started, I got the listwhen we signed up of
practitioners and I called abunch of them and came upon a
mind for all season.
It was mind for all season wasactually started by Excuse me a
guy who was an executivedirector at a large assisted
(43:12):
living facility, who is kind ofsame as me.
What can we do better?
And so he started.
It got a bunch of really topnotch medical people, got
certified in the Bredesenprotocol and then they sort of
do their own research on top ofthat to sort of enhance it.
In fact, their protocol iscalled the enhanced protocol and
(43:34):
so I you know I use theresources of Bredesen a lot, but
they're sort of our healthcoach, if we use this part of
the Bredesen protocol.
They're located in Boise, idaho.
We do everything virtually.
They actually came down herefor a clinic for high school
kids because they work with alot of people with concussions
and things like that and theproblems there, so any kind of
(43:56):
brain problems they work with.
I met a lot of NFL playersthrough them or ex NFL players.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
So they work with people virtually all over the
country.
They work with people in myhomes.
We do Zoom meetings like thisall the time and you know they
have a nationwide contract withLabCorp.
So you know, if you sign upwith them they'll send sort of
their lab requests and then wetake our residents to the local
(44:26):
LabCorp and they draw the bloodand then they send the reports
up to a mine for all seasons.
But they can work, they work.
My best friend from collegetook his father in law and
mother in law and signed them up.
They're in Nebraska and they'redoing it at home and I think a
lot of people can do it at homeand ideally that's the way to do
(44:46):
it when you first get thatdementia diagnosis, first get.
You know I'm forgettingeverything here.
You know, call these guys upand it doesn't hurt.
You know I'm signing up to do ablood work to see am I at risk?
What do I need to do now?
Because dementia can start inyour 30s and 40s and 50s and
(45:07):
just don't see the symptoms ofit other than you know I left my
keys at home until you know 50s, 60s, 70s.
But people are starting to seeit more and more and as our
diets decline, you're going toprobably see it more and more.
So I can't emphasize.
It's not how early.
You should look into it.
(45:27):
But yes, I think you know Ijoke to people in my job.
My goal and vision is to getrid of the assisted living
industry in the United States.
That people can help themselvesfix themselves at home and do
that, and a Mind for All Seasonsis a wonderful resource to do
(45:47):
that with, as is the Bredesenprotocol and the Apollo Health
Group out in California thathelp people tune.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
Wow, can you?
I mean you talked a little bitabout the results that you've
seen.
Can you quantify that in anyway?
Like of all the people thathave come through your homes,
can you put a number?
Speaker 2 (46:13):
I'm coming up on my eighth year and I've sent seven
people home, so it's not a lot.
It's not like I'm going to fixyou completely If you're 80, 85,
.
I've got a 95 year old lady.
The family called a mind forall season and they said I'm
sorry, it's too late, she's onhospice, let's make her
(46:37):
comfortable, kind of thing.
But I do have people gettingout of bed, getting from
wheelchairs to walkers, fromwalkers to walking again, and I
have a lot of that.
I have a lot of people get offhospice.
You know, eventually they'reprobably going to go.
We're all going to go onhospice someday.
(46:59):
But you know we're stillextending their lives and
quality.
What I'm trying to do isimprove their quality of life so
even if they don't go home,they can go out to dinner at a
restaurant with their family.
They can go home for theweekend, they can spend
Thanksgiving or Christmas athome and not at my home.
We had a 98 year old guy go ona cruise with this family and we
(47:24):
let them borrow a caregiver.
She got a free cruise out of itand she kind of took care of
them while he was on the cruise.
But you know, he came backsmiling from ear to ear, just
had a great time and passed awaysix months later.
But you know 98 and you'rehappy at the end of your life.
That's a great thing.
Speaker 1 (47:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
Yeah, so it's to me it's improved the quality of
life.
Like we take them out everymonth or two to like a big
outside the home activity andit's just.
It's very logisticallychallenging because we've got
four houses we're trying to puttogether and rides and
everything, but we'll take themon a boat ride around the local
lake.
There's an air force base herethat has air shows.
(48:10):
We take them to that.
We take them.
We.
Actually a friend of mine I usedto be in the air force has a
charity thing where they fly oldWorld War.
I stear and buy planes aroundand take vets up and we kind of
hey, you know I don't have a tonof vets in my home, but I've
got people who know vets orwe're married to a vet, can we
count?
And he was very lenient aboutthat, and so all the ones that
(48:32):
could, you know, do it, climbedup in the buy plane and we gave
them rides around Phoenix, youknow, open air, with the leather
helmet on and the goggles andthat kind of thing.
So we take them to movies.
You know, spring, springtraining is a big thing for
baseball here, so we take themto spring training games every
year.
We've had some of our veteransbe ridden around in the car and
(48:54):
veterans parades and stuff, sowe want them to feel like they
can live a life still, thatthey're not just, you know, a
hospital that looks like a housekind of thing, and I think that
motivates them to and, as wecan get them a little healthier
and a little healthier, itallows them to do more and more
(49:15):
of that and have some fun.
Speaker 1 (49:17):
Yeah, that's amazing.
That just that sounds fantastic.
Yeah, I mean, you know, again,from my own experience, I've
seen tremendous contrast betweenwhat my grandmother experienced
and what most assisted livingor care homes look like, and
it's a world of difference.
And I think you know.
It's encouraging to hear whatyou're saying because you are
within, you know you're withinthe licensed system and yet
(49:39):
you're still finding a way tofocus on the well-being, the
quality of life.
You know all these things thatmake people's lives better.
You know, at the end of theirlives, it can be so much better
even within the licensed system.
I think it's just a fantasticexample.
Speaker 2 (49:58):
Yeah, and you know the surveyors that come out and
audit us and everything likethat, most of them are all for
this.
They're not.
They're not trying to take usdown or you know I'm going to
find something.
You know they're very muchencouraging of it.
And you know I had one surveyorsay, yeah, you missed a couple
(50:19):
of things in your paperwork, but, man, your residents are just
happy as can be.
That's awesome.
And they, you know she said I'dmuch rather have that than you
guys be absolutely perfect onyour paperwork and everyone just
lying around waiting to dieRight.
So you know they get excited.
We made a music video which Ican send you if you want, but we
(50:42):
took Queen's Bohemian Rhapsodyand we turned it into assisted
living rhapsody and we made itover three or four weeks.
On the weekends we brought myson, went to Arizona State and
he had a friend that majored infilm, so he and his buddies came
out and made it for us.
So they had all these collegekids running around setting them
up, doing a little makeup onthem and stuff, and everyone had
(51:06):
a great time doing that.
Well, I showed it to one of ourinspectors and she showed it to
the staff meeting at theDepartment of Health.
So I think they're, you know, Ithink they're all excited about
this stuff and it's nice thatthey're not like well, we're
going to clamp down on that, youknow, and make sure you're not
exercising, and where they'regoing to hurt themselves and all
(51:28):
that they're like, go for it.
You know they're very open toit, which makes it wonderful to
work with them.
Speaker 1 (51:35):
Yeah, that's fantastic.
Where can people find youwhat's online Is?
Speaker 2 (51:43):
there Go to Jero Madams.
So our website is the letter A,and then paradiseforparentscom.
We on Twitter, obviously, atHal Cranmer, or our Paradise for
Parents.
You can probably search for ittoo.
(52:04):
We have a Facebook page that isParadise for Parents Assisted
Living, where we post fun photosof stuff we're doing.
I think those are the main ones.
I've got an Instagram assistedliving Hal Cranmer, but I'm
really bad about posting on thatone.
But yeah, the website's the bigone.
(52:24):
It'll have some videos.
That, though you mean, rapsthese videos right on the front
page there to scroll down alittle.
I can send you the YouTube linktoo.
Speaker 1 (52:33):
Okay, great, that would be great, thank you.
Anything else you want to add?
Speaker 2 (52:38):
No, I just thank you for letting us do this.
I actually met your dad when Ilived in Minneapolis.
He came up there for aconference with Tom Woods.
I loved all of the articles heused to write.
I love your articles you write.
I see those on lorakwellcom.
It's great to meet you as well.
(53:00):
I guess that's the big thing Iwanted to say.
Speaker 1 (53:02):
Thank you.
Thank you.
Well, it's been wonderful tomeet you and I'm so thrilled
with what you're doing.
I think part of it is just it'sso wonderful to get an example
out there of what can be done,because then it's like everyone
else what's your excuse?
Speaker 2 (53:18):
Right, that's what I'm hoping.
Senior I have a grandson nowand he's the cutest thing in the
world and he's everything to me, but he gets attention all the
time.
All the little kids are likeeveryone thinks they're so cute,
want to have the pictures spenttons of time.
All people kind of getneglected, in my opinion, in the
(53:40):
United States.
We isolated them, I mean yeah,you know, everyone's so worried
about their safety that theyjust don't let them do anything,
and that's going to kill usfast as any disease.
So, and those are the peoplethat really built America.
You know, the kids arewonderful, but they haven't done
anything.
You know, they're all potential, so we should pay them back by
(54:03):
treating them as best we can andmaking sure they you know they
get their best life as well.
Speaker 1 (54:08):
Yeah, absolutely Absolutely.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (54:13):
It's great, sandy Brittany.
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (54:15):
Great, it's great to meet you.
You've been listening to what,then, must we Do?
The podcast?
For those who understand thestate is the problem and are
seeking solutions For moreepisodes, go to
bretneysubstackcom I G N E dotsubstackcom and subscribe.
Welcome to the podcast that's all about
solutions.
If you're tired of complainingabout tyranny and you want to
take action to create a freerworld, this is the place for you
.
Join us as we ask what, then,must we do?
All right, I am here today withHal Cranmer.
(00:27):
Hal and his wife are the ownersof a paradise for parents.
I am very excited about this.
I found you on Tom Woods Schoolof Life and then I've seen you
on Twitter and it sounds likewhat you're doing and this is
correct me if I'm wrong, butthis is like.
This is an elder care facility,an elder care home, and I'll
(00:51):
ask you to sort of describeeverything that you do, but it
sounds like you're doing.
You're really doing things yourown way, in a lot of different,
on a lot of different levels,which is very unusual in this
industry.
So welcome to the show, andcould you maybe just start by
(01:11):
telling us what is a paradisefor parents?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Sure, thanks for having me.
I really appreciate it.
So we own my wife and I ownfour assisted living homes in
the greater Phoenix area.
If people know Phoenix they'rein surprise Goodyear and Mesa,
arizona, which are kind ofsuburbs of Phoenix, and they're
(01:36):
basically residential homes thathave been converted into
assisted living facilities.
They're large homes, they'reone story, so people don't have
to go up and down stairs andeach of them are licensed by the
Department of Health Servicesfor 10, up to 10 residents at a
time, and currently we have allof them filled except one.
(01:58):
We have an opening one.
So we basically take care ofelderly people.
What you imagine is assistedliving with basics, but it's in
a residential home rather than abig facility.
People don't have apartments,they have rooms like bedrooms
here, but then they live andinteract like it's a regular
(02:20):
home.
We have usually two, maybethree caregivers, depending on
how much care is needed hereduring the day, and we have one
caregiver who's here at night.
When I got into this industryit really bugged me to see
people sort of being warehoused.
I don't want to disparage thisindustry.
(02:43):
There's an awful lot of reallygood caring people but sort of
the system is it's a bigcompliance industry.
We have to follow a ton ofhealth care regulations, many
very well-intentioned andunderstandable but the emphasis
seems to be on pharmaceuticaldrugs to help our residents.
(03:05):
There doesn't seem to be anyemphasis on hey, we got to
really work on making themhealthy, because it's sort of
the later stages of mostpeople's lives, so it's sort of
let's manage the decline betterand I don't know.
(03:28):
I'm a big believer that God gaveus one life to live and that
every day is precious.
We have the first day, themiddle day or the last day of
your life, and so why not fightfor every one of them?
And so I thought well, it seemslike there's other stuff we can
do and, like I said, martinHealth's very particular about
(03:49):
regulating what medications wegive them, that doctors are
overseeing them, that all safetyprocedures are followed and
doctors' orders are followed,all that kind of stuff.
But there's a lot of lifestylestuff that could help these
people and I'm seeing help thesepeople.
That doesn't really getemphasized.
(04:13):
I mean, everyone wants to seetheir mom participate in
activities, everyone wants tosee their mom be happy and
things like that.
But it's not a requirement.
I don't know how you'd reallymake it a requirement.
I used to call that mandatoryfund with my kids.
But that activity, that movingand things like that helps your
(04:35):
body at any age.
Good food helps your body atany age.
Sunshine, good sleep there's abunch of stuff that can help and
improve the quality of the lifeyou have left, and that's kind
of what we're trying to do here.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
I can just interject there because I've got a
personal story I want to shareAn elderly family member in my
family.
When you say exercise canimprove the quality of your life
, that's an easy thing.
People say that all the time.
I think it actually saved thelife of this family member.
This person had a heart attackand when they went in they got
(05:16):
all the scans and everything andthey were told well, your body
has created these.
What are they called?
Corollary arteries?
Is it corollaries?
Yeah, it's corollary.
It creates its own Corollaryarteries.
No, they're called.
I'm pretty sure they'recorollary arteries.
It's like your body creating itsown bypass.
So you've got a corollaryartery and your body creates
(05:40):
this thing that goes around theblockage.
Yeah, that goes around theblockage.
This person had created threeof these.
No, this person was in their80s, still was in their 80s and
had been doing tai chi andshigong several times a week,
and the doctors said that's whythat activity is what allowed
(06:03):
your body to be strong enough tocreate these corollaries.
I know that's the wrong word.
Now I'll think of what it is.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
But it makes sense what you're saying, that it
creates a bypass around theblockage.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Yeah, yeah.
So it's not trivial to just sayexercise is good for you.
It can actually save your life.
It can actually make you strongenough that you can withstand a
lot of things.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Oh, I totally believe it.
Yeah, I mean, I see peopletransform with exercise, not
just to lose weight, but just itimproves your metabolism and
gets things healing.
Yeah, not just weight.
You're feeling better, yeah.
Yeah, it's not just to make youa new bodybuilder.
(06:48):
It's really good for people.
I mean, my parents are in theeight.
They're eighties and I callthem up and ask them if they're
exercising all the time.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it's one of the most
important things I actually.
I wanted to also ask you,though, because you mentioned
you talked about regulations,and you said that they're really
they're aimed at that.
The focus is getting people inthese homes to be on pharma
solutions.
Can you explain a little bithow that works?
(07:20):
How is it that the regulationsencourage or sort of push people
in that direction?
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Okay, sure.
So everyone who comes in ourhome has a what we call a PCP, a
primary care physician, andeven when they go on hospice
they use the hospice doctors,their PCP, and that physician,
primarily, is just in charge ofadministering medications.
(07:53):
So the regulations really areskewed towards.
How should I say it?
You know there's lots ofregulations around the
medications.
We can't give a resident title,and all without a doctor's
(08:17):
prescription.
Okay, we can't give them skinointment without a doctor's
permission or documentedprescription authority.
You know, anything you canorder off Amazon is doctor
prescribed.
The only thing we can do isnon-alcoholic beverages and food
that we can put in a residentwithout a doctor's prescription.
(08:39):
So, that being said, you know Ioften wonder could a doctor
prescribe heroin, and everyone'sfine with it as long as we're
giving the right dosage?
You know I'm being a littlefacetious, but it's amazing.
You know I've had doctorsprescribe marijuana.
Obviously now that it's legaland no problem from the
Department of Health standpoint,you just have to have the
(09:01):
prescription.
We are looking at someprotocols that have supplements.
So if we, you know, ordervitamin C or something like that
, it has to have a doctor'sprescription.
So everything is geared towardsdon't give them anything
without a doctor's prescription.
Well, that just leads into youknow.
Well, they've got this wrongwith them.
(09:24):
There's a pharmaceuticalsolution to that.
And then when they have a sideeffect from that, Because
another person.
They don't want to like takethem off that medication, so
they prescribe something else toyou know fix the side effect.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And is this because of?
Is this the Department ofHealth that's imposing this?
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Is this your like?
Well, I think it's acombination of, I mean, I think,
the CDC, fda, all the federalgovernment sort of set the
standard of care guidelines.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Right.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
And that flows down to the Department of Health and
then they say, okay, this is howyou do it.
I know that's the case becausewe have to do a bunch of
tuberculosis testing when peoplecome into our homes, do a TB
test, and then we were supposedto do that every year.
Well, the CDC guidance now saysif you know they get an initial
(10:18):
test and they don't show anysymptoms, you know, you just
need to sort of, you don't needto give it to them every year.
Well, as soon as the CDC cameout with that, the Arizona
Department of Health lifted ourrequirement to test them every
year.
And now it becomes we just fillout a form saying they don't
show any symptoms.
(10:39):
So it starts up high and thenit gets blowed down.
The Department of Health sortof puts their own spin on it.
Locally.
We don't really deal with acounty Department of Health, our
city.
We deal with the state prettymuch.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Okay, and that's because of your licensing.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yeah, we're licensed by the state, so we follow the
state regulations.
The only interaction I've everhad with the Maricopa County,
which is our county's Departmentof Health, is they call us to
offer the COVID shots.
Other than that, I've neverdealt with them at all.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Right, okay, okay, the reason I'm interested in
that is that I'm very interestedin the private membership
association model.
I don't know if you're familiarwith that, so my grandmother
was.
So this is something that usedto be very prevalent in America
(11:38):
were private associations, andthey had schools, care
facilities, hospitals and alsojust sort of welfare type
insurance.
They were like fraternityassociations, where you provide
(11:58):
a certain level of insurance orwelfare for members, so if
somebody gets sick or ifsomebody loses their job or
whatever, there's this pool, butit's a voluntary, it's private.
My grandmother was part of onecalled the PEO in the Midwest
and what it was was.
It was an association forwomen's school teachers and they
(12:21):
did a lot of things.
They have a university that'sstill operating.
They funded women's education,but one of the things they did
was if you were a member in goodstanding and you were ready to
go into assisted living, youcould go into any one of their
homes and they were a little bitas you described.
They were not institutional atall, they were actual homes.
(12:41):
The one my grandmother was inwas like this Victorian home in
Nebraska Everyone had a room, itwas nicely appointed,
everything was felt homey, theyate together, and it was because
it was a private membershipassociation.
They were not licensed, theywere not subject to licensing
(13:05):
requirements and health andsafety stuff.
It was within the private realm.
And so I spoke at length withthe woman who was running it at
the time and she described howthey were able to provide an
excellent level of care really,really low ratio of staff to
(13:27):
residents or I should say, highratio of staff to residents,
just amazing care.
We just always felt like shewas very, very well cared for
there, and the director told mea big reason for that is that
we're not subject to a lot ofthe very costly requirements
that we would be if we were alicensed facility.
(13:49):
So I was here.
I didn't know when I firsttalked with you, I didn't know
if you guys were operating as aPMA or if you were licensed, but
it sounds like you're withinthe system, working to do things
your way.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Right.
I think that might be very hardto do.
In Arizona the rules are if youhave more than like two
residents in your homes, youhave to be licensed.
So I mean I'd love to have thatmuch not be inspected.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
I can send you more information about it.
It's oops, you froze up alittle bit there.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
At the present time, and if you hear about that in
Arizona, I'd love to learn moreabout it.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I'll send you some.
Basically, the idea is you'retaking your.
It's no longer a business.
It's not serving the public,it's you know it's kind of like
the part of the associationright.
Right, you're serving membersrather than the public.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I'll send you some information.
How do they fund it?
Do they pay?
From the pool of everyoneputting money in.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Basically, yes.
So that was funded at the timeand the state, the state of
Nebraska, actually did end upcracking down on this.
I think they might have beenable to fight it, but they
didn't.
But at the time when mygrandmother was there, the way
it was funded was when you wereready to go into one of these
(15:23):
homes, you would sell yourproperty Like you had a home.
You would sell your home andthen give a some percentage I'm
guessing a large percentage ofwhat you got for your home to
the association.
They would then invest it and,you know, with their other funds
.
And so basically what ended uphappening was you know, some of
(15:45):
the members you know might havea million dollar house my
grandmother in a small town inNebraska and I think her house,
you know she sold it for likeless than $20,000.
It was, you know it was to keepyou going at a commercial
facility for maybe a few months,but they pooled resources.
I mean, I was kind of amazedthat they were able to do what
(16:07):
they did financially, but therewas that there was, you know,
the contribution that you makeas you when you come in.
And then there were the funds,the membership funds you know
from the organization as a whole.
Again, I'm, I'm.
I look at that as like how canthat possibly be enough?
But it was pretty, prettyamazing.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
I may that you said they I think you said they have
like sort of monthly dues forregular medical care and stuff
like that as well, too right.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
No, I think the dues were just for membership, and so
that would be, you know, pretty.
You know, maybe a hundred ayear or something nothing.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Oh, very low.
Okay, I thought maybe theypooled it like an insurance
thing.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
No, but.
But anyone living in the homes,I think, would again at that
time still had their owninsurance.
So their insurance would coverlike medical things.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
It wouldn't, you know , it wouldn't cover.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Oh, okay, I was thinking like younger families
might use it also to pay thedoctors and things like that.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
No, no, no, no, no no .
Speaker 2 (17:13):
It wasn't like that this is more to get you ready
for an investment early on, toget you ready for what's coming
later.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Um, yes, yes, it really only applied.
That that particular benefitreally only applied when you
were at the stage where you'reready to go into assisted living
.
You didn't get any, any otherbenefit, any.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Okay, because I'd heard of associations of like
lower income people and theythey'd hire a doctor, like a
hundred of them, and just saywe'll pay you a salary, just be
available with one of us getsick, kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah, yeah, and that's what the, that's what the
fraternal associations used todo back in like the 19th century
was.
There was, say, an associationof, you know, I don't know
factory workers or dock workersor something, or or immigrants,
and they would very often theyhad this lodge doctor and the
lodge doctor would serve thatgroup of people.
(18:11):
Might you know?
They might come in once a weekand say, okay, we've got lodge
doctor hours or when can come inand get seen, or whatever.
They would do house calls.
They would, you know there wasa sort of dedicated person and
so you know, the AMA reallycracked down on that.
They.
They started once they sort ofgot a grip on medicine, on
doctors, they started saying, ifyou're going to be, you know,
(18:34):
if you're going to be one of us,you can't be a lodge doctor
anymore, you can't, Wow, yeahyeah, it's a racket, total
racket, total racket.
But anyway, let's get back towhat you're doing.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
That's really interesting stuff.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Yeah, the whole history of that is really
fascinating.
I can, I'll send you.
I'll send you more stuff aboutthat because it's very
interesting.
But so what do you do?
That's different.
How are you able you're upagainst this sort of regulatory
structure that's pushing thepharma model, that really
restricts you know what you cando with your residents.
How do you fight that?
(19:08):
How do you?
How do you?
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Well, it doesn't restrict what you do with your
resident.
It really restricts.
It's very.
It oversees the pharma,suitical aspects of it in great
detail.
What it doesn't do is you knowwhat kind of activities you do?
They don't seem to be.
There's not a real big emphasison what kind of food you serve
(19:32):
them, things like that.
So I mean, their restrictionsare a lot of sort of compliance
stuff.
Do your caregivers have all thecertifications and training they
need?
You know, have you, as yourhouse, been inspected by the
fire department recently?
You know, is there is the foodin the fridge past its
(19:54):
expiration date or not?
Those kind of things.
You know paperwork, compliancekind of stuff.
But in terms of day to day, youknow they come in and check
that the residents seemreasonably healthy and happy.
And that's kind of hard to saybecause you know there's a bunch
of residents that are onhospice or something that you
know might be a week away frompassing away and it's hard to
(20:18):
say, oh, you're abusing them.
You know as well they're prettyclose.
You know, as long as there'snot bruises all over their
bodies, they're probably not.
So, that's every assisted living.
I mean, that's the purpose ofassisted living.
We, they don't like.
Most people don't leaveassisted living alive, put it
that way, right?
(20:39):
You know, if they do, most ofthe time it's because they're
dissatisfied with how theassisted living is treating, and
fortunately I haven't had muchof that at all.
We've kicked some people out,you know, but we have a very low
rate of voluntary peopleleaving, unless we do have a
(21:00):
bunch that left because theywere healthy enough they could
go live on their own at homeagain, which is wonderful.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
They came and got healthier.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
What's that?
Speaker 1 (21:08):
They came to you and they got healthier.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
And they got healthier, exactly so.
So the food, the Department ofHealth their big emphasis on
food is that you have a menuposted that you can show for the
next week what you're going toserve and that you're probably
going to serve that.
And those change because peopleare like I don't want, you know
, steak today or something likethat.
(21:31):
I don't want fish, I don't likefish.
So we we vary.
You know we try to project aweek out but if you know, if
they say no, adjust it.
But they want to see it postedand you know there's no, they
don't check.
On exercise, you know if, if aphysical therapy comes in to our
(21:55):
assisted living home, they'llcheck.
Do you have a prescription forphysical therapy?
They're not checking how thephysical therapist do it.
I'm sure they regulate physicaltherapists or whatever.
So we have like a personaltrainer that comes to our home
and exercises with the residents, you know, ability permitting.
There's a couple of bedboundand you know have serious
(22:17):
dimension, it's not going towork, but as much as we can.
And then we try to do verynutritious food and I've, you
know, done a lot of research,gone through a lot of phases of
different diets and what worksand things like that and sort of
came upon.
A low carb diet seems to be themost healthy diet for lots of
(22:41):
people, including elderly.
Especially.
It's very good for people withcognitive issues.
It was developed for peoplewith epilepsy, so it's already a
brain kind of diet.
And then people with dementiahave a really hard time using
glucose in your brain for energy.
But they can use ketones thatare come up in your body when
(23:06):
you're doing it in a low carbstate and help burn those
ketones for energy.
And having that energy helpsthe brain heal and it has been
shown that the brain can heal,yeah.
So so the big thing is we donutrition, we do exercise.
We have For the dementia stuff.
(23:28):
We have been lately working witha company called a Mind for All
Seasons.
They're located in Idaho andimplementing some cognitive
protocols that help people'smemories improve or at least
decline a lot slower.
We did have one lady who gotback in the normal range for her
(23:51):
memory.
She came to us early on intheir dementia journey and she's
living in an apartment inWashington now.
She moved out in September.
We've seen this can work thatother people are working with.
We do see memory improvement.
We do see improvement in healthoverall.
(24:15):
We see people on diabetes.
We've got one lady here who'soffered diabetes medicine, who's
offered insulin.
Came to us taking a lot ofinsulin.
She doesn't take any anymore.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
That's all diet and exercise.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Diet and exercise.
We get them out in the sun thedementia ones.
There's other protocols we use.
We use some red light therapy,we use saunas.
We have something called audiovisual entrainment, which is a
pair of glasses and a headsetand two little electrodes that
(24:49):
clip on the ears.
It sends different wavelengthsof light and different
wavelength pulses of sound, andsome electrical simulation Was
developed in World War II whenthey first came out with radar.
The guys who were watching thegreen screens with the line
going around for radar werefalling asleep at their screens
(25:11):
a lot.
Once they realized they're notjust lazy, they found that the
wavelengths of light that werecoming out and hitting their
eyes were actually trainingtheir brain to slow down and
relax.
It was putting them to sleep.
This has different wavelengthsof light, either to help you
sleep or to get you excited.
(25:34):
The brain will follow whatthose wavelengths are doing.
There's certain programs thatwork to help relax the brain and
allow it to heal.
We use that as well.
We're trying to do somehyperbaric oxygen therapy, but
it's very difficult logistically.
(25:55):
They're quite a ways away.
We have to sit in the chamberwith them because a lot of the
dementia people don't knowwhat's going on.
They either get veryclaustrophobic in a small
chamber or they want to get upand walk out, and so you have to
sit with them because they haveto wear oxygen masks or
breathing pure oxygen when theydo it.
(26:15):
It's challenging one, but theother therapies seem to be
helping.
We take a lot of blood and do alot of blood work and testing,
because there's a whole lot ofthings that contribute to
dementia that scientists arefinding more and more.
It's not just you get plaquesin your brain and you've got
dementia.
(26:36):
What causes the plaques?
How did they get there?
What can we do to reduce them?
And all this kind of stuffTurns out dementia has three
main components Inflammation,lack of vitamins, minerals and
toxicity.
If you've got a lot of toxinsin your body, it can contribute.
We take a lot of blood work tosee what your levels are.
(26:59):
For each of those things, thiscompany I work with creates a
plan of okay, this is what weneed to do.
Besides the exercise and dietand all that, we have a
supplement program that willhelp boost a lot of those
markers.
Some of those markers can bechanged by diet and exercise.
Some of them might needsupplementation.
(27:20):
We do that.
It's taken me a while but Ifound a doctor who is willing to
prescribe a bunch of those,because there's some stuff like
hormones or big contributor todementia.
We find a lot of people arevery deficient in hormones,
especially at that age.
However, prevailing wisdom isthat if you have a history of
(27:43):
breast cancer or cancer of anykind, giving you hormones might
reactivate that.
A lot of doctors are like Idon't want to touch hormones
because there's a cancer risk.
If you don't have a history ofcancer, there's really
practically no risk if you'vedied.
In the science Interesting it'skind of dependent on well, how
(28:05):
long ago did you have it, whatare the risks, when did you have
it?
There's a bunch of stuff thatgoes into it, but it's still
possible to do some kind ofhormone therapy.
It took me a while I had tofind a doctor who is on board
with all this.
She's actually a nursepractitioner.
She very much helps us with theprescriptions and things like
(28:27):
that.
We stay implying with theDepartment of Health but we're
doing stuff that's not just youknow what Merck and Pfizer
recommend.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Right.
Can I ask you about a specifickind of going out of a tangent
here?
Are you familiar withpro-resolving mediators?
Speaker 2 (28:44):
No, not at all.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
I'll send you information about that too.
So our daughter has a geneticcondition and it results in she
was having seizures.
She's not now, thankfully,partly because of the ketogenic
diet, but one of the things thatreally made a difference for
her cognitively and the reason Ifound out about this was by
talking with a doctor who wasworking with dementia patients
(29:06):
and gave them pro-resolvingmediators.
It's kind of like it's fish oilbased and it's kind of like we
get a lot of fish oil here.
Okay, I'll send you informationabout this.
It's kind of like fish oil onsteroids, but not literal
steroids, but I'll send you somestuff on it.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
One of the big components we look at is the
ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 andsee if we can improve that,
because a lot of people comehere with lots of Omega 6 and
not much Omega 3.
We serve a lot of fish here, alot of salmon, a lot of proteins
, oysters, things like that.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Can I ask you how are you funded, how are your
centers funded?
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Most of my residents are private pay.
Assisted living is kind of atough business because it's part
of medicine that isn't fundedby Medicare.
There's no Medicare thing.
If you want assistance inpaying for assisted living,
there are basically three waysyou can do it.
(30:17):
One is long-term care insurance.
If people bought that when theywere younger, a lot of
insurance companies realizedpeople are living a lot longer
than we were planning on.
They're really cutting back onthat insurance policy.
It's great now because whenthey introduced it it was 20, 30
(30:39):
years ago.
All the people are coming intoassisted living and had it.
I think that's going to declineas companies get out of it or
charge crazy amounts for it.
The other way is if you're aveteran.
The Veterans Administration hasa benefit called aid and
attendance that will pay, Ithink, for the veteran will pay
(31:02):
$2,000 a month.
For the spouse they paysomething like $1,600 a month.
Don't quote me on that, butsomething like that.
They pay it to the family, so Idon't see it.
It's included in the check theywrite me.
You have to be below a certainincome level.
If you're Ross Perot that was aveteran but a mega millionaire
(31:23):
you're not going to be eligiblefor it.
The only other way is beyondMedicaid.
They have Medicaid programs topay for assisted living.
I have two homes that qualifyfor Medicaid.
I'm not a big fan of it becausethey don't pay much.
They have all kinds of rulesthat make it very hard on the
(31:46):
assisted living homeowner.
That is a way, but those aren'tthe people necessarily that I
can do a lot with, because Ijust don't get much funding to
do stuff with them.
Unfortunately, we still getcreative and try but it's not as
good as a full-blown protocolto try to help people with
(32:09):
dementia and stuff.
Their assisted living is prettymuch mostly private pay and
Medicaid is the vast majority.
Lots of people sell their homesor get reverse mortgages or
something to go into assistedliving.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
You got into a Twitter spat recently.
You want to talk about that.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, it was with the SurgeonGeneral of the United States,
and for the ex-surgeon general,he was the Surgeon General under
President Trump.
So he loves to post about masksand vaccines and I'm not a big
(33:02):
fan of either one.
When COVID came through myhomes, the more I read about
masks, the more I realized theydon't really do anything.
So, yeah, we followed all theDepartment of Health rules.
We didn't let people in here,at least until I could, but I
found ways around it.
(33:22):
But we took our residents, wefed them a lot of vitamins, we
put them outside.
This was before any vaccinescame out or anything In the
sunshine.
Now we can do that in Arizonabetter than a lot of other
places.
All of them had mild symptoms.
No one got really sick.
We had people approaching their100th birthday and we're doing,
(33:42):
you know, with all kinds ofissues, and they all survived
just fine.
I had one guy who refused to doany of it, wanted to hide in
his room, for it got pretty sickand we sent him to the hospital
and they put him on aventilator and then actually he
passed away.
But other than that, we hadlike no problem with COVID.
We had COVID come through, butit wasn't.
(34:04):
And I just think you know, themasks, the vaccines, obviously
don't seem to be workinganywhere near how they were
touted.
So one morning he put on or no,it was a Friday night he put on
his Twitter and he drove ninehours to see his mom.
And this is, you know, a weekor two ago we're talking 2020,
end of 2023.
(34:24):
And they turned him awaybecause his mom tested positive
for COVID was having to wear amask and lock the place with
lockdown and I'm like that'sridiculous.
And we just had an outbreak ofCOVID.
Like three or four people gotin one of our homes.
We didn't do a whole lot, youknow.
(34:45):
They kind of stayed in theirroom during the day, but we're a
house so bad to come out andeat and everything.
You know, people who wanted tocould wear a mask if they wanted
, but I'm not enforcing it.
We're like over all that stuff.
So I said we didn't really doanything and in a two or three
weeks everyone was fine and sothat blew up with tons of people
(35:10):
liking it and saying great job,you know, and I did say we did,
you know, feed them nutritiousmeals, did some white exercise,
took them outside, which is whatwe do, regardless if they're
sick or well, and they had awhole bunch of people like you
know.
How dare you neglect them?
(35:31):
And you're going to kill allthese people and everything.
And I'm thinking well, first ofall, they're all supposed to be
vaccinated, so why are youworried, right?
Secondly, you know, no one died, like everyone just got a cold
and got over it.
There's no, you know.
But everyone was saying, oh,you're going to get long COVID
and all that kind of stuff.
Well, no, everyone.
(35:52):
I'm at the house right now,it's fine.
And so then I had, like somepeople, put reviews on my
website, like on Google.
You know this house killed myuncle due to their poor COVID
protocols.
You know they should be suedout of existence and all this
(36:13):
stuff.
So I'd put comments like I'mrecording this to Google.
This person's never been in myhouse before.
And most of them got taken down.
I just got a.
I just got a notification fromthe nursing board, who licenses
me as an assisted living manager, that they have a complaint
from a reporter and that I haveto justify you know my own
(36:36):
professional conduct, so don'tmatter now.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Not a customer.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
No, no, because some said it he was a concerned
citizen.
No, if you look at my websiteand the Google reviews, they're
all five star.
We love it here, kind of thing,and I try to keep a very good
and I think I have a very goodreputation.
I guess I've got three callstoday of people who are
interested in moving into myhome.
(37:02):
So I don't, I really go out ofmy way to treat the residents of
my home with the utmost careand caution.
I thought lockdowns reallyworked and I thought masks
really kept people from COVID.
I'd be more than happy to dothose, but I just don't.
So yeah, and then you know, itwent back and forth between me
(37:23):
and Jerome Powell.
He said something like I, orJerome Adams sorry, jerome
Powell's, the head of the Fed,you know he said I don't have
any compassion.
I'm like compassion, you'relocking your mom away, you know,
and you're the one touting thevaccines how great they are.
So I just ended up deleting thetweet because I'm like I'm
(37:46):
probably going to get in troublefor this.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
So I can't link to that and show people.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
Yeah, I'm sorry, but it just it's story.
It just blew me away how muchof a religion COVID still is.
You know, no assisted livinghomes other than Jerome Adams
mom's assisted living homesseems to be doing that anymore.
And I told my caregivers thestory.
They're like what are youtalking about?
(38:11):
No one's doing that, you know,but all of a sudden everyone
just totally freaked out aboutit.
So I'm like I don't know, Ithink I'll stick with.
Hey, you know, we had anotherresident come off hospice today
because we fed them well ratherthan.
You know, all these COVIDmeasures suck.
(38:32):
I need to get out of that COVIDdebate.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Right, right, right.
And I mean, as with thevaccines, they don't want people
like you, they don't want acontrol group, they don't want,
they don't want to have peoplelike you who are doing it
differently.
And hey, not only is everyonenot dying from COVID, but
they're getting better and goinghome.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Right.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Doesn't make their methodology look that.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
No, it's not profitable.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
It's not profitable for them.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
Yeah no-transcript.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
It's crazy to me that someone who tops the vaccine so
highly, my Medicaid homes I hadto have everyone vaccinated.
That was the rule to acceptMedicaid.
So we did.
But all of my private pay homesI was like up to you, if you
want to get vaccinated, I don'tcare.
Yeah, and same with thecaregivers.
(39:29):
So not everyone had to bevaccinated and I think, like any
medical decision, it should beyour personal choice to do it or
not.
But the freakish nature of theresponse to my tweet tells me
that deep down, they know thevaccines don't work, or else
(39:49):
they'd be like is everyonevaccinated?
Yes, ok, then no problem right.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Because that was the whole narrative, right.
I mean, that was the whole idea.
Was well, once we've got thevaccine, we can stop all these
crazy lockdowns and isolatingelderly, which I think is one of
the greatest crimes thathappens during this time.
That was the whole flame.
Was well, once you have thevaccine, you don't have to have
the masks, you don't have toisolate, you don't have to drive
(40:16):
nine hours to see grandma andthen get shot.
I mean, their narrative doesn'tmake sense.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
No, it doesn't, it's just pure emotion and it just
it's weird to me that it getsthat way.
It's sort of politics, religionand COVID now, because it you
know, off limits to talk aroundthe dinner table and I don't
know how it got that way, but itreally did, and it's really sad
(40:44):
.
Fear.
There's so many other medicalconditions that are a whole lot
more serious Dementia, heartdisease, diabetes, cancer, all
these things Right, no onereally talks about those all a
lot, but COVID, oh my God, youknow everyone's going to die.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, it's all I think it justit was a campaign of fear and
unfortunately it worked.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Yeah, it broke a lot of people, I think.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I had a question aboutsomething that you mentioned
earlier.
Oh, you mentioned a mind forall seasons.
Can you just say a little bitabout, like you talked about,
some of the protocols?
Who are they and like what?
Is this something that like,say, somebody has an elderly
(41:36):
relative who could possiblybenefit from their protocols?
Can they contact them?
Can they work with them?
Speaker 2 (41:43):
Yeah, I can't stand up for things about a mind for
all seasons.
I love them.
So I found them when I wasresearching.
Ok, I just started looking outhow can we help people with
dementia and I found this doctornamed Dale Bredesen, who used
to run the UCLA Center on Aging,who dedicated pretty much his
life to the study of Alzheimer'sand he's come up with a way to
(42:06):
reverse Alzheimer's and he'sdone it in several thousand
people.
Lots of caveats got to catch itearly.
You know it doesn't work foreveryone, all these kind of
things, but he's the one whocame up with those three things
of contributing factors,alzheimer's, all that.
So he developed this thingcalled the Bredesen protocol.
So I signed up with his companycalled Apollo Health to do the
(42:28):
Bredesen protocol and so we usetheir resources.
But basically what they say isyou've got to work with one of
our certified health coaches,practitioners, medical personnel
, doctor, nurse that's certifiedin our protocol as part of the
(42:49):
ongoing because it's a six monthto a year long process at least
.
So I started, I got the listwhen we signed up of
practitioners and I called abunch of them and came upon a
mind for all season.
It was mind for all season wasactually started by Excuse me a
guy who was an executivedirector at a large assisted
(43:12):
living facility, who is kind ofsame as me.
What can we do better?
And so he started.
It got a bunch of really topnotch medical people, got
certified in the Bredesenprotocol and then they sort of
do their own research on top ofthat to sort of enhance it.
In fact, their protocol iscalled the enhanced protocol and
(43:34):
so I you know I use theresources of Bredesen a lot, but
they're sort of our healthcoach, if we use this part of
the Bredesen protocol.
They're located in Boise, idaho.
We do everything virtually.
They actually came down herefor a clinic for high school
kids because they work with alot of people with concussions
and things like that and theproblems there, so any kind of
(43:56):
brain problems they work with.
I met a lot of NFL playersthrough them or ex NFL players.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
So they work with people virtually all over the
country.
They work with people in myhomes.
We do Zoom meetings like thisall the time and you know they
have a nationwide contract withLabCorp.
So you know, if you sign upwith them they'll send sort of
their lab requests and then wetake our residents to the local
(44:26):
LabCorp and they draw the bloodand then they send the reports
up to a mine for all seasons.
But they can work, they work.
My best friend from collegetook his father in law and
mother in law and signed them up.
They're in Nebraska and they'redoing it at home and I think a
lot of people can do it at homeand ideally that's the way to do
(44:46):
it when you first get thatdementia diagnosis, first get.
You know I'm forgettingeverything here.
You know, call these guys upand it doesn't hurt.
You know I'm signing up to do ablood work to see am I at risk?
What do I need to do now?
Because dementia can start inyour 30s and 40s and 50s and
(45:07):
just don't see the symptoms ofit other than you know I left my
keys at home until you know 50s, 60s, 70s.
But people are starting to seeit more and more and as our
diets decline, you're going toprobably see it more and more.
So I can't emphasize.
It's not how early.
You should look into it.
(45:27):
But yes, I think you know Ijoke to people in my job.
My goal and vision is to getrid of the assisted living
industry in the United States.
That people can help themselvesfix themselves at home and do
that, and a Mind for All Seasonsis a wonderful resource to do
(45:47):
that with, as is the Bredesenprotocol and the Apollo Health
Group out in California thathelp people tune.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
Wow, can you?
I mean you talked a little bitabout the results that you've
seen.
Can you quantify that in anyway?
Like of all the people thathave come through your homes,
can you put a number?
Speaker 2 (46:13):
I'm coming up on my eighth year and I've sent seven
people home, so it's not a lot.
It's not like I'm going to fixyou completely If you're 80, 85,
.
I've got a 95 year old lady.
The family called a mind forall season and they said I'm
sorry, it's too late, she's onhospice, let's make her
(46:37):
comfortable, kind of thing.
But I do have people gettingout of bed, getting from
wheelchairs to walkers, fromwalkers to walking again, and I
have a lot of that.
I have a lot of people get offhospice.
You know, eventually they'reprobably going to go.
We're all going to go onhospice someday.
(46:59):
But you know we're stillextending their lives and
quality.
What I'm trying to do isimprove their quality of life so
even if they don't go home,they can go out to dinner at a
restaurant with their family.
They can go home for theweekend, they can spend
Thanksgiving or Christmas athome and not at my home.
We had a 98 year old guy go ona cruise with this family and we
(47:24):
let them borrow a caregiver.
She got a free cruise out of itand she kind of took care of
them while he was on the cruise.
But you know, he came backsmiling from ear to ear, just
had a great time and passed awaysix months later.
But you know 98 and you'rehappy at the end of your life.
That's a great thing.
Speaker 1 (47:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
Yeah, so it's to me it's improved the quality of
life.
Like we take them out everymonth or two to like a big
outside the home activity andit's just.
It's very logisticallychallenging because we've got
four houses we're trying to puttogether and rides and
everything, but we'll take themon a boat ride around the local
lake.
There's an air force base herethat has air shows.
(48:10):
We take them to that.
We take them.
We.
Actually a friend of mine I usedto be in the air force has a
charity thing where they fly oldWorld War.
I stear and buy planes aroundand take vets up and we kind of
hey, you know I don't have a tonof vets in my home, but I've
got people who know vets orwe're married to a vet, can we
count?
And he was very lenient aboutthat, and so all the ones that
(48:32):
could, you know, do it, climbedup in the buy plane and we gave
them rides around Phoenix, youknow, open air, with the leather
helmet on and the goggles andthat kind of thing.
So we take them to movies.
You know, spring, springtraining is a big thing for
baseball here, so we take themto spring training games every
year.
We've had some of our veteransbe ridden around in the car and
(48:54):
veterans parades and stuff, sowe want them to feel like they
can live a life still, thatthey're not just, you know, a
hospital that looks like a housekind of thing, and I think that
motivates them to and, as wecan get them a little healthier
and a little healthier, itallows them to do more and more
(49:15):
of that and have some fun.
Speaker 1 (49:17):
Yeah, that's amazing.
That just that sounds fantastic.
Yeah, I mean, you know, again,from my own experience, I've
seen tremendous contrast betweenwhat my grandmother experienced
and what most assisted livingor care homes look like, and
it's a world of difference.
And I think you know.
It's encouraging to hear whatyou're saying because you are
within, you know you're withinthe licensed system and yet
(49:39):
you're still finding a way tofocus on the well-being, the
quality of life.
You know all these things thatmake people's lives better.
You know, at the end of theirlives, it can be so much better
even within the licensed system.
I think it's just a fantasticexample.
Speaker 2 (49:58):
Yeah, and you know the surveyors that come out and
audit us and everything likethat, most of them are all for
this.
They're not.
They're not trying to take usdown or you know I'm going to
find something.
You know they're very muchencouraging of it.
And you know I had one surveyorsay, yeah, you missed a couple
(50:19):
of things in your paperwork, but, man, your residents are just
happy as can be.
That's awesome.
And they, you know she said I'dmuch rather have that than you
guys be absolutely perfect onyour paperwork and everyone just
lying around waiting to dieRight.
So you know they get excited.
We made a music video which Ican send you if you want, but we
(50:42):
took Queen's Bohemian Rhapsodyand we turned it into assisted
living rhapsody and we made itover three or four weeks.
On the weekends we brought myson, went to Arizona State and
he had a friend that majored infilm, so he and his buddies came
out and made it for us.
So they had all these collegekids running around setting them
up, doing a little makeup onthem and stuff, and everyone had
(51:06):
a great time doing that.
Well, I showed it to one of ourinspectors and she showed it to
the staff meeting at theDepartment of Health.
So I think they're, you know, Ithink they're all excited about
this stuff and it's nice thatthey're not like well, we're
going to clamp down on that, youknow, and make sure you're not
exercising, and where they'regoing to hurt themselves and all
(51:28):
that they're like, go for it.
You know they're very open toit, which makes it wonderful to
work with them.
Speaker 1 (51:35):
Yeah, that's fantastic.
Where can people find youwhat's online Is?
Speaker 2 (51:43):
there Go to Jero Madams.
So our website is the letter A,and then paradiseforparentscom.
We on Twitter, obviously, atHal Cranmer, or our Paradise for
Parents.
You can probably search for ittoo.
(52:04):
We have a Facebook page that isParadise for Parents Assisted
Living, where we post fun photosof stuff we're doing.
I think those are the main ones.
I've got an Instagram assistedliving Hal Cranmer, but I'm
really bad about posting on thatone.
But yeah, the website's the bigone.
(52:24):
It'll have some videos.
That, though you mean, rapsthese videos right on the front
page there to scroll down alittle.
I can send you the YouTube linktoo.
Speaker 1 (52:33):
Okay, great, that would be great, thank you.
Anything else you want to add?
Speaker 2 (52:38):
No, I just thank you for letting us do this.
I actually met your dad when Ilived in Minneapolis.
He came up there for aconference with Tom Woods.
I loved all of the articles heused to write.
I love your articles you write.
I see those on lorakwellcom.
It's great to meet you as well.
(53:00):
I guess that's the big thing Iwanted to say.
Speaker 1 (53:02):
Thank you.
Thank you.
Well, it's been wonderful tomeet you and I'm so thrilled
with what you're doing.
I think part of it is just it'sso wonderful to get an example
out there of what can be done,because then it's like everyone
else what's your excuse?
Speaker 2 (53:18):
Right, that's what I'm hoping.
Senior I have a grandson nowand he's the cutest thing in the
world and he's everything to me, but he gets attention all the
time.
All the little kids are likeeveryone thinks they're so cute,
want to have the pictures spenttons of time.
All people kind of getneglected, in my opinion, in the
(53:40):
United States.
We isolated them, I mean yeah,you know, everyone's so worried
about their safety that theyjust don't let them do anything,
and that's going to kill usfast as any disease.
So, and those are the peoplethat really built America.
You know, the kids arewonderful, but they haven't done
anything.
You know, they're all potential, so we should pay them back by
(54:03):
treating them as best we can andmaking sure they you know they
get their best life as well.
Speaker 1 (54:08):
Yeah, absolutely Absolutely.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (54:13):
It's great, sandy Brittany.
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (54:15):
Great, it's great to meet you.
You've been listening to what,then, must we Do?
The podcast?
For those who understand thestate is the problem and are
seeking solutions For moreepisodes, go to
bretneysubstackcom I G N E dotsubstackcom and subscribe.
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