September 24, 2025 • 32 mins
In today’s fascinating episode, Lisa goes deep into discussing the many personal stories that are shared by her very special guest, Alicia Jones, about the trials and tribulations that Alicia’s clients have shared with her about their experiences coping with Alzheimer’s disease on many different levels. Lisa maintains that what motivates her to continue her quest to raise awareness about dementia are the faces of families that she has walked beside for three decades…a grandparent who forgets their child’s name; a caregiver burning out from exhaustive and endless caregiving hours, and families planning for their future when their present feels completely overwhelming! Lisa and Alicia understand the importance of helping to prepare families, caregivers, and the community if Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia touches their lives, so they don’t feel alone, and can be more proactive in their approach to someone living with dementia vs. struggling through it in a constant state of reaction. Don’t miss this one!
Mentioned Resources:
Free Masterclass: The Three Phase Food and Fitness Formula Every Woman Over 50 Needs to Know : https://dnhocwn6afob5lmi.krtra.com/t/bJmIpi9AXMCp
Website: https://aliciajoneshealthyliving.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW3DusNaZS85xRRcMB_XF8w
About the Guest
Meet Alicia Jones. Since 2006, she has helped transform the health and lives of women over 50 through her fitness and weightloss strategies. Alicia is an expert who has been featured in major outlets including Shape Magazine, VeryWellFit, and Aaptiv. She has a B.A in Kinesiology and adds many certifications to her list of qualifications, including National Coach of Canada (NCCP), Advanced Sports Nutrition, Certified Group Fitness Instructor, Personal Training Specialist, as well as many others. If you’d like to learn more about her unique food and fitness formula, join her free masterclass.
About the Host:
Author Lisa Skinner is a behavioral specialist with expertise in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia. In her 30+year career working with family members and caregivers, Lisa has taught them how to successfully navigate the many challenges that accompany this heartbreaking disease. Lisa is both a Certified Dementia Practitioner and is also a certified dementia care trainer through the Alzheimer’s Association. She also holds a degree in Human Behavior.
Her latest book, “Truth, Lies & Alzheimer’s – Its Secret Faces” continues Lisa’s quest of working with dementia-related illnesses and teaching families and caregivers how to better understand the daunting challenges of brain disease. Her #1 Best-seller book “Not All Who Wander Need Be Lost,” was written at their urging. As someone who has had eight family members diagnosed with dementia, Lisa Skinner has found her calling in helping others through the struggle so they can have a better-quality relationship with their loved ones through education and through her workshops on counter-intuitive solutions and tools to help people effectively manage the symptoms of brain disease. Lisa Skinner has appeared on many national and regional media broadcasts. Lisa helps explain behaviors caused by dementia, encourages those who feel burdened, and gives practical advice for how to respond.
So many people today are heavily impacted by Alzheimer's disease and related dementia. The Alzheimer's Association and the World Health Organization have projected that the number of people who will develop Alzheimer's disease by the year 2050...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Lisa Skinner (00:00):
Hello everybody. Welcome back to another new
episode of The Truth live andAlzheimer's show. I'm Lisa
Skinner, your host, and I'mreally excited to have a very
special guest here with metoday. Please. Let me introduce
her. Her name is Alicia Jones,and since 2006 she has helped
(00:25):
transform the health and thelives of women over 50 through
her fitness and weight lossstrategies. Now, Alicia happens
to be an expert who has beenfeatured in major outlets,
including Shape magazine. Nowthat's impressive, very well fit
(00:47):
and adaptive. She holds abachelor's degree in kinesiology
and adds many certifications toher list of qualifications,
including national coach ofCanada or NCCP, advanced sports
nutrition certified groupfitness instructor, Personal
(01:10):
Training Specialist and manyothers. If you want to learn
more about her unique food andfitness formula, join her free
masterclass link that will be inthe chat. I am just so thrilled
to have you here today, Alicia,and for those of you who might
(01:33):
kind
Alicia Jones (01:33):
of be wondering why we
Lisa Skinner (01:37):
have invited a fitness expert onto the
Alzheimer's show. There's a verygood reason. Alicia and I were
introduced by a mutualcolleague, and we got to
talking, and when we were justkind of finding if we had a
(01:58):
common ground with one another.She mentioned to me that so many
of her clients have shared withher their personal stories
relating to going through anAlzheimer's journey with a loved
one, or they're maybe evenactually caregiving for somebody
(02:21):
with Alzheimer's, and she wassharing some of these stories
that her clients have sharedwith her, and then the light
bulb went off in my head,saying, I know my audience would
not only benefit but would loveto hear what some other people
(02:41):
are going through with thisreally tragic disease. So I
invited her on because, youknow, it's something when we
hear what other people aredealing with, it not only will
prepare us to maybe be aware ofthat situation and maybe how we
can handle it, or how you canhandle it, but also that none of
(03:04):
us are alone in this, and I knowit feels that way to a lot of
people. So anyway, Alicia's herereally to discuss a lot of the
personal stories that has beenshared with her about and it,
and I'm not talking just about acouple of clients, she has
shared with me that the majorityof her clients are dealing with
(03:29):
Alzheimer's disease, or one ofthe other brain diseases that
causes dementia. So with thatsaid, let's give a very warm
welcome to Alicia Jones, hi,Alicia, thanks so much for being
here. I just
Alicia Jones (03:44):
thanks for having me on the show. And exactly what
you said, I have bit I because Iwork with women over 50. I, as
you can imagine, as many of thepeople listening to this program
right now, you are probablywithin that range. You're either
a caregiver, you know, thesandwich generation for kids,
and you've got parents that youmight be taking care of that
(04:06):
have dementia, whether or notthey're living with you at the
time or or they have to havebeen placed in a home, depending
on where they are in theirjourney and where you are with
them. And also many of the thewomen that come to me, the
reason they come to me, whileweight loss is a part of what I
do, absolutely it's that theyare in this next generation
(04:31):
where health is become so vital,so important, and They have
witnessed their parents havedementia, Alzheimer's, cognitive
issues, and they do not want, orthey want to try their best not
to go down that same road. Andthey as you know, exercise is so
(04:52):
vital for staving off dementiaAlzheimer's disease to help
improve cognition and so. So ishealthy nutrition, and so that's
a big reason why these womencome to me. But one of the big
reasons that they come to me aswell is because inside of my
program, we have a huge supportsystem, and what we find is a
(05:15):
lot of these women becomecaregivers to individuals that
are going through their youknow, their parents, their aging
parents, that are going throughAlzheimer's or dementia, whether
that's early stages, and they'restill living in the house. And
so they're caregiving prettymuch 24/7 and as you probably
know, you don't have a secondfor yourself when you're
(05:36):
caregiving to this level. And sothey feel that they're not able
to sleep, that they are gainingweight, that they have brain fog
themselves, that they're achyand sore, and they're trying to
figure out, how do I take careof me so that I am better able
to take care of my loved ones?
Lisa Skinner (05:54):
Oh, that's a major challenge for adult children,
for caregivers, and just to kindof piggyback on two of the
things that you said, we arehave actually seen a shift in
the caregiving model post covid,more and more families, and it's
all has to do with the fact thatthese assisted living and memory
(06:17):
care neighborhoods werecompletely shut down during
covid. They weren't allowed thefamily members care outside.
Caregivers were not allowed inthe buildings to visit, and we
saw a huge increase in problemswith isolation for these folks
(06:39):
living in these environmentswith depression isolation, and
it actually increased thedecline and they passed away.
And as a result of that, we'reseeing a shift in more and more
family members taking on therole of being a caregiver and
(07:01):
bringing their loved one intotheir home. And then to your
point of the exercise, I amreading more and more and more
and more studies that haveactually substantiated the
correlation between gettingregular exercise and brain
(07:23):
health, either delayingcognitive decline, because you
know you're you're exercisingyour brain, you're keeping the
neurons fired up. So these areall becoming known facts that
definitely carry a huge weighton the future of all of our
(07:48):
health.
Alicia Jones (07:49):
Yes, the movement, in and of itself, is a great
predictor of cognitive health.So for example, if you see
somebody who is at the veryearly stages of cognitive
decline, let's say dementia, forexample, you'll notice they
start to shuffle. Yes, they willnot use their arms as much. So
(08:12):
instead of, for the most part,we tend to walk where our right
leg comes forward and our leftarm, and then our left leg and
right arm. So we almost do thisswinging, almost like a soldier
March, but in a very small wayof doing that motion, we don't
swing our arms very, verygrandiosely, you know, if that's
even a word, but we don't swingour arms with huge movement, but
(08:34):
we do tend to have a cross crawlpattern that is right arm, left
leg, left arm, right leg. Andone of the first ways that you
know that cognition is decliningis there's more of a shuffle and
there's less movement in thearms.
Lisa Skinner (08:47):
So that was one of the things that was so
noticeable in Joe Biden thatevery all the reporters were
pointing out. And you could seeit like when he was on TV. I
noticed it. And it's true, whatyou're saying is absolutely
true. Yeah. Oh, the other thingthat a lot of people, and this
is being released, fact, youknow, factually in studies that
(09:13):
have been concluded, is a lot ofpeople, one of the earlier signs
of people, besides the oneyou're saying, the shuffling and
lack of moving the arms is, alot of people who have been
interviewed have said that oneof the first signs, and they
didn't think of it as beinganything back then, but now that
(09:38):
They're reflecting back, a lotof people have now reported that
they've lost their sense ofsmell. That was one of the
earliest signs or symptoms thatthey recall, and it's becoming
well known that a lot of peoplewho are developing a dementia.
(10:00):
That do lose their sense ofsmell, and I've even heard sense
of taste too, but I've heardmore that it's sense of smell,
so that's something that I'veactually incorporated into my
risk factor and presentation tolet people know that this is
becoming more and more and moreevitable to people that they're
(10:22):
reporting. They they noticedthat, yes, doesn't sound like
you had heard that one before.
Alicia Jones (10:28):
No, I hadn't heard the smell. No, not that much.
But I'm more like my my area ofexpertise is movement. So, yeah,
okay, nutrition and so, andeven, like, brain games and that
sort of way of doing exercisefor the brain. So that's really
interesting. Though. I had neverheard that. No, oh yeah, sounds
like covid to me.
Lisa Skinner (10:49):
Well, I thought of that too. It's like, oh my gosh.
That happens to a lot of peoplewhen they have covid. But
evidently, there's a correlationnow between losing sense of
smell and be as being one of thefirst indicators of possible
dementia. Very interesting. Wow.Well, share some of these
personal stories with us. I'mjust can't wait to and I know
(11:14):
that my listeners are going tobe very intrigued by them, for
the reasons I already said,which so they feel that okay,
they're not alone. This, thishas happened to them, and it's
reassuring to know that they'renot the only ones who have
experienced a particularsituation. And the other benefit
(11:38):
is hearing of other experience,real life experiences, if it had
hasn't happened to them, theyknow it could, and would be more
aware of it. So I think this isgoing to be really powerful to
that we're sharing thesepersonal stories that have been
(11:59):
shared with you, with my
Alicia Jones (12:00):
eyes, and they aren't my story. They are my, my
client's story. So I'm going to,you know they've given me
permission to talk about it, butI think one of the the big
things we were talking about,even before we came on this
podcast today, was I was sharingthat, you know, I think we all
know somebody that has beenaffected with dementia or with
(12:25):
some cognitive cognitivedecline, Alzheimer's, it's we
are all. We have all beentouched by it, much like cancer.
I think we all in some way. Weknow somebody, or you know we
have a relative or a friend thathas been touched by cancer. It
is the same thing I find withdementia, especially as the
(12:46):
generations we're getting olderand older, and so one of the
things that isn't reallyfollowing with us is our brain
and our cognition. And so it'strue, we are starting to see
more and more of this issuehere, and what I find most is
that when we are speaking insideof my groups, there tends to be
two, two groups of people, thosethat decided to join my program
(13:09):
after the their their theirloved one has gone into a
facility or passed away, becauseit's finally time to take care
of themselves, and they'rereally feeling that need to do
so, or they're going through thejourney at the same time. And
for those that are going throughthe journey of just discovering
(13:30):
that somebody has had dementiaor the early signs of
Alzheimer's, for for us in thegroups, we're watching from the
beginning of that journey allthe way through until the
individual is placed in a homeor passes away, and to watch the
various stages that somebodygoes through of that grief
(13:51):
process. Because you really dogrief twice, don't you? Yes, you
know, you have that first wherethe person that you knew is no
longer the same. And when we'retalking about the people in my
group, that tends to be theirmother, their father, you know,
it tends to be somebody who,even though they're in their
50s, this was somebody who was amajor, important, wise
(14:13):
individual in their upbringing.And so to watch this shift and
decline of this individual tosomebody that's no longer
recognizable to them as somebodythat was once in this position
of parent and and wisdom,there's this huge grieving
process that takes place, and itI mean, when you're trying to
(14:38):
take care of your health andyour well being, and you're
grieving to this degree, youreally need to give yourself
grace and give yourself time.Because, you know, it's not just
oh, I should be taking care ofmyself and oh, you know, I know
she's not the same person, orhe's not the same person as he
once was. There's that logicalunderstanding, but you literally
(14:59):
are. Grieving that individual,and then that happens once
again, once the person passesvery,
Lisa Skinner (15:06):
very true. And I don't think, I don't know based
on what you've seen with yourclients, but first of all, I
don't think that people areprepared to go through that
grieving process twice. I don'tthink they realize that they
they need to go through thatgrieving process while their
loved one is progressing throughthe stages of the decline and
(15:31):
then again, when they'rephysically gone. I don't think
people even stop to think thatthis is what's going to happen,
but it's very true. And I saythat all the time, it's like,
you lose your person twice,
Alicia Jones (15:46):
yeah. And I think that some level, there's an
acceptance in between. And soI've I again, I've seen I had a
client who's very close with hermother. You know, she's in my
program, and she shared with uswhen her mother got diagnosed,
and her mother lived with herinside of the house, and she
(16:07):
slowly watched her mother slipaway, but with these moments of
clarity, or these moments thatonce again, it was her mother
again. And so it went fromgrieving and being, being in
this place of just deep despairfor the mother that she lost,
but then there became thisacceptance and almost this
(16:30):
gratitude for the moment she gotthe clarity with her mother
again.
Lisa Skinner (16:34):
Oh, that's very endearing. Yeah. What? Okay, so
this particular client, I mean,nobody signs up for this, right?
We can all agree to that nobodysigns up for this. But I agree
with what you're saying that,and I've made the same
observation myself. And as youknow, I've been helping families
(16:56):
for 30 years, everybody seems tohave an Alzheimer's story. Once
you bring the subject up, theydon't necessarily volunteer the
information. Sounds like theythey confide in you. But if the
topic comes up, it does seemlike everybody does truly know
somebody, or has it you knowgoing on within their personal
(17:18):
lives. So this particularclient, did she share with you
how she felt when her mom wasfirst diagnosed and what she did
to prepare herself for you know,these years and years of the
disease progressing? Did sheshare any of that with you?
(17:39):
Because I think we'd all beinterested to know how she
personally dealt with it.
Alicia Jones (17:45):
Yeah, you know, I think the big thing with this
client, at least, is she'salways trying to better herself,
always, always trying to betterherself. The reason she came
into the program was to betterherself. The reason she stuck
around even when you know thediagnosis came in was to better
herself. And so for her, Ialways find that she's like,
(18:09):
What do I need to do now to beable to cope and take care of
this, this moment, or what isgoing on with me? So completely
unrelated to my group, she endedup joining some support help
groups, which was reallyimportant. She has a great
family that is also verysupportive. I think a lot of
times, what I've seen in thepast, not with this particular
(18:32):
participant, but with others, isthat they take it on all
themselves. Yes, they feel thatthey need to be taking it on all
by themselves. And I think oneof the most important things to
do is ask for help and to findmoments where you can take care
of yourself, even for fiveminutes, even for 10 minutes,
something where it is just amoment to be with you, or, you
(18:57):
know, to take care of yourhealth or well being in some
way, because if you do not, youwill not have the energy to take
care of this individual, either,and that's easier said than
done, but at the same time,there are little things that you
can do along the way to make ita little bit easier. Do you
Lisa Skinner (19:15):
have any suggestions? Because this is one
of the biggest challenges thatfamily members and caregivers
face, and I don't think it canbe overstated, how we really
need to pay attention to whatwe're talking about and find
even a couple minutes to pause.Do you have any suggestions of
(19:40):
things that people can do thatcould seriously make a
difference to their day, totheir overwhelm.
Alicia Jones (19:49):
Yes, and you know, I think when we're talking about
in the caregiving with theperson that you are taking care
of within your own home, one ofthe best moments. Or best things
that you can do for yourself isjust before you're going to bed,
you're about to go into bedanyways, you're you're there.
That's a moment for you to dosome meditation, or some deep
(20:11):
belly breaths, something tobring your cortisol down.
Because when you're in aconstant state of care, you are
in a high cortisol moment youare in this so what we need to
do is start to bring thatcortisol down a little bit so
that you can sleep better. Themelatonin rises up. Sleep is
going to help repair not onlyyour brain and your cognition,
(20:34):
but it's also going to help yourest, become stronger and
recover for the next day thatyou will be taking care of
somebody again.
Lisa Skinner (20:43):
Oh, that's a great suggestion. I mean, I don't
think a lot of people were awareof the cortisol piece of it, and
bringing the melatonin up andthe cortisol down. I wasn't, but
that's a great suggestion. Imean, you can find a couple
minutes to do that, right?
Alicia Jones (21:00):
Yes, absolutely. And the best time is before
you're going to go to bed,because we all know things pop
up all the time, and just whenyou have that moment, that's a
big that's a big thing that Isee with my participants that
are caregivers, with somebody inthe home, you sit down for the
meeting, for example, that wehave, and then you're, you're
muting the meeting, and you'regoing, you're, putting your
(21:21):
picture up on the zoom so thatwe can't see you because you're
getting called away for amoment. Or, you know, the the
lawyer called to deal with thetrust, for example, and figuring
out the paperwork for the lovedone, or, or, or, there is always
something that happens, but thatmoment that you go to bed and
the door shuts and you areyou're, for the most part, when
(21:43):
you go into bed and you're goingto lie down and go to sleep,
that's a moment for you rightthere that you can do something
to lower that cortisol level.
Lisa Skinner (21:52):
Perfect, perfect. So what are some of the other
things that people have sharedwith you about, you know, having
a loved one or being a caregiverfor somebody, I mean, because
this is so different, caring forsomebody that is going through
cognitive loss, cognitivedecline, it's much different.
(22:14):
And I'm not, you know, just I'mnot trying to dismiss the
difficulty of other caregivingsituations, but when somebody
loses their core self and theircognitive functions decline to
the point where by the end ofthe disease stage, they pretty
(22:41):
much all their cognitivefunctions are completely gone
from what I've seen in personalexperience. It's probably, I
think, personally andprofessionally, that it's
probably one of the mostdifficult undertakings any buddy
will ever have just because youcan't communicate like you could
(23:05):
when their brains were healthy.And you know, they lose their
ability to reason and to usejudgment, and they're really
falling back on raw emotion forresponding to everything that
happens in their environment,and it's very challenging for
loved ones and caregivers toknow how to really respond and
(23:29):
react to those sorts ofsituations. So what have you
been hearing in terms of whatyour clients have experienced,
like some of the harderchallenges that maybe they've
shared with you, or the thingsthat they just don't know how to
deal with.
Alicia Jones (23:49):
Well, I think the biggest is the fact that they've
lost that person, that it isn'treasoning with them anymore, and
so it's learning how to have aconversation with this new
person and how to no longer tryand reason. So, you know, for
example, I have anotherparticipant in my program whose
father ended up, he's in his90s, but he got dementia and
(24:15):
paranoid dementia, so he's like,people are in my house. People
are, you know, coming after me.And you can't say to this
person, no, they're not.Nobody's here. You know, you
have to find a way to reason andnot reason even just to say,
Okay, well, why don't we changerooms? Or, Oh, now they're not,
(24:36):
because I've done XYZ, almostlike it's what you and I would
consider full out lying. You'renot being truthful on this
event, but this is somethingthat this is the only way for
you to get out of the situation,is to just go with it at that
moment, to basically like, say,Sure, yeah, you know somebody
might be following you. So let'schange rooms, or, Oh, look, I
(24:59):
took care of that. And. And youknow, you go along with it
because it's it isn't rationalat that point. And so I think
many still try and have theserational conversations, because
they haven't taken a moment orunderstood how it needs to be a
shift in the way that youdiscuss things with
Lisa Skinner (25:18):
there's a term for what you just described, we
actually call it. It's amethodology. We call it joining
their reality, because what yousaid is we've already found out
through the school of hardknocks and trial and error that
trying to steer them back intoour reality or convincing them
(25:40):
that what they believe is notreal doesn't work. It just
exacerbates the situation, sogoing along with it is the,
really the most effective way tohandle that particular type of
situation. One thing I
Alicia Jones (25:58):
will say on the movement behalf that I've also
found really interesting. I hadstudied this in university, but
to actually hear this from manyof the participants in my
program that have a loved one,is how music impacts them, and
almost at certain points, canbring them back for that moment
that that snap moment ofclarity. Yeah, you know, they're
(26:21):
able to dance. So for for myclients and participants that
are, that, are that havesomebody that used to dance,
even they can do fullchoreographies, and they're
dancing with their, you know,their loved ones, and they're,
they seem back for a moment, andthis, is really powerful to show
what movement and whatchoreography, what dance, what
(26:45):
music can do in order to helpsomebody's brain.
Lisa Skinner (26:48):
Yeah, this has actually been proven. I can tell
you a million stories of whatI've personally witnessed along
those lines. And you're right,it is powerful. So that's
another good tip and suggestion.And what we've discovered is
because people's short termmemories are basically short
(27:11):
circuiting throughout theprogress of the or the process
of the disease, and they go backinto a different timeframe of
their life, so another period oftheir life, playing music for
them from the like, the prime oftheir life, is more recognizable
(27:31):
and more powerful than if youwere playing something that is
contemporary from today thatthey might not recognize. So,
you know, like if, like, myparents were from the Depression
era, so, you know, some of theirfavorite music might have been,
you know, from that period oftime that would be more
(27:51):
recognizable and have more of animpact on them than if I was
trying to play Beatles music orsomething like that for that
generation.
Alicia Jones (28:01):
Yeah, wow, interesting, for sure, but
that's an activity that you canalso do with your loved one. You
know, dance with them, and thenyou become physically active,
and they're physically active,plus you get this moment that's
really wonderful with them,where they're dancing. And, you
know,
Lisa Skinner (28:18):
a total win, win. Yeah, it's a winter. We've
probably got a few minutes left.But is there any this has really
been fascinating, and I'veenjoyed every second of our
conversation. Is there anythingelse that, before we get into
how people can actually findyou? Is there anything else that
(28:43):
comes to mind that you think wemight not have addressed yet,
that you think my audiencewould, you know, really benefit
from or get great value out of,based on some of the stories
that have been shared with you,of real people going through
this in their real lives and howyou know, they've tried to
(29:07):
manage the situation.
Alicia Jones (29:09):
Yeah, I say definitely get support system
absolutely yes and and acceptsupport as it comes to you.
Definitely, and even accept thatsupport to give yourself that
moment of you time where you cantake care of your health and
well being, even if for 10minutes. And you know, when
we're talking about improvingcognition, when we're talking
(29:31):
about potentially staving offdementia or Alzheimer's, and
when we're talking aboutexercising to do that, it can
take as little as 10 minutes.You don't need to be doing it
for hours and hours in your day.You can do something for 10
minutes, something that's easyand that goes with your energy
levels. And then, you know, workon that meditation piece that we
(29:54):
talked about, and that sleep andbreath in as well.
Lisa Skinner (29:58):
Well. It certainly sounds like a. Lot, because a
lot of people who listen to myshow all over the world are also
in this situation and trying tolearn as much as they can about
the day to day challenges thatwe all face when we are either
caring for somebody or have aloved one living with dementia.
But it certainly sounds like alot of my audience would, or
(30:22):
could definitely benefit fromyour program. So can you share
with us how we can find you?
Alicia Jones (30:30):
Yeah, so I think you mentioned it briefly, but I
have a free masterclass calledthe three phase food and fitness
formula. Every woman over 50needs to know, so I will give
you the link for that, andthat's the free masterclass. You
can also see my videos onYouTube or at Alicia Jones
healthy living.com
Lisa Skinner (30:47):
this has been absolutely invaluable and
incredible, and I've just hungon to everything that you've
said. And again, I just cannottell you how much I appreciate
you coming on the show today andsharing all your expertise and
wonderful suggestions and tipswith my audience. I think that
(31:07):
there's a lot of things thatthey would benefit from that we
talked about today. So thanksagain. Alicia, thanks for having
me. Anytime we'd love to haveyou come back. So this will
conclude today's episode of thetruth, lies and Alzheimer's
show. I'm Lisa Skinner, yourhost, and we will be back next
(31:30):
week with another new episode.And in the meantime, stay happy,
stay healthy, and have a greatrest of your week. Bye for now.
Hello everybody. Welcome back to another new
episode of The Truth live andAlzheimer's show. I'm Lisa
Skinner, your host, and I'mreally excited to have a very
special guest here with metoday. Please. Let me introduce
her. Her name is Alicia Jones,and since 2006 she has helped
(00:25):
transform the health and thelives of women over 50 through
her fitness and weight lossstrategies. Now, Alicia happens
to be an expert who has beenfeatured in major outlets,
including Shape magazine. Nowthat's impressive, very well fit
(00:47):
and adaptive. She holds abachelor's degree in kinesiology
and adds many certifications toher list of qualifications,
including national coach ofCanada or NCCP, advanced sports
nutrition certified groupfitness instructor, Personal
(01:10):
Training Specialist and manyothers. If you want to learn
more about her unique food andfitness formula, join her free
masterclass link that will be inthe chat. I am just so thrilled
to have you here today, Alicia,and for those of you who might
(01:33):
kind
Alicia Jones (01:33):
of be wondering why we
Lisa Skinner (01:37):
have invited a fitness expert onto the
Alzheimer's show. There's a verygood reason. Alicia and I were
introduced by a mutualcolleague, and we got to
talking, and when we were justkind of finding if we had a
(01:58):
common ground with one another.She mentioned to me that so many
of her clients have shared withher their personal stories
relating to going through anAlzheimer's journey with a loved
one, or they're maybe evenactually caregiving for somebody
(02:21):
with Alzheimer's, and she wassharing some of these stories
that her clients have sharedwith her, and then the light
bulb went off in my head,saying, I know my audience would
not only benefit but would loveto hear what some other people
(02:41):
are going through with thisreally tragic disease. So I
invited her on because, youknow, it's something when we
hear what other people aredealing with, it not only will
prepare us to maybe be aware ofthat situation and maybe how we
can handle it, or how you canhandle it, but also that none of
(03:04):
us are alone in this, and I knowit feels that way to a lot of
people. So anyway, Alicia's herereally to discuss a lot of the
personal stories that has beenshared with her about and it,
and I'm not talking just about acouple of clients, she has
shared with me that the majorityof her clients are dealing with
(03:29):
Alzheimer's disease, or one ofthe other brain diseases that
causes dementia. So with thatsaid, let's give a very warm
welcome to Alicia Jones, hi,Alicia, thanks so much for being
here. I just
Alicia Jones (03:44):
thanks for having me on the show. And exactly what
you said, I have bit I because Iwork with women over 50. I, as
you can imagine, as many of thepeople listening to this program
right now, you are probablywithin that range. You're either
a caregiver, you know, thesandwich generation for kids,
and you've got parents that youmight be taking care of that
(04:06):
have dementia, whether or notthey're living with you at the
time or or they have to havebeen placed in a home, depending
on where they are in theirjourney and where you are with
them. And also many of the thewomen that come to me, the
reason they come to me, whileweight loss is a part of what I
do, absolutely it's that theyare in this next generation
(04:31):
where health is become so vital,so important, and They have
witnessed their parents havedementia, Alzheimer's, cognitive
issues, and they do not want, orthey want to try their best not
to go down that same road. Andthey as you know, exercise is so
(04:52):
vital for staving off dementiaAlzheimer's disease to help
improve cognition and so. So ishealthy nutrition, and so that's
a big reason why these womencome to me. But one of the big
reasons that they come to me aswell is because inside of my
program, we have a huge supportsystem, and what we find is a
(05:15):
lot of these women becomecaregivers to individuals that
are going through their youknow, their parents, their aging
parents, that are going throughAlzheimer's or dementia, whether
that's early stages, and they'restill living in the house. And
so they're caregiving prettymuch 24/7 and as you probably
know, you don't have a secondfor yourself when you're
(05:36):
caregiving to this level. And sothey feel that they're not able
to sleep, that they are gainingweight, that they have brain fog
themselves, that they're achyand sore, and they're trying to
figure out, how do I take careof me so that I am better able
to take care of my loved ones?
Lisa Skinner (05:54):
Oh, that's a major challenge for adult children,
for caregivers, and just to kindof piggyback on two of the
things that you said, we arehave actually seen a shift in
the caregiving model post covid,more and more families, and it's
all has to do with the fact thatthese assisted living and memory
(06:17):
care neighborhoods werecompletely shut down during
covid. They weren't allowed thefamily members care outside.
Caregivers were not allowed inthe buildings to visit, and we
saw a huge increase in problemswith isolation for these folks
(06:39):
living in these environmentswith depression isolation, and
it actually increased thedecline and they passed away.
And as a result of that, we'reseeing a shift in more and more
family members taking on therole of being a caregiver and
(07:01):
bringing their loved one intotheir home. And then to your
point of the exercise, I amreading more and more and more
and more studies that haveactually substantiated the
correlation between gettingregular exercise and brain
(07:23):
health, either delayingcognitive decline, because you
know you're you're exercisingyour brain, you're keeping the
neurons fired up. So these areall becoming known facts that
definitely carry a huge weighton the future of all of our
(07:48):
health.
Alicia Jones (07:49):
Yes, the movement, in and of itself, is a great
predictor of cognitive health.So for example, if you see
somebody who is at the veryearly stages of cognitive
decline, let's say dementia, forexample, you'll notice they
start to shuffle. Yes, they willnot use their arms as much. So
(08:12):
instead of, for the most part,we tend to walk where our right
leg comes forward and our leftarm, and then our left leg and
right arm. So we almost do thisswinging, almost like a soldier
March, but in a very small wayof doing that motion, we don't
swing our arms very, verygrandiosely, you know, if that's
even a word, but we don't swingour arms with huge movement, but
(08:34):
we do tend to have a cross crawlpattern that is right arm, left
leg, left arm, right leg. Andone of the first ways that you
know that cognition is decliningis there's more of a shuffle and
there's less movement in thearms.
Lisa Skinner (08:47):
So that was one of the things that was so
noticeable in Joe Biden thatevery all the reporters were
pointing out. And you could seeit like when he was on TV. I
noticed it. And it's true, whatyou're saying is absolutely
true. Yeah. Oh, the other thingthat a lot of people, and this
is being released, fact, youknow, factually in studies that
(09:13):
have been concluded, is a lot ofpeople, one of the earlier signs
of people, besides the oneyou're saying, the shuffling and
lack of moving the arms is, alot of people who have been
interviewed have said that oneof the first signs, and they
didn't think of it as beinganything back then, but now that
(09:38):
They're reflecting back, a lotof people have now reported that
they've lost their sense ofsmell. That was one of the
earliest signs or symptoms thatthey recall, and it's becoming
well known that a lot of peoplewho are developing a dementia.
(10:00):
That do lose their sense ofsmell, and I've even heard sense
of taste too, but I've heardmore that it's sense of smell,
so that's something that I'veactually incorporated into my
risk factor and presentation tolet people know that this is
becoming more and more and moreevitable to people that they're
(10:22):
reporting. They they noticedthat, yes, doesn't sound like
you had heard that one before.
Alicia Jones (10:28):
No, I hadn't heard the smell. No, not that much.
But I'm more like my my area ofexpertise is movement. So, yeah,
okay, nutrition and so, andeven, like, brain games and that
sort of way of doing exercisefor the brain. So that's really
interesting. Though. I had neverheard that. No, oh yeah, sounds
like covid to me.
Lisa Skinner (10:49):
Well, I thought of that too. It's like, oh my gosh.
That happens to a lot of peoplewhen they have covid. But
evidently, there's a correlationnow between losing sense of
smell and be as being one of thefirst indicators of possible
dementia. Very interesting. Wow.Well, share some of these
personal stories with us. I'mjust can't wait to and I know
(11:14):
that my listeners are going tobe very intrigued by them, for
the reasons I already said,which so they feel that okay,
they're not alone. This, thishas happened to them, and it's
reassuring to know that they'renot the only ones who have
experienced a particularsituation. And the other benefit
(11:38):
is hearing of other experience,real life experiences, if it had
hasn't happened to them, theyknow it could, and would be more
aware of it. So I think this isgoing to be really powerful to
that we're sharing thesepersonal stories that have been
(11:59):
shared with you, with my
Alicia Jones (12:00):
eyes, and they aren't my story. They are my, my
client's story. So I'm going to,you know they've given me
permission to talk about it, butI think one of the the big
things we were talking about,even before we came on this
podcast today, was I was sharingthat, you know, I think we all
know somebody that has beenaffected with dementia or with
(12:25):
some cognitive cognitivedecline, Alzheimer's, it's we
are all. We have all beentouched by it, much like cancer.
I think we all in some way. Weknow somebody, or you know we
have a relative or a friend thathas been touched by cancer. It
is the same thing I find withdementia, especially as the
(12:46):
generations we're getting olderand older, and so one of the
things that isn't reallyfollowing with us is our brain
and our cognition. And so it'strue, we are starting to see
more and more of this issuehere, and what I find most is
that when we are speaking insideof my groups, there tends to be
two, two groups of people, thosethat decided to join my program
(13:09):
after the their their theirloved one has gone into a
facility or passed away, becauseit's finally time to take care
of themselves, and they'rereally feeling that need to do
so, or they're going through thejourney at the same time. And
for those that are going throughthe journey of just discovering
(13:30):
that somebody has had dementiaor the early signs of
Alzheimer's, for for us in thegroups, we're watching from the
beginning of that journey allthe way through until the
individual is placed in a homeor passes away, and to watch the
various stages that somebodygoes through of that grief
(13:51):
process. Because you really dogrief twice, don't you? Yes, you
know, you have that first wherethe person that you knew is no
longer the same. And when we'retalking about the people in my
group, that tends to be theirmother, their father, you know,
it tends to be somebody who,even though they're in their
50s, this was somebody who was amajor, important, wise
(14:13):
individual in their upbringing.And so to watch this shift and
decline of this individual tosomebody that's no longer
recognizable to them as somebodythat was once in this position
of parent and and wisdom,there's this huge grieving
process that takes place, and itI mean, when you're trying to
(14:38):
take care of your health andyour well being, and you're
grieving to this degree, youreally need to give yourself
grace and give yourself time.Because, you know, it's not just
oh, I should be taking care ofmyself and oh, you know, I know
she's not the same person, orhe's not the same person as he
once was. There's that logicalunderstanding, but you literally
(14:59):
are. Grieving that individual,and then that happens once
again, once the person passesvery,
Lisa Skinner (15:06):
very true. And I don't think, I don't know based
on what you've seen with yourclients, but first of all, I
don't think that people areprepared to go through that
grieving process twice. I don'tthink they realize that they
they need to go through thatgrieving process while their
loved one is progressing throughthe stages of the decline and
(15:31):
then again, when they'rephysically gone. I don't think
people even stop to think thatthis is what's going to happen,
but it's very true. And I saythat all the time, it's like,
you lose your person twice,
Alicia Jones (15:46):
yeah. And I think that some level, there's an
acceptance in between. And soI've I again, I've seen I had a
client who's very close with hermother. You know, she's in my
program, and she shared with uswhen her mother got diagnosed,
and her mother lived with herinside of the house, and she
(16:07):
slowly watched her mother slipaway, but with these moments of
clarity, or these moments thatonce again, it was her mother
again. And so it went fromgrieving and being, being in
this place of just deep despairfor the mother that she lost,
but then there became thisacceptance and almost this
(16:30):
gratitude for the moment she gotthe clarity with her mother
again.
Lisa Skinner (16:34):
Oh, that's very endearing. Yeah. What? Okay, so
this particular client, I mean,nobody signs up for this, right?
We can all agree to that nobodysigns up for this. But I agree
with what you're saying that,and I've made the same
observation myself. And as youknow, I've been helping families
(16:56):
for 30 years, everybody seems tohave an Alzheimer's story. Once
you bring the subject up, theydon't necessarily volunteer the
information. Sounds like theythey confide in you. But if the
topic comes up, it does seemlike everybody does truly know
somebody, or has it you knowgoing on within their personal
(17:18):
lives. So this particularclient, did she share with you
how she felt when her mom wasfirst diagnosed and what she did
to prepare herself for you know,these years and years of the
disease progressing? Did sheshare any of that with you?
(17:39):
Because I think we'd all beinterested to know how she
personally dealt with it.
Alicia Jones (17:45):
Yeah, you know, I think the big thing with this
client, at least, is she'salways trying to better herself,
always, always trying to betterherself. The reason she came
into the program was to betterherself. The reason she stuck
around even when you know thediagnosis came in was to better
herself. And so for her, Ialways find that she's like,
(18:09):
What do I need to do now to beable to cope and take care of
this, this moment, or what isgoing on with me? So completely
unrelated to my group, she endedup joining some support help
groups, which was reallyimportant. She has a great
family that is also verysupportive. I think a lot of
times, what I've seen in thepast, not with this particular
(18:32):
participant, but with others, isthat they take it on all
themselves. Yes, they feel thatthey need to be taking it on all
by themselves. And I think oneof the most important things to
do is ask for help and to findmoments where you can take care
of yourself, even for fiveminutes, even for 10 minutes,
something where it is just amoment to be with you, or, you
(18:57):
know, to take care of yourhealth or well being in some
way, because if you do not, youwill not have the energy to take
care of this individual, either,and that's easier said than
done, but at the same time,there are little things that you
can do along the way to make ita little bit easier. Do you
Lisa Skinner (19:15):
have any suggestions? Because this is one
of the biggest challenges thatfamily members and caregivers
face, and I don't think it canbe overstated, how we really
need to pay attention to whatwe're talking about and find
even a couple minutes to pause.Do you have any suggestions of
(19:40):
things that people can do thatcould seriously make a
difference to their day, totheir overwhelm.
Alicia Jones (19:49):
Yes, and you know, I think when we're talking about
in the caregiving with theperson that you are taking care
of within your own home, one ofthe best moments. Or best things
that you can do for yourself isjust before you're going to bed,
you're about to go into bedanyways, you're you're there.
That's a moment for you to dosome meditation, or some deep
(20:11):
belly breaths, something tobring your cortisol down.
Because when you're in aconstant state of care, you are
in a high cortisol moment youare in this so what we need to
do is start to bring thatcortisol down a little bit so
that you can sleep better. Themelatonin rises up. Sleep is
going to help repair not onlyyour brain and your cognition,
(20:34):
but it's also going to help yourest, become stronger and
recover for the next day thatyou will be taking care of
somebody again.
Lisa Skinner (20:43):
Oh, that's a great suggestion. I mean, I don't
think a lot of people were awareof the cortisol piece of it, and
bringing the melatonin up andthe cortisol down. I wasn't, but
that's a great suggestion. Imean, you can find a couple
minutes to do that, right?
Alicia Jones (21:00):
Yes, absolutely. And the best time is before
you're going to go to bed,because we all know things pop
up all the time, and just whenyou have that moment, that's a
big that's a big thing that Isee with my participants that
are caregivers, with somebody inthe home, you sit down for the
meeting, for example, that wehave, and then you're, you're
muting the meeting, and you'regoing, you're, putting your
(21:21):
picture up on the zoom so thatwe can't see you because you're
getting called away for amoment. Or, you know, the the
lawyer called to deal with thetrust, for example, and figuring
out the paperwork for the lovedone, or, or, or, there is always
something that happens, but thatmoment that you go to bed and
the door shuts and you areyou're, for the most part, when
(21:43):
you go into bed and you're goingto lie down and go to sleep,
that's a moment for you rightthere that you can do something
to lower that cortisol level.
Lisa Skinner (21:52):
Perfect, perfect. So what are some of the other
things that people have sharedwith you about, you know, having
a loved one or being a caregiverfor somebody, I mean, because
this is so different, caring forsomebody that is going through
cognitive loss, cognitivedecline, it's much different.
(22:14):
And I'm not, you know, just I'mnot trying to dismiss the
difficulty of other caregivingsituations, but when somebody
loses their core self and theircognitive functions decline to
the point where by the end ofthe disease stage, they pretty
(22:41):
much all their cognitivefunctions are completely gone
from what I've seen in personalexperience. It's probably, I
think, personally andprofessionally, that it's
probably one of the mostdifficult undertakings any buddy
will ever have just because youcan't communicate like you could
(23:05):
when their brains were healthy.And you know, they lose their
ability to reason and to usejudgment, and they're really
falling back on raw emotion forresponding to everything that
happens in their environment,and it's very challenging for
loved ones and caregivers toknow how to really respond and
(23:29):
react to those sorts ofsituations. So what have you
been hearing in terms of whatyour clients have experienced,
like some of the harderchallenges that maybe they've
shared with you, or the thingsthat they just don't know how to
deal with.
Alicia Jones (23:49):
Well, I think the biggest is the fact that they've
lost that person, that it isn'treasoning with them anymore, and
so it's learning how to have aconversation with this new
person and how to no longer tryand reason. So, you know, for
example, I have anotherparticipant in my program whose
father ended up, he's in his90s, but he got dementia and
(24:15):
paranoid dementia, so he's like,people are in my house. People
are, you know, coming after me.And you can't say to this
person, no, they're not.Nobody's here. You know, you
have to find a way to reason andnot reason even just to say,
Okay, well, why don't we changerooms? Or, Oh, now they're not,
(24:36):
because I've done XYZ, almostlike it's what you and I would
consider full out lying. You'renot being truthful on this
event, but this is somethingthat this is the only way for
you to get out of the situation,is to just go with it at that
moment, to basically like, say,Sure, yeah, you know somebody
might be following you. So let'schange rooms, or, Oh, look, I
(24:59):
took care of that. And. And youknow, you go along with it
because it's it isn't rationalat that point. And so I think
many still try and have theserational conversations, because
they haven't taken a moment orunderstood how it needs to be a
shift in the way that youdiscuss things with
Lisa Skinner (25:18):
there's a term for what you just described, we
actually call it. It's amethodology. We call it joining
their reality, because what yousaid is we've already found out
through the school of hardknocks and trial and error that
trying to steer them back intoour reality or convincing them
(25:40):
that what they believe is notreal doesn't work. It just
exacerbates the situation, sogoing along with it is the,
really the most effective way tohandle that particular type of
situation. One thing I
Alicia Jones (25:58):
will say on the movement behalf that I've also
found really interesting. I hadstudied this in university, but
to actually hear this from manyof the participants in my
program that have a loved one,is how music impacts them, and
almost at certain points, canbring them back for that moment
that that snap moment ofclarity. Yeah, you know, they're
(26:21):
able to dance. So for for myclients and participants that
are, that, are that havesomebody that used to dance,
even they can do fullchoreographies, and they're
dancing with their, you know,their loved ones, and they're,
they seem back for a moment, andthis, is really powerful to show
what movement and whatchoreography, what dance, what
(26:45):
music can do in order to helpsomebody's brain.
Lisa Skinner (26:48):
Yeah, this has actually been proven. I can tell
you a million stories of whatI've personally witnessed along
those lines. And you're right,it is powerful. So that's
another good tip and suggestion.And what we've discovered is
because people's short termmemories are basically short
(27:11):
circuiting throughout theprogress of the or the process
of the disease, and they go backinto a different timeframe of
their life, so another period oftheir life, playing music for
them from the like, the prime oftheir life, is more recognizable
(27:31):
and more powerful than if youwere playing something that is
contemporary from today thatthey might not recognize. So,
you know, like if, like, myparents were from the Depression
era, so, you know, some of theirfavorite music might have been,
you know, from that period oftime that would be more
(27:51):
recognizable and have more of animpact on them than if I was
trying to play Beatles music orsomething like that for that
generation.
Alicia Jones (28:01):
Yeah, wow, interesting, for sure, but
that's an activity that you canalso do with your loved one. You
know, dance with them, and thenyou become physically active,
and they're physically active,plus you get this moment that's
really wonderful with them,where they're dancing. And, you
know,
Lisa Skinner (28:18):
a total win, win. Yeah, it's a winter. We've
probably got a few minutes left.But is there any this has really
been fascinating, and I'veenjoyed every second of our
conversation. Is there anythingelse that, before we get into
how people can actually findyou? Is there anything else that
(28:43):
comes to mind that you think wemight not have addressed yet,
that you think my audiencewould, you know, really benefit
from or get great value out of,based on some of the stories
that have been shared with you,of real people going through
this in their real lives and howyou know, they've tried to
(29:07):
manage the situation.
Alicia Jones (29:09):
Yeah, I say definitely get support system
absolutely yes and and acceptsupport as it comes to you.
Definitely, and even accept thatsupport to give yourself that
moment of you time where you cantake care of your health and
well being, even if for 10minutes. And you know, when
we're talking about improvingcognition, when we're talking
(29:31):
about potentially staving offdementia or Alzheimer's, and
when we're talking aboutexercising to do that, it can
take as little as 10 minutes.You don't need to be doing it
for hours and hours in your day.You can do something for 10
minutes, something that's easyand that goes with your energy
levels. And then, you know, workon that meditation piece that we
(29:54):
talked about, and that sleep andbreath in as well.
Lisa Skinner (29:58):
Well. It certainly sounds like a. Lot, because a
lot of people who listen to myshow all over the world are also
in this situation and trying tolearn as much as they can about
the day to day challenges thatwe all face when we are either
caring for somebody or have aloved one living with dementia.
But it certainly sounds like alot of my audience would, or
(30:22):
could definitely benefit fromyour program. So can you share
with us how we can find you?
Alicia Jones (30:30):
Yeah, so I think you mentioned it briefly, but I
have a free masterclass calledthe three phase food and fitness
formula. Every woman over 50needs to know, so I will give
you the link for that, andthat's the free masterclass. You
can also see my videos onYouTube or at Alicia Jones
healthy living.com
Lisa Skinner (30:47):
this has been absolutely invaluable and
incredible, and I've just hungon to everything that you've
said. And again, I just cannottell you how much I appreciate
you coming on the show today andsharing all your expertise and
wonderful suggestions and tipswith my audience. I think that
(31:07):
there's a lot of things thatthey would benefit from that we
talked about today. So thanksagain. Alicia, thanks for having
me. Anytime we'd love to haveyou come back. So this will
conclude today's episode of thetruth, lies and Alzheimer's
show. I'm Lisa Skinner, yourhost, and we will be back next
(31:30):
week with another new episode.And in the meantime, stay happy,
stay healthy, and have a greatrest of your week. Bye for now.
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