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Brain Awareness Week & Month 2011-Summary


Heidi & Wendy just finished setting up display at Savannah Ct during Brain Awareness Month

 

Wendy & Heidi presented with proclamation from Tim Lee, Cobb Commission Chair

 

Wendy, Derin with Savannah Ct, & Heidi with the proclamation

Wendy discussing BrainMasters' program

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Working on some BrainMasters Brain Boosters!

Well, March is almost finished as is Brain Awareness Week/Month 2011. Although it’s coming to a close, we must all continue to increase our awareness and knowledge about the brain. Studies continue to be published about the brain’s ability for new learning through neuro or brain plasticity and that cognitive training may delay the onset of Alzheimer’s as a result of neuroplasticity. This is really exciting and pretty close to as good as it currently gets! So, as we wrap up March, we want to share a summary of a couple of our big events.

BrainMasters and Your Brain at ManorCare was our first event for BAW. BrainMasters had an exhibit at ManorCare in Marietta, GA. During this time, Speech-Language Pathologists, Heidi Lipman, M.Ed.,CCC-SLP and Wendy Alexander, M.Ed.,CCC-SLP the co-founders and owners of BrainMasters conducted an educational and hands on interactive workshop focused on brain health, fitness, and maintenance. We served some brain healthy dark chocolate just prior to exercising our brains with some cryptograms. Our event targeted patients, family members, caregivers, staff, and professionals in the area. Our primary objective was to increase awareness of brain health,  research and our BrainMasters program. We believe we successfully achieved our goal with this program!

Our second program for BAW was entitled BrainMasters and Your Brain and was conducted at Savannah Ct. Assisted Living. BrainMasters co-hosted an exhibit and open house at Savannah Court. During this time, Speech-Language Pathologists, Heidi Lipman, M.Ed.,CCC-SLP and Wendy Alexander, M.Ed.,CCC-SLP the co-founders and owners of BrainMasters conducted an educational and hands on interactive workshop focusing on brain health, fitness, and maintenance. This event was primarily targeted for adults with a concentration on assisted living residents, family members, caregivers, staff, and professionals in the area, including home health agencies,local businesses, and senior service agencies. We provided our customary dark chocolate prior to participating in some brain exercises. Our highlight of the event occurred when Tim Lee, Cobb County Commission Chair presented Wendy and Heidi with a proclamation honoring us for our efforts in promoting brain health. Commissioner Lee then declared March as Brain Health Awareness Month for all the residents of Cobb County.

We have been busy and are now scheduling classes, lectures and events for April and May. Please contact us for scheduling! Remember, you are never too old for new learning and never too young to begin building that cognitive reserve! Go brains!

Brain Boosters-Anagrams With A Brain Twist


Human brain

Image via Wikipedia

Well, it’s that time again! Time to exercise your brain, form new brain pathways, build your cognitive reserve, challenge yourself,  engage in new learning! I think you get the point. Let’s try some anagrams today with a brain twist. Create as many new words as you can from the following words.

Go grab a healthy snack-fruit, nuts, veggie sticks, dark chocolate, paired with a healthy beverage-green tea, water, red wine. I just had some red grapes and iced green tea. Ready? Here are your words.

PARKINSONS

STROKE

NEURONS

DENDRITE

AXONS

PLASTICITY

HEMISPHERE

LEARNING

COGNITION

MENTAL

BrainMasters, Brain Boosters, and Brain Awareness 2011


The brains behind BrainMasters have been  busy celebrating  Brain Awareness Week 2011 in conjunction with the Dana Foundation, but it’s not over yet! Tomorrow is our last event, and it’s a big one. BrainMasters will be presented with a proclamation from the Cobb County Commission Chair, Tim Lee. We are receiving this in honor of our efforts to increase the public’s awareness of the brain and brain health.  Commissioner Lee is also proclaiming March as Brain Awareness Month for all the residents of Cobb County! Our event will be held at Savannah Court Assisted Living, and is of course open to the public.  So, if you’re in the area Tuesday March 22, in the morning come on over!

We have shared fun brain facts with everyone, posted Brain Boosters-scrambled words, anagrams, puzzles, etc,  answered your questions, and lead some excellent BrainMasters classes around the Atlanta area. Hopefully, you’ve all increased your overall brain knowledge, desire to exercise your brain, and desire to build your cognitive reserve. As we all know, there is no cure for Alzheimer’s Disease, but there are many things we may do to help stave off the development of this disease. We must exercise our bodies to get our blood pumping, eat a healthy well balanced diet, maintain social interactions, and exercise our brains! Here are a few Brain Boosters to help you form some new neural/brain pathways through brain/neuro plasticity. Keep in mind, we are never too old for new learning and never too young to begin building our cognitive reserves!  Enjoy, have fun!

Unscramble these words. Here is hint. The theme for all these scrambled words is that they are all either brain diseases or disorders.

KSOERT

XTIAAA

UMTASI

YTNAIOSD

EIRINAGM

MLSZIEERAH

SSKNIPROAN

RYSASAPLI

 

BrainMasters Brain Awareness Week Educational Program at ManorCare of Marietta


Wendy and I are having a busy week as we continue to celebrate Brain Awareness Week.  Today we conducted an educational program at ManorCare in Marietta, GA.  We discussed brain plasticity, brain foods, brain health, brain maintenance, brain facts, and brain tips. The brain fact that most surprised the group was that the human brain processes about 70,000 thoughts each day. That is really rather impressive! They were also quite impressed that the human brain uses enough energy to light a 25 watt light bulb. Of course, that naturally developed into a conversation about how to use this human energy in our daily lives. What a great brainstorming session! Believe it or not, there were several people who correctly guessed that the brain weighs approximately 3 pounds!

After our lively educational session Wendy and I presented the brave participants with some BrainMasters Brain Boosters. Today we worked on cryptograms which involve solving a word puzzle with missing letters. We could see the energy in their brains and the number of thought increasing. It was a truly great event!

So with that in mind, let’s work your brains a bit. Using the words   Speech Language Pathologist try and from as many new words as you can. Use letters from all the words. Believe me, there are countless possibilities!  I’ll get you started. Have fun!

path, age, peach,

Brain Awareness Week-Brain Fact and Anagrams


BrainMasters continues to celebrate Brain Awareness Week by educating people about brain health, care and maintenance. Today’s brain fun fact is really interesting! Did you know that the energy used by your brain is enough to light a 25 watt light bulb? Pretty interesting!

Did you enjoy yesterday’s scrambled words? Were you able to figure out all the answers? Today let’s try some anagrams. We will provide a list of words and you rearrange all the letters to form new words. Be sure to use all the letters! For example, if we used GAME as an anagram the new words could be:  A GEM,  MEGA. So, let’s light up those 25 watt bulbs and exercise those brains!

Try anagrams for these words-

ANIMATE

BULLETIN

EVENTS

LETTERS

ANAGRAM

PHOTOS

PEANUT

Have fun and share your answers!

Brain Awareness Week


Today officially kicks off  Brain Awareness Week (BAW), and BrainMasters is proud to be one of The Dana Foundation‘s partners. Be sure and check our BAW Calendar of Events, and join our brain celebration activities to be held during the next 2 weeks.

Here are some facts about BAW.

  • March 14-20, 2011 is BAW’s sixteenth annual celebration.
  • The goal of the campaign is to make the public more aware of the benefits and promise of brain research.
  • BAW is a global partnership of government agencies, scientific organizations, universities, hospitals, service groups, professional associations, schools, and other organizations. Since its inception in 1996, more than 2,600 partners in 82 countries have participated in the campaign.
  • Hundreds of BAW events take place each year. These activities are organized by partners to meet one or more of the following goals: scientific, education, or advocacy outreach.

Here are a couple of quick facts about your brain. Did you know that your brain accounts for ~ 2% of your total body weight and weighs ~ 3 pounds? The brain is one of the body’s largest organs. Interesting, isn’t it?

Now that you have learned a couple of things and fired those neurons, let’s give them a workout and stay sharp!

Unscramble the following words.

STLMTEEAP

ZDAIRW

EINDDEGS

TCEVRIEA

UOMCNL

TPSJOREC

Share your answers with us! Need help with these-just ask us! Enjoy exercising your brain today!

BrainMasters Upcoming Events for Brain Awareness Week and Season


We are so excited about the brain and the upcoming Brain Awareness Week that we have decided that the entire month of March is dedicated to the brain. Why it’s Brain Awareness Season! Please join us at these upcoming events in support of Brain Awareness Week and Season!



BrainMasters classes will be held March 14-18, 2011 at the Barclay in Buckhead (Atlanta). Reservations are required for participation in the series. Contact us now to reserve your spot!

Brainmasters will be at ManorCare of Marietta on Wednesday March 16, 2011 1:30-2:30 PM. We will host an information, educational hands on interactive  session about brain health, fitness, and maintenance. This event is open to the public. Contact us for more information.

ManorCare

4360 Johnson Ferry Place

Marietta, GA 30068

BrainMasters is proud to co-host an open house at Savannah Court on Tuesday March 22, 2011, 11:00 AM- 12:00 PM. We will be presented with a Proclamation from the Chairman of the Cobb County Commission in recognition of Brain Awareness Week. There will also be an  information, educational hands on interactive  session about brain health, fitness, and maintenance. This event is open to the public. Contact us for more information.

Join us at Savannah Court!

886 Johnson Ferry Road

Marietta, GA 30068

Senior Growth Tsunami


Have you heard about the upcoming tsunami of senior growth projected in the next decade? This is what researchers from the Urban Institute are calling the mass influx of retiring baby boomers. The Urban Institute has identified the 20 U.S. cities where most of the baby boomers are expected to retire and where senior housing and care will grow as well.

The Urban Institute has predicted that the senior population of Georgia will increase by 40% between 2010 and 2020 just from the aging in place of the baby boomers alone. Georgia is expecting an additional 4% growth from migration of people 65 and older. That’s a significant number!

Are you able to name the 20 metro areas that will experience the most growth as a result from retiring baby boomers? In case you’re not able, here is the list.

1. Raleigh-Cary, NC (31.6%)

2. Austin-Round Rock, TX (30.1%)

3. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA (29.8%)

4. Boise City-Nampa, ID (28.7%)

5. Las Vegas-Paradise, NV (27.8%)

6. Orlando-Kissimmee, FL (27.2%)

7. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX (23.7%)

8. Dallas-Ft. Worth-Arlington, TX (22.7%)

9.  Colorado Springs, CO (22.6%)

10. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX (21.5%)

11.  Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ (21.0%)

12. Charleston-North Charleston, SC (20.8%)

13. Albuquerque, NM (19.5%)

14. Tuscon, AZ (19.2%)

15. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC/VA (19.1%)

16. Salt Lake City, UT (19.0%)

17. Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, NC (18.2%)

18. Denver-Aurora, CO (18.1%)

19. Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN (18.1%)

20. Ogden-Clearfield, UT (18.0%)

What will you do to prepare? How do you fit into the senior growth tsunami? Many of these up and coming seniors will need services to help them successfully age and retain their independence.

At BrainMasters, we are preparing to do our part! We are committed to educating the public by increasing awareness of  brain health, brain fitness, and brain maintenance as part of a healthy lifestyle to achieve longevity and maintain independence. We a proud to be in partnership with The Dana Foundation to promote Brain Awareness Week, March 14-20, 2011.  Be sure and join us for events scheduled throughout  the month of March around the Atlanta area!

Contact us to schedule your brain education series and start building your cognitive reserve. We  want to help you improve  your brain health!

 

BrainMasters and Brain Awareness Week


Brain Awareness Week 2011 is almost here-March 14-20, 2011.  BrainMasters is proud to be a partner with  The Dana Foundation in support of BAW.  What are you doing that week? Here is a sample of one of our scheduled events around Atlanta.

BrainMasters will have an exhibit and open house at Savannah Court Assisted Living,  Marietta, Georgia. During this time, Heidi Lipman, M.Ed.,CCC-SLP and Wendy Alexander, M.Ed.,CCC-SLP the co-founders and owners of BrainMasters will conduct an educational and hands on interactive workshop focusing on brain health, brain fitness, and brain maintenance. Our event is primarily targeted for adults with a concentration on assisted living residents, family members, friends, caregivers, staff, and professionals in the area. The event is of course open to the public, and all are invited to join us.

With more and more attention focusing on anti-aging, healthy living, and aging in place it is more important than ever to learn about the brain and brain health. This is especially true as our population continues to age and Alzheimer’s Disease is on the rise with someone currently developing it every 70 seconds and by the year 2050 it will be every 33 seconds. These statistics are  frightening to say the least!  So, make it a goal to increase your knowledge of the brain, exercise your brain, exercise your body, eat a healthy diet, and be positive! These all contribute to healthy aging and longevity. Isn’t that what we all want?

 

Brain Awareness Week


Did you know that March 14-20, 2011 is Brain Awareness Week? Brain Awareness Week (BAW) is the global campaign to increase public awareness of the progress and benefits of brain research. BAW unites the efforts of universities,
hospitals, patient groups, government agencies, service organizations, professional
associations, and schools from around the world in a week-long celebration of the
brain. Since its inception in 1996, more than 2,400 partners in 76 countries have
participated in the campaign. Founded and coordinated by the Dana Alliance for Brain
Initiatives and European Dana Alliance for the Brain, BAW is celebrating its sixteenth
anniversary campaign from March 14-20, 2011.  What are your “brain” plans for the week?

BrainMasters is proud to be a partner of the Dana Foundation and Brain Awareness Week!  We are busy planning events for the week and currently have one scheduled at Savannah Court Assisted Living in East Cobb on Tuesday March 15, 2011.  Our event will be an educational and hands on interactive workshop focusing on brain health, fitness, and maintenance.  Mark your calendars now and more details to follow.

 

 

 

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