In either case, their brains WILL have the appropriate emotional reaction (e.g., horror, sadness, worry, fear).  Alas, their brains might NOT be able to process and healthfully release the negative emotions.  The results can include:  sleeplessness, agitation, negative activities, etc.  That will likely trigger anti-agitation medication, which will likely diminish cognition, which will likely diminish Mom’s and Dad’s daily Joy….

So, practice Betty’s Love, instead!

Focus their attention on JOY – including these Betty’s Three Things^TM for today:

1. EnJOY the Autumn! In the Northern Hemisphere, the trees are turning, so enJOY their beauty.  Better yet:  Take Mom to the Arboretum – Betty’s Love can teach you how!

2. Go Golfing WITH Dad. Even if he can’t golf anymore, he still CAN enJOY the cameraderie, the trees, the birds.  In fact:  Whistle with Dad to a cardinal – and experience Dad’s pure JOY when the cardinal whistles back!

3. Watch golf on TV – or listen to happy music. Golf tournaments are (usually) calm and the venues lovely; better, go golfing with Dad!  Even if he can’t swing, he will enJOY the camaraderie, landscape, and just BEing with you!  Or, put on a 1940s swing song and dance with Mom in the kitchen!  If Gram is further along in her journey, choose her favorite classical composer – and simply hold her hand while you both enjoy its strains.  If Grandpa is in hospital or in an agitated state, choose spiritual songs and watch his calm return.

To learn more about all your family CAN do with JOY to connect with those you love – at every age, in every stage, every day – contact us.

If you are able, please help Betty’s Love grow.

As we all pray today for those in harm’s way – for any reason, including cognitive impairment – remember that you and your family are in our prayers, too.

Betty’s Love:  So much we CAN do.  So much JOY!™

Super Bowl Champion Chicago Bear Dave Duerson, before taking his own life, wrote a note donating his brain for research.  Long suffering myriad symptoms of dementia, an autopsy of Duerson’s brain confirms what many believe to be an under-reported issue for professional and amateur athletes alike:  Dave Duerson did, indeed, have the tangles of dementia in an otherwise-healthy brain.  Repetitive brain trauma – from impacts as violent as to a boxer or NFL player to those as simple as falling off a bicycle – can cause chronic traumatic encephalopathy (‘CTE’), a dementia-like brain disease afflicting athletes exposed to repeated brain trauma.

This disturbing news (‘disturbing’ both for its veracity and its under-reportedness) supports the long-held Betty’s Tenet (and Betty’s Learning Program):  A Proper Diagnosis™ is key to understanding, treating, and thriving Joy-fully despite any form of dementia or cognitive impairment.

Read more about Dave Duerson’s brain tangled results and NFL players’ experience with CTE.  And, please:  At any age, if you do fall off your bicycle, stumble and bump your head, or simply bang your forehead on a cabinet door, ice it immediately and, if appropriate to your medical health, take an NSAID to help reduce any possible swelling in your brain.

Please protect, nourish, and boost your brain every day. AND: Join Betty’s Love in ADvocating™ to make BRAIN health THE hot topic!

Write to CNN to do a CAN-JOY! story about Betty’s Love!

Tweet Dr. Gupta to report about @BettyLove and CAN-JOY!

Facebook Dr. Gupta to report on Betty’s Love and CAN-JOY!
(Actually, there are several Sanjay Guptas on Facebook – write them all!)

Write to Oprah to produce an OWN show with Betty’s Love!
(And, yes, Oprah still gets and sends e-mail at oprah@ophrah.com  Love the brain-helping e-mail address!)

Then, join us for our FREE and low-cost programs ONLY Betty’s Love is providing families!

Read more about Betty’s Tenets and how we CAN help your family.

Get more News You CAN Use-with-Love.™

Then:  Get busy in Betty’s Love! Join us with your whole family for Betty’s University Programs like All-Bra(i)n Nutrition™ that teach you what you need to know and all you CAN do to protect, nourish, and boost your family’s cognition – at every age, in every stage, every day.

Join us for ALL the FREE and low-cost programs ONLY Betty’s Love is providing families.  They’re practical, proven, and positive. AND, in Betty’s Love, there’s always somethin’ fishy goin’ on!

Read more about our Core Programs for families like yours.

Join us for our FREE and low-cost Programs!

Help us grow, if you can!

And remember (pun intended):  So much we CAN do.  So much JOY!™

… AND only Betty’s Love always adds: What’s good for your heart is great for your BRAIN!

Thanks to a no-nonsense doctor and a good-sense decision, former President Bill Clinton has changed his McDonald’s-eatin’ ways.  We all know that’s good for him and to inspire others; it’s why Sanjay Gupta, M.D., did an in-depth report on CNN.

But/AND Betty’s Love respectfully asks Dr. Gupta:

WHY isn’t the next SYNAPSE made to tout heart health’s positivity for the brain???

Join Betty’s Love in ADvocating™ to make BRAIN health THE hot topic!

Write to CNN to do a CAN-JOY! story about Betty’s Love!

Tweet Dr. Gupta to report about @BettyLove and CAN-JOY!

Facebook Dr. Gupta to report on Betty’s Love and CAN-JOY!
(Actually, there are several Sanjay Guptas on Facebook – write them all!)

Write to Oprah to produce an OWN show with Betty’s Love!
(And, yes, Oprah still gets and sends e-mail at oprah@ophrah.com  Love the brain-helping e-mail address!)

THANKS!  Then, join us for our FREE and low-cost programs ONLY Betty’s Love is providing families!

Read more about our Core Programs for families like yours.

Join us for our FREE and low-cost Programs!

Help us grow, if you can!

Betty’s Love:  So much we CAN do. So much JOY!™

The Good News:

The Better News: The higher the amount of chocolate, the lower the risk of heart attack and stroke!

The Disappointment: The amount of chocolate was only 2″ or so, twice a week.  Sigh….

The study indicates that the antioxidant value of chocolate might be the cause of the reduced risks.  More study is warranted; study volunteers expected to be plentiful.  Read more on this study in the Chicago Tribune and in the British Medical Journal findings.

Betty’s Tip o’the Day™ – for nearly 10 years: Make it DARK chocolate and you’ll boost your heart AND BRAIN, thanks to the flavinoids found in higher concentration in dark chocolate than in milk chocolate. Nourish your brain every day with walnuts, pomegranate, and DARK chocolate! For DOUBLE the Betty’s Brain Booster™ enJOY your dark chocolate with caffeine!

Read more about Betty’s Tenets and how we CAN help your family.

Get more News You CAN Use-with-Love.™

Then:  Get busy in Betty’s Love! Join us with your whole family for Betty’s University Programs like All-Bra(i)n Nutrition™ that teach you what you need to know and all you CAN do to nourish and boost your family’s cognition – at every age, in every stage, every day.

Join us for all the FREE and low-cost programs ONLY Betty’s Love is providing families.  They’re practical, proven, and positive. AND, in Betty’s Love, there’s always somethin’ fishy goin’ on!

Read more about our Core Programs for families like yours.

Join us for our FREE and low-cost Programs!

Help us grow, if you can!

And remember (pun intended):  So much we CAN do.  So much JOY!™

Get more News You CAN Use-with-Love.™

Well … turns out that, as in so many things, Betty was right:  Laughter has been proven to increase healthy blood flow.

For the first time, scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have gauged that laughter-provoking movies cause blood vessel tissue (the endothelium) to dilate and expand to increase blood flow. Stress-inducing movies caused vasoconstriction, reducing blood flow.   The net/net:

Increased blood flow CAN reduce heart risk; hence, laughter really IS good medicine!

More important to Betty’s Love Families:  Increased blood flow CAN also boost cognition!

Read more about the study – AND how Bach boost brains, too – in this article in The Irish Times.

Then:  Get Busy LAUGHING with Betty’s Love!

Join us soon and often for Movie Madness (in a GOOD Way!) – and bring Mom or Dad!
Click here to see the schedule for our next Movie Date!

Read more about our Core Programs for families like yours.
Join us for all the FREE and low-cost programs ONLY Betty’s Love is providing families.  They’re practical, proven, and positive. AND, in Betty’s Love, there’s always a Betty Gavin Signature Hug AND LAUGHTER waiting for YOU!

Help us grow, if you can.

And remember (pun intended):  So much we CAN do.  So much JOY!™

Are you starting to think about the upcoming holidays - AND:

• You’ve neither enough daylight for errands – nor enough energy?
• Dad’s losing interest in outdoor activities?
• You wish you could take Mom for a leaves-viewing getaway?

Let Betty’s Love embrace, empower, and engage your family with all you CAN do to put the JOY back in your Autumn and Holiday Events-with-Love! Waning sunshine can sometimes play havoc with Mom’s and Dad’s acuity - and families, friends, and caregivers can have trouble staying in the Joy.  Does Mom get impatient while shopping for Halloween costumes?  Does Dad not want to go to Junior’s soccer games?  Will your Autumn Trees getaway be “just too long” … or “too far away” … or … or … or …???

• We’re Betty’s Love.  We get it.
• Better:  We believe we know why it happens.
• Best:  We’re proving we know what to do about it!

Join us for our Activities- and Events-with-Love!  AND:  Bring Mom or Dad with you!  ONLY Betty’s Love is providing families with practical, proven, and positive programs for all generations of your family.  AND, in Betty’s Love, there’s always a Betty Gavin Signature Hug AND LAUGHTER waiting for YOU!

Read more about our Core Programs for families like yours like All-Bra(i)n Nutrition for practical, proven tips to get and keep brain healthy – even/especially on Halloween!

If you can’t visit Our Heartquarters in La Grange, call 708-420-LOVE (-5683) and we’ll walk you through some simple things you CAN do with JOY at home … today … right now.

Book your Family into Betty’s Love today! Read more about Betty’s most popular Lessons-with-Love that teach you what to do – and ‘how to’ and why – to make the most of every day with Mom, Dad, children, and anyone with cognitive challenges.

Help us grow, if you can.

And remember (pun intended):

We’re Betty’s Love.  So much we CAN do.  So much JOY!™

Scientists in Japan have recently completed research that again confirms the positive effects of n-3 fatty acids – such as are found in salmon and tuna – on lab animals modeling Alzheimer’s.  AND they show that n-3 fatty acids can have situational effects (our term) – i.e., the animals responded positively during treatment period, especially in maze exercises.  Read more on this study from scientific publisher RSC Publishing.

Betty’s Tip o’the Day™ – for years: Nourish your brain with oily fish several times a week! It CAN help boost cognition – at every age, in every stage.  Especially, oily fish CAN boost the part of the brain that will help Mom or Dad KEEP BALANCE … and, thereby, not fall and break a bone or worse.

Read more about Betty’s Tenets and how we CAN help your family.

Get more News You CAN Use-with-Love.™

Then:  Get busy in Betty’s Love! Join us with your whole family for Betty’s University Programs like All-Bra(i)n Nutrition™ that teach you what you need to know and all you CAN do to nourish and boost your family’s cognition – at every age, in every stage, every day.

Join us for all the FREE and low-cost programs ONLY Betty’s Love is providing families.  They’re practical, proven, and positive. AND, in Betty’s Love, there’s always somethin’ fishy goin’ on!

Read more about our Core Programs for families like yours.

Join us for our FREE and low-cost Programs!

Help us grow, if you can!

And remember (pun intended):  So much we CAN do.  So much JOY!™

 

 

 

 

La Grange Highlands Women’s Club ["LGHWC"] has selected Betty’s Love as its charity of the year!  These amazing, generous-brained women organize special events throughout the year to raise funds to support a local charity.  Betty’s Love is grateful, indeed!

LGHWC is a community outreach club that includes all women residing in the LaGrange Highlands School District. We normally meet the 1st Tuesday of each month at the LaGrange Highlands Presbyterian Church.  The evenings are enjoyable, social events that also focus on our work in the community.

Please join LGHWC and Betty’s Love for an evening of embrace and empowerment at the next LGHWC Meeting:

Tuesday, October 4, 2011
7:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Highlands Presbyterian Church
1901 West 58th Place
La Grange Highlands, Illinois 60525

And please support LGHWC at its annual Crafts Fair! LGHWC hosts a Crafts Fair and several other fundraising activities that go on throughout the day: Cafe that provides a homemade lunch; Kids’ Raffle and Face Painting; General Raffle; and Grand Raffle.  Please join us:

Saturday, November 19th
Doors Open at 9:00 a.m.
Highlands Middle School Gymnasium
1850 West Plainfield Road
La Grange Highlands, Illinois 60525

For more information and to join the La Grange Highlands Women’s Club and for more information, please contact Judy Evans at judyevans11@gmail.com or (708) 224-7627.

For more ways your organization or company can support Betty’s Love Families like yours find support they need, get information they deserve, and take action with all they CAN do every day with JOY, please click here.

You might hear of a story in the news that a study administering insulin through the nose “improves memory.”

What we think you need to know: Four-year study of a total of 104 participants with ‘amnestic mild cognitive impairment’ [i.e., partial or total loss of memory ascribed to mild cognitive impairment - that grey area between normal memory loss and clinically diagnosed (we hope) dementia] or ‘mild to moderate’ Alzheimer’s disease.  Two dosage levels of insulin were administered by a nurse through the nose.

‘Delayed story recall’ is the ability to recall details of a story after a period of time.  In this case:

1.  Participants listened to a story with 44 bits of information.
2.  Immediately thereafter, participants were asked to recall as many bits of information as possible.
3.  20 minutes later, participants were again asked to recall as many bits of information as possible.

This study’s results showed a minor improvement in the ability to remember bits of information.  While this is a small study, its intent to study the ability of insulin to improve synapses is both newsworthy and hope inducing.  However, the headlines ‘Insulin Improves Memory’ might be both misleading and unfairly hope engendering.

That said – and more important to Betty’s Love, as we are all about thriving despite cognitive impairment one day at a time:  The study includes an increase in ‘functional abilities’ as rated by the participants’ caregivers.  Again:  Small study but BIG news!

What Betty’s Love says every day: Please make diabetes testing a part of your family’s diagnostic journey (and so it is).  Also:  So much we CAN do with nutrition!  Please nourish your family’s brains – at every age, every day!

Learn more about Betty’s Learning Programs like All-Bra(i)n Nutrition™ and A Proper Diagnosis.™  Then, book your family for a lesson today – in person, by phone, or via Skype!

Read more about our Core Programs for families like yours.
Join us for all the FREE and low-cost programs ONLY Betty’s Love is providing families.  They’re practical, proven, and positive. AND, in Betty’s Love, there’s always a Betty Gavin Signature Hug AND LAUGHTER waiting for YOU!

Learn more about ALL your family CAN do with JOY to connect with those you love – at every age, in every stage, every day.  It’s A LOT.  Contact us today.

Help us grow, if you can.

And remember (pun intended): We’re Betty’s Love.  So much we CAN do.  So much JOY!™

If Mom or Dad has Alzheimer’s / dementia / cognitive impairment, please TURN OFF THE TV!  As we teach in Betty’s Tenets™ and prove every day:  Mom and Dad CAN COMPREHEND the frightening news they see and hear on the news, in movies, or in stories.  Worse, they sometimes CAN RETAIN them.

In either case, their brains WILL have the appropriate emotional reaction (e.g., horror, sadness, worry, fear).  Alas, their brains might NOT be able to process and healthfully release the negative emotions.  The results can include:  sleeplessness, agitation, negative activities, etc.  That will likely trigger anti-agitation medication, which will likely diminish cognition, which will likely diminish Mom’s and Dad’s daily Joy….

So, practice Betty’s Love, instead!

Focus their attention on JOY – including these Betty’s Three Things^TM for today:

1. EnJOY the last days of Summer! Summer in the Northern Hemisphere is already waning, so enJOY its every blessing.  Better yet:  Take Mom to the beach one more time – Betty’s Love can teach you how!

2. Watch and name and listen to the birds. Better yet:  Whistle with Dad to a cardinal – and experience Dad’s pure JOY when the cardinal whistles back!  If the birds have all gone to nest … watch a Cary Grant movie or musical instead!

3. Take Dad golfing or listen to happy music. Golf tournaments are (usually) calm and the venues lovely; better, go golfing with Dad!  Even if he can’t swing, he will enJOY the camaraderie, landscape, and just BEing with you!  Or, put on a 1940s swing song and dance with Mom in the kitchen!  If Gram is further along in her journey, choose her favorite classical composer – and simply hold her hand while you both enjoy its strains.  If Grandpa is in hospital or in an agitated state, choose spiritual songs and watch his calm return.

As we all pray today for those in harm’s way – for any reason, including cognitive impairment – remember that you and your family are in our prayers, too.

To learn more about all your family CAN do with JOY to connect with those you love – at every age, in every stage, every day – contact us.

Read more about our Core Programs for families like yours.
Join us for all the FREE and low-cost programs ONLY Betty’s Love is providing families.  They’re practical, proven, and positive. AND, in Betty’s Love, there’s always a Betty Gavin Signature Hug AND LAUGHTER waiting for YOU!

Help us grow, if you can.

And remember (pun intended): We’re Betty’s Love.  So much we CAN do.  So much JOY!™

Common. Viable. Pervasive. Dangerous. Depression is almost always a factor in Betty’s Love Families’ lives – for Mom or Dad, who has been diagnosed (properly or otherwise) AND their spouses, families, friends, and caregivers.  Of course it is.

Dad’s feels he’s unable to care for his beloved wife.  Mom’s friends are passing. Uncle Tom can’t drive anymore.  Aunt Mary fell, broke  her hip, and remains in a wheelchair in a nursing home.  AND their children and caregivers are working two jobs to Care-with-Love for them; they’re not sleeping well/enough and probably not nourishing; they’re having a hard time finding their own Joy.

Perhaps, worst of all:  After 110 years of Alzheimer’s studies and billions spent in research, still there is:

no understanding of the root cause(s) of Alzheimer’s disease;
no definitive diagnosis (other than autopsy);
no sustainable treatment;
no cure.

So, of course families who get a diagnosis (proper or otherwise) of Alzheimer’s think two things:  There’s nothing we can do.  Life is over.

Of course you do.

Betty’s Three Things™ re Depression:

3.  A new, four-year study from UT Southwestern Medical Center shows that, if medication (usually a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor or “SSRI”) is not effective, moderate exercise is as effective as a second medication (the usual next step).  Thirty percent of the study participants (whose average depression lasted seven years) reached full remission; another 20 percent displayed “significant improvement” from moderate exercise. Read more about the study. The net/net:  Exercise is good for your brain AND your body!  So, as we always say: Get busy in Betty’s Love! Join us for free and low-cost programs and activities for families, friends, and caregivers – like Betty’s Dancing-with-Love!™

2.  Antidepressants are effective in reducing the emotional symptoms of depression AND in BOOSTING COGNITION!  Join us for Family Matters™ and we’ll tell you what your family needs to know to get a proper Diagnosis, to recognized depression, and more … why you need to know it … and ‘how to’ treat depression … -with-Love.

1.  Emotional Depression is both an oft-unnoticed symptom of dementia AND, if left untreated, it can become a Clinical Depression which can cause or exacerbate Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, or anything that causes what Betty’s Love calls Thinking Not Working.™  Talking about feelings helps.  Join us for Embrace Support Group Meetings for families and caregivers – they’re embracing, empowering, and free – and you CAN join us from wherever in the world you live. In the meantime, remember these Betty’s Three Things:™

1. Everything you’re doing-with-Love is sufficient – i.e., just doing your best is exactly what is needed, one day/hour/breath at a time.
2.  You are not alone any more.
3.  You are Loved.

Now:  Get Busy in Betty’s Love!

Join us for all the FREE and low-cost programs ONLY Betty’s Love is providing families.  They’re practical, proven, and positive. AND, in Betty’s Love, there’s always a Betty Gavin Signature Hug just waiting for you!

Read more about our Core Programs for families like yours.

Join us for our FREE and low-cost Programs!

Help us grow, if you can!

And remember (pun intended):  So much we CAN do.  So much JOY!™

Little Girl Lost by Betty’s Love Practitioner and Parkinson’s Warrior Ann Devine Williams is marvel-ously displayed in Betty’s Love Heartquarters.  It is used with permission.  Ann thrives despite living with Parkinson’s for more than 27 years.  She beats her tremors with a newly found passion for painting – and in painting inspires Betty’s Love Families and the world: When Ann paints, she shakes not. Read more about Ann. Tweet @TeamFox and help Betty’s Love bring Ann to Michael J. Fox’s attention!

Little Girl Lost is used with permission. For more of Ann’s Art and more practical, proven Betty’s Tips o’the Day™ for Caregiving-with-Love™ – wherever in the world you live - pre-order your copy of Betty’s Little Books of Love – CAN-JOY! Journal© … coming soon as an eBook!

If Mom or Dad has Alzheimer’s / dementia / cognitive impairment, please TURN OFF THE TV!  As we teach in Betty’s Tenets™ and prove every day:  Mom and Dad CAN COMPREHEND the frightening news they see and hear on the news, in movies, or in stories.  Worse, they sometimes CAN RETAIN them.

In either case, their brains WILL have the appropriate emotional reaction (e.g., horror, sadness, worry, fear).  Alas, their brains might NOT be able to process and healthfully release the negative emotions.  The results can include:  sleeplessness, agitation, negative activities, etc.  That will likely trigger anti-agitation medication, which will likely diminish cognition, which will likely diminish Mom’s and Dad’s daily Joy….

So, practice Betty’s Love, instead!

Focus their attention on JOY – including these Betty’s Three Things^TM for today:

1. EnJOY the Summer! Summer in the Northern Hemisphere is already waning, so enJOY its every blessing.  Better yet:  Take Mom to the beach – Betty’s Love can teach you how!

2. Watch and name and listen to the birds. Better yet:  Whistle with Dad to a cardinal – and experience Dad’s pure JOY when the cardinal whistles back!  If the birds have all gone to nest … watch a Cary Grant movie or musical instead!

3. Take Dad golfing or listen to happy music. Golf tournaments are (usually) calm and the venues lovely; better, go golfing with Dad!  Even if he can’t swing, he will enJOY the camaraderie, landscape, and just BEing with you!  Or, put on a 1940s swing song and dance with Mom in the kitchen!  If Gram is further along in her journey, choose her favorite classical composer – and simply hold her hand while you both enjoy its strains.  If Grandpa is in hospital or in an agitated state, choose spiritual songs and watch his calm return.

To learn more about all your family CAN do with JOY to connect with those you love – at every age, in every stage, every day – contact us.

If you are able, please help Betty’s Love grow.

As we all pray today for those in harm’s way – for any reason, including cognitive impairment – remember that you and your family are in our prayers, too.

Betty’s Love:  So much we CAN do.  So much JOY!™

The findings of a new study were released August 2011 by the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Network (DIAN).  While only approximately 1% of all cases are this type of Alzheimer’s disease, the study IS important, for at least two reasons:

1.  It shows it might be possible to detect Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s up to 20-30 years before symptoms appear.  And – as we say in Betty’s Tenets™ – getting brain healthy Sooner than Later is KEY!

2.  Any drugs in development to treat this form might, if effective, be also applicable to general Alzheimer’s.

What does Betty’s Love want your family to know?

Diagnosis Is Key to Betty’s Tenets™ Please get a proper diagnosis, perhaps including this test of siblings’ spinal fluid.   We can help! In our consultation and ADvocacy™ and Betty’s University Program A Proper Diagnosis™, we help families determine, based on their unique experiences, symptoms, and familial histories, what to do, why, and ‘how to’ ensure a proper diagnosis, wherever they live in the world.  Contact Betty’s Love today for your family’s free consultation.

Get Busy in Betty’s Love! Once you determine with what you’re dealing – at any age, with any type of Alzheimer’s, dementia, or Thinking Not Working™ – start engaging in Betty’s Activities to restore, boost, and sustain cognition, connections, and quality of Life!

Read more about Betty’s Tenets and how we work with families like yours.  Read more about DIAN in this Chicago Tribune story.

Then, join us for our FREE and low-cost programs ONLY Betty’s Love is providing families.  They’re practical, proven, and positive!

Read more about our Core Programs for families like yours.

Join us for our FREE and low-cost Programs!

Help us grow, if you can!

And remember (pun intended):  So much we CAN do.  So much JOY!™

IBM has developed a microprocessor that is capable of ‘rewiring’ its connections – much like the human brain’s biological synapses work.  Scientists believe that ability might enable the processor to actually ‘learn’ – leading to recreation of brain functionality.  Read more from the BBC, here.

Clearly, we pray that IBM’s SyNAPSE system will, some day, lead to help for brains affected by Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and other cognitive impairments.  May it help families soon!

In the meantime:

Let Betty’s Love help you do all families CAN do (and it’s a lot!) to boost cognition, connections, and quality of Life – and find JOY every day!

Join us for our FREE and low-cost Programs and Services

Read about our Core Programs for Families

Help Betty’s Love grow, if you can!

Betty’s Love:  So much we CAN do. So much JOY!™

Betty’s Love is the only charity only helping families around the world* living with Alzheimer’s, dementia, and cognitive impairment (e.g., Down syndrome, Autism, Parkinson’s disease) find find support they need, get information they deserve, and take action today to boost Mom’s cognition and ensure Dad and the whole family find JOY every day.

To help us better serve families like yours, please send us your ideas on what YOU would like to see more/less/differently.  Please send your ideas today to info@bettyslove.org. Thank you!

YOU can help Betty’s Love grow!

• Raise a Glass to Betty’s Love!

• Wear Jeans to work on Fridays!

• Please support our grassroots movement to change brains, lives, and the world … one family like yours at a time.

Thank you for your generosity!

*Families now resource Betty’s Love from across America and around the world from 100+ countries on five continents.

So much we CAN do. So much JOY!™

Just one, simple interaction with an animal CAN boost someone’s cognition.  Early in a journey through Alzheimer’s disease or dementia — or anything at any age that causes Thinking Not Working™ — being needed by some’one’ and having some’one’ to Love are KEY.  We in Betty’s Love also believe that is part of our human condition.

Later in a journey, even in its last stages — as 20+ years of worldwide research support — animal interaction  Betty’s Love Families are proving that animals — among other Betty’s Best Practices™ — CAN help them on every level with Mom and/or Dad and find JOY every day.

Read this Loving story from La Grange Patch about Ollie. Better yet:  Read it TO or WITH Mom or Dad!  Then, get to your local animal shelter and adopt TWO:  Life for dogs and cats — and humans — is always better when it’s shared … -with-Love.

Never had a pet? Betty’s Board Member Jay Whittle, DVM, and his Staff-with-Love™ will guide you through all you need to know to Care-with-Love™ for your new family member.

Have a pet? Please take her to visit your local nursing home.  It’s great for its residents’ brains AND Spirits … AND, as you’ll read, it’s great for Ollie’s Spirit, too!

P.S. – If ever you feel like Buddy, seen in Betty’s Love’s Heartquarters … please:  Hang in there! Betty’s Love promises:

So much we CAN do. So much JOY!™

Yet again, Betty’s Love must say:  Ya THINK?!

A new study released July 18, 2011, by the Alzheimer’s Association reports that traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) – from falls, shrapnel, even sound concussion — are shown to increase the risk of dementia in veterans.  While this is troubling, indeed, it is not ‘news’ to Betty’s Love.

Just ask Irish boxer Henry Coyle, who ices his brain every time he ices his hands — i.e., after every practice!  Why? Because Betty’s Love raised his awareness and taught him what to do, why, and ‘how to’ protect his brain … -with-Love.

Learn more about the only Alzheimer’s charity only helping families like yours – AND:

• Please help raise awareness today. Visit www.vision.bettyslove.org and help Spread Betty’s Love’s Two NEW Words to veterans and families like yours:  CAN.  JOY!

And, if you’re able:

• Please help us raise funds - so we can help more Betty’s Love Families.  We pray every day for the cause(s), a definitive diagnosis, sustainable treatment, and a cure.   And/But while  $1,000,000 — or your $5.20 — mightn’t result in any of those, it CAN make a difference today to a Betty’s Love Family like yours.

Thank you for supporting Betty’s Vision of JOY today!

Irish Cottage by Betty’s Love Practitioner and Parkinson’s Warrior Ann Devine Williams is marvel-ously displayed in Betty’s Love Heartquarters.  It is used with permission.  Ann thrives despite living with Parkinson’s for more than 27 years.  She beats her tremors with a newly found passion for painting – and in painting inspires Betty’s Love Families and the world: When Ann paints, she shakes not.

Blue Boy is used with permission. For more of Ann’s Art and more practical, proven Betty’s Tips o’the Day™ for Caregiving-with-Love™ — wherever in the world you live — pre-order your copy of Betty’s Little Books of Love CAN-JOY! Journal© …coming soon as an eBook!

Please support Betty’s Vision of Joy.  Thank you!

Our parents teach us a lot of ‘the right things’ to say. Please. Thank you, ma’am.  No, sir.  I’m so sorry for your loss. But, really, what do we say when someone shares her/his family experience with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, or cognitive impairment?

Too often, families diagnosed (properly or otherwise) with Alzheimer’s disease mistakenly think two things: “There’s nothing we can do. Life is over.” But that is not necessarily so!

Betty’s Love’s TWO New Words: CAN. JOY!

Please click here and Spread the Word! It’s simple, secure, and costs nothing.* Just follow the steps to let your family, friends, and colleagues know – and ask them to Spread the Word, too!  Help us raise awareness, so families know what Betty’s Love proves every day:

There is so much families CAN do to boost and sustain cognition and so much JOY we find every day!

Betty’s Love is the only Alzheimer’s charity only helping families find support they need, get information they deserve, and take action today.  Betty’s Love offers 100+ practical, proven, positive programs and services to support, inform, and engage families – all for free or at low cost.

Please, will YOU help Betty’s Love change brains, lives, and the world? We CAN … one family just like ours at a time.

Betty’s Love:  So much we CAN do. So much JOY!™

*Donations are not required nor requested.  And (not “But”) donations are 100% tax deductible and 100% helps families like yours.  For ideas on how you can donate or raise funds for Betty’s Love, please click here.  And remember (pun intended):  Every $5.20 grassroots gift helps Betty’s Love help families like yours.

[Why $5.20?  In everything we do, Betty's Love honors and helps the 52 more families every hour who begin an Alzheimer's journey.  And Alzheimer's is only one form of dementia ... and America is only one country ... and ... read more here....]

1. Betty’s Love is the only Alzheimer’s charity only supporting families.  Read more.
   
2. Only Betty’s Love’s message is practical, proven, and positive:  LOVE. CAN. JOY! Read more.
3. Betty’s Love offers 100+ turn-key programs and services – all for free or at a low cost.  Read more.
   
4. Betty’s Love addresses all stages of each family’s unique, unchartable journey.  Read more.
5. Betty’s Love ADvocates brain health for and supporting all generations of a family.  Read more.
6. Only Betty’s Love is engaging young professionals in Betty’s 20/30 Club – empowering them to keep brain healthy, to connect with grandparents,and to support parents who are caring for grandparents.  Read more.
7. Betty’s Love is proving every day that families CAN thrive in JOY despite all cognitive impairments – caused by Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, Down syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, autism, diabetes, depression, stroke, injury, or anything resulting in Thinking Not Working.™ Read more.
8. Betty’s Love is helping families do all they CAN do — …-with-Love and in JOY! — across America and around the world in 100+ countries on five continents.  Read more.
9. Betty’s Embrace Support Group, Programs, Services, and Products help families because we live the journey.  Betty’s Love’s founder is a daughter, niece (six times), and granddaughter (twice) of Alzheimer’s and dementia.  We get it.  Read more.
10. 100% of your donations to Betty’s Love support families like yours.  Read more.

One more fact:  Three ways YOU can help Betty’s Love today!

• Spread the Word to Families Like Yours:  With one easy click, you can tell 10 friends about Betty’s Love.  Please click now.
• Serve Betty’s Love:  Share your Gifts of time and talent and join the Board of Directors, a Committee, or Betty’s 20/30 Club.  Please share your Gifts today.
• Help Betty’s Love Grow:  $1,000,000 probably won’t cure Alzheimer’s; worse, it mightn’t even determine its cause(s), define a diagnosis, or discover sustainable treatment.  But it CAN change the world for at least 1,000 families like yours.  In true grassroots fashion, every $5.20 helps 52 families just like yours.  Please donate what you can.

So much we CAN do.  So much JOY!™

Betty’s Three Things™ about your donations:

• Betty’s Love was established as a 501c3 public charity only because the families Betty’s daughter was helping insisted on giving her money.
• In the nearly six years we’ve operated as Betty’s Love (with an unpaid staff of one):  Every penny received has been applied to helping 52 families like yours find the practical, proven, positive support they need and information they deserve (and, in both cases, aren’t getting anywhere else).
• Only a handful of families have paid for Betty’s Programs and Services to take action every day - because they are able and wanted to.  No family is ever turned away for inability to pay.

Please help us raise awareness of Betty’s Love and our practical, proven, positive message for families like yours:  LOVE. CAN. JOY! Click here and safely, quickly, simply Spread the Word about Betty’s Love!

If you’re able, and you’d like to, please click here and help Betty’s Love grow so we can help more families like yours learn all we CAN do to boost and sustain cognition and find JOY every day.

In either case, remember (pun intended):

Betty’s Love is here for your family … 100%!

In our work with families like yours, we’re proving that brains affected by Autism, Down syndrome, and Parkinson’s disease can function – or not – like brains affected by Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia.

The GOOD news is that our practical, proven, positive message and methods to do all we CAN do to boost and sustain cognition and find JOY every day works for families living with Autism AND Down syndrome AND Parkinson’s disease AND … AND … AND….

Join us for Betty’s University Programs like Love and Down Syndrome™ (nutrition for and connecting with people of every age living with Down syndrome), Full Spectrum™ (nutrition for and connecting with children despite Autism), and Living with Shakespeare™ (thriving despite Parkinson’s disease).

• All Betty’s Programs have been designed from more than 30 years of first-hand family experience and state-of-science/-art/-healing best practices.
• All are designed for your whole family and are offered for free or low cost.
• Last but not least:  All Betty’s Programs and Services are available to your family in person, by phone, and via Internet – wherever in the world you live.

So much we CAN do. So much JOY!™

For an inspirational story of Hope, JOY, and Love, visit HorseBoyFoundation.org.  Like Betty’s daughter, Rowan’s parents couldn’t wait for a cure – so they and Rowan found help … on a horse … together.

Read more News You Can Use-with-Love.™ Then, contact us today and learn how Betty’s Love will help your family do all you CAN do and find JOY every day!

Blue Boy by Betty’s Love Practitioner and Parkinson’s Warrior Ann Devine Williams is marvel-ously displayed in Betty’s Love Heartquarters.  It is used with permission.  Ann thrives despite living with Parkinson’s for more than 27 years.  She beats her tremors with a newly found passion for painting – and in painting inspires Betty’s Love Families and the world: When Ann paints, she shakes not.

Blue Boy is used with permission. For more of Ann’s Art and more practical, proven Betty’s Tips o’the Day™ for Caregiving-with-Love™ – wherever in the world you live - pre-order your copy of Betty’s Little Books of Love – CAN-JOY! Journal© … coming soon as an eBook!

Please support Betty’s Vision of Joy.  Thank you!

This study is causing debate about a mother’s stress, diet, infections, and age; another study in the same publication found a higher risk of autism among children born to mothers who took antidepressants during the year prior to birth, especially in the first three months of pregnancy.  However, neither study tried to determine what risk factor(s) increase risk – nor why.

As Betty’s Love pleads re Alzheimer’s research:  Please, let’s:  1.  Study both the WHATs and the WHYs; and 2.  Share the research!

In the meantime:  There’s so much Betty’s Love CAN do with/for families living with autism – and so much JOY they can find every day!

Join us for Betty’s University Programs like Full Spectrum™ (nutrition for and connecting with children despite Autism), Love and Down Syndrome™ (nutrition for and connecting with people of every age living with Down syndrome), and Living with Shakespeare™ (thriving despite Parkinson’s disease).

• All Betty’s Programs have been designed from more than 30 years of first-hand family experience and state-of-science/-art/-healing best practices.
• All are designed for your whole family and are offered for free or low cost.
• Last but not least:  All Betty’s Programs and Services are available to your family in person, by phone, and via Internet – wherever in the world you live.

For an inspirational story of Hope, JOY, and Love, visit HorseBoyFoundation.org.  Like Betty’s daughter, Rowan’s parents couldn’t wait for a cure – so they and Rowan found help … on a horse … together.

Read more News You Can Use-with-Love.™ Then, contact Betty’s Love today and learn the WHATs and WHYs of all your family CAN do and find JOY every day!

So much we CAN do. So much JOY!™

In either case, their brains WILL have the appropriate emotional reaction (e.g., horror, sadness, worry, fear).  Alas, their brains might NOT be able to process and healthfully release the negative emotions.  The results can include:  sleeplessness, agitation, negative activities, etc.  That will likely trigger anti-agitation medication, which will likely diminish cognition, which will likely diminish Mom’s and Dad’s daily Joy….

So, practice Betty’s Love, instead!

Focus their attention on JOY – including these Betty’s Three Things^TM for today:

1. EnJOY the Summer! Summer in the Northern Hemisphere is already waning, so enJOY its every blessing.  Better yet:  Take Mom to the beach – Betty’s Love can teach you how!

2. Watch and name and listen to the birds. Better yet:  Whistle with Dad to a cardinal – and experience Dad’s pure JOY when the cardinal whistles back!

3. Watch golf on TV – or listen to happy music. Golf tournaments are (usually) calm and the venues lovely; better, go golfing with Dad!  Even if he can’t swing, he will enJOY the camaraderie, landscape, and just BEing with you!  Or, put on a 1940s swing song and dance with Mom in the kitchen!  If Gram is further along in her journey, choose her favorite classical composer – and simply hold her hand while you both enjoy its strains.  If Grandpa is in hospital or in an agitated state, choose spiritual songs and watch his calm return.

To learn more about all your family CAN do with JOY to connect with those you love – at every age, in every stage, every day – contact us.

If you are able, please help Betty’s Love grow.

As we all pray today for those in harm’s way – for any reason, including cognitive impairment – remember that you and your family are in our prayers, too.

Betty’s Love:  So much we CAN do.  So much JOY!™

Betty’s Love LOVES Michael Flatley – and not just ’cause he’s from our home town! Dancing has long been one of Betty’s Love’s regular activities.  It’s fun, safe, easy – and, even in late stages of a journey, someone with Alzheimer’s or dementia CAN lead, follow, or simply sing along!  Throughout her journey, ‘The’ Betty LOVED watching music and dancing – and performances of every kind.

A favorite memory is watching Betty watch Céilí Dancing at Chicago’s Gaelic Park – or simply listening to Lord of the Dance.  Irish music gave Betty great JOY – and she kept perfect time tapping her hands and feet to the beat.  (Both are brain-boosting feats in themselves!)

So, when the band starts playing this holiday weekend Betty’s Love begs your family:
Get up and Dance - preferably with Mom or Dad!

Betty’s Three Things™ your family CAN do today

1.  Dancing at EVERY age is GREAT for our brains – especially complex dances, like an Old Time Waltz, a High Caul Cap Céilí Dance, and EVERYTHING Michael Flatley does at record-holding speed!

2.  Dancing will help Mom and Dad keep their BALANCE, so they don’t fall and break bones.

3.  Dancing boost and sustains our SPIRITS, too!

So much we CAN do. So much JOY!™

Read more about Betty’s Three Things. Join us for Betty’s Activities – from wherever in the world you live!  Visit Mr. Flatley’s site.

Then, please:  Get up and dance!

P.S. – Thanks for the inspiration, Mr. Flatley:  We’re Dreaming BIG too in changing brains, lives, and the world … one family, one brain-and-Spirit-boosting Lord of the Dance at a time!

Thanks to Trader Joe’s for Brain-Bealthy Treats! Everyone knows that Trader Joe’s is our favorite choice for walnuts, pomegranate juice, 72% dark chocolate, and more.  Thanks to Betty’s Angel and Trader Joe’s  T.J. (really his initials!), Betty’s Love is now sponsored quarterly with gifts of brain-boosting foods and beverages.  We appreciate T.J. and all of his Team at the La Grange, Illinois, Trader Joe’s.  Many crew members know and support our work; some are donors, too.  Blessings to ALL Team Trader Joe’s for believing in and supporting Betty’s Love!  To find the brain-boosting Trader Joe’s near you, please visit http://www.traderjoes.com.

Thanks to The Hiltons of Chicago for Wearing Jeans for Betty’s Love!

Thanks to The ACL Group of Peoria for Wearing Jeans for Betty’s Love!

To learn more about the foods we recommend every family eat every day – and why – join us for Betty’s University.  Better, bring Mom and Dad for Betty’s Activities and Events!

To learn more about how YOUR family, company, or group can sponsor Betty’s Love, please click here!

Thanks to all our sponsors and donors for their generosity. Helping us help families like yours (especially in these financial times) is just-plain GOOD!

Are you anxious about an upcoming Graduation Day?  Do you want to create a memorable day (in a happy-memories way)?  Would you like to organize a lovely brunch for Mom, Dad, and all your family?  Wherever in the world* you live – whether you live with Mom, visit Dad, or are a professional caregiver – we help you to celebrate May’s special days like only Betty’s Love† CAN – and does!

Mom will be happy and pleased.
Dad will be proud and calm.
ALL the family will have a peace-filled, brain-healthy, Joy-full time … -with-Love!

Just call  us today to learn Betty’s Nine Steps to Brunch-with-Love™

If you’re able, please make a donation and help us change the world … one ’The’ Betty at a time:

Sunflowers by Betty’s Love Practitioner
Ann Devine Williams is used with permission.
Ann is a Parkinson’s Warrior, thriving despite her tremors
with a newly found passion for painting.
Ann inspires Betty’s Love Families and the world: 
When Ann paints, she shakes not.

To be inspired by more of Ann’s Art®
and practical, proven Betty’s Tips o’the Day™
for Caregiving-with-Love™ – wherever in the world you live -
pre-order your copy of Betty’s Little Books of Love – Limericks®
… coming in June 2011 as an eBook!

†Betty’s Tenets™ and Best Practices™ are based on effective, worldwide research and 30-plus years of living Joyfully and thriving despite Alzheimer’s and dementia.  Read more here.

*In person, Betty’s Love has embraced, empowered, and engaged 500 families – one family at a time.  On line in 2009 and 2010, Unique Visitors representing thousands of families regularly resourced Betty’s Love from all 50 States and 100+ countries on five continents.

New research from the CARDI (Centre for Ageing Research and Development in Ireland) confirms a long-held Betty’s Tenet:  Medicines given to treat elders in nursing home (e.g., sedatives and benzodiazepines, administered in a common practice to address residents’ ‘agitation’) ultimately puts them at risk of falls and fractures, leading to hospital stays.

The study found that 73% of Irish and Northern Irish nursing-home residents were being given inappropriate medicines.  Of 630 total study samples, half were receiving 8-14 medicines each (on average, 11 medicines daily) – and, of those, one to three are ‘inappropriate.’ The annual cost to each elder of inappropriate medicines is estimated at €170 ($243) in Ireland to €356 ($509) in Northern Ireland.   The study leader Dr. Stephen Byrne calls the study’s findings “a global problem.”

Read more News You Can Use-with-Love.  Read more about this study … then consider these two questions – among Betty’s practical, proven questions we advise families like yours to ask (and informing Betty’s Tenets for more than 30 years):

1.  Why is Dad agitated?
2.  Wat if it’s not agitation that’s causing Mom’s angry outbursts?

Join us soon for pertinent Betty’s University Learning Programs like A Proper Diagnosis™ and 411-Bed™ and Finding Their Joy.™  Learn what your family needs to know, why, and ‘how to’ do it for and with Mom … -with-Love.

If you find this information useful – and surprising – please support Betty’s Love today.  Help us get our transformational message to more families like yours:  So much we CAN do.  So much JOY!

Repetitive brain trauma – from impacts as violent as to a boxer or NFL player to those as simple as falling off a bicycle – can cause chronic traumatic encephalopathy (‘CTE’), a dementia-like brain disease afflicting athletes exposed to repeated brain trauma.

This disturbing news (‘disturbing’ both for its veracity and its under-reportedness) supports the long-held Betty’s Tenet (and Betty’s Learning Program):  A Proper Diagnosis™ is key to understanding, treating, and thriving Joy-fully despite any form of dementia or cognitive impairment.

Read more about Dave Duerson’s brain tangled results and NFL players’ experience with CTE.  For all the News You Can Use-with-Love, please click here.  And, please:  At any age, if you do fall off your bicycle, stumble and bump your head, or simply bang your forehead on a cabinet door, ice it immediately and, if appropriate to your medical health, take an NSAID to help reduce any possible swelling in your brain.

Please protect, nourish, and boost your brain every day. Join Betty’s Love and ensure your family finds the support you need, gets the information you deserve, and takes action today to boost and sustain Mom’s cognition and the whole family’s JOY!

God bless Dave Duerson, his grieving friends and family, and all who selflessly donate their brains and organs for dementia research and all medical studies and transplants.

While others legislate, raise money for research, and labor tirelessly to understand, diagnose, treat, and cure Alzheimer’s disease (and all forms of dementia), only Betty’s Love is only helping families like yours thrive despite Alzheimer’s, dementia, and all cognitive impairment.  Please support our grassroots movement to help families like yours today!

Thank you for helping Betty’s Love grow!

Was yours, like many families’, a stress-filled Father’s Day?  Do you want, instead, to create a memorable brunch (in a happy-memories way) for Mom, Dad, and all your family?  Wherever in the world* you live – whether you live with Dad, visit as often as you can, or are a professional caregiver – we help you to celebrate vacations and Summer visits like only Betty’s Love† CAN – and does!

• Dad will be happy and pleased.
• Mom will be proud and calm.
• ALL the family will have a peace-filled, brain-healthy, Joy-full time … -with-Love!

Get busy in Betty’s Love!

Please make a donation today to help us change the world … one parent like Betty at a time:

Sunflowers by Betty’s Love Practitioner Ann Devine Williams is used with permission.  Ann is a Parkinson’s Warrior, thriving despite her tremors with a newly found passion for painting. Ann inspires Betty’s Love Families and the world:  When Ann paints, she shakes not.

To be inspired by more of Ann’s Art® and practical, proven Betty’s Tips o’the Day™ for Caregiving-with-Love™ – wherever in the world you live – pre-order your copy of Betty’s Little Books of Love – Limericks®
… coming in June 2011 as an eBook!

†Betty’s Tenets™ and Best Practices™ are based on effective, worldwide research and 30-plus years of living Joyfully and thriving despite Alzheimer’s and dementia.  Read more here.

*In person, Betty’s Love has embraced, empowered, and engaged 500 families – one family at a time.  On line in 2009 and 2010, Unique Visitors representing thousands of families regularly resourced Betty’s Love from all 50 States and more than 95 countries on five continents.

When Queen Elizabeth II visited Ireland this May, she made history as the first British Monarch to visit the Republic of Ireland and changed the future history of both Ireland and England.

Also, as she walked up and down dozens of steps (without holding a railing!), got in and out of cars (with complex brain agility!), and met people from all walks of life (with genuine interest and keen comprehension), the 85-year-old Queen Elizabeth II proved several of Betty’s Tenets™ - including:

There’s so much we CAN do to boost and sustain cognition and so much JOY we find every day!

How does the Queen, at 85 – and her husband, Prince Philip, at 90 – keep going?  Precisely by keeping her brilliant brain engaged!  [Click here to read an op-ed article by our founder about the implications of the Queen's visit to Ireland.]

Join Betty’s Love today! Help us raise awareness and raise funds so that more families like yours will find support they need, get information they deserve, and take action today to boost Mom’s cognition and ensure Dad and the whole family find JOY every day!

Betty’s Love:  So much we CAN do. So much JOY!®

Despite 110 years of study and billions spent in research, families worldwide too-often-falsely think they have Alzheimer’s and almost-always think two things:  “There’s nothing we can do.  Life is over.”

Betty’s Love is proving every day: That is not necessarily so! Among Betty’s Tenets™ is our very real – i.e., practical, proven, positive – mantra:

There’s so much we CAN do to boost and sustain cognition and so much JOY we find every day!

Read this New York Times op-ed by Margaret Morganroth Gullette, a scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University and author fighting ageism … then get busy in Betty’s Love!

Help Betty’s Love grow! Help us raise awareness and raise funds so that more families like yours will find support they need, get information they deserve, and take action today to boost Mom’s cognition and ensure Dad and the whole family find JOY every day!

Betty’s Love:  So much we CAN do. So much JOY!®

Today and every day – y dos veces cada domingo – Betty’s Brain Boosters™ and Activities always include multiple languages. For more than 10 years, Betty’s daughter has been promoting language development as a brain booster.  Ask any child she’s met – waiting for a train or in church or at a grocery store – and she/he can  tell you, “Langwuage is the #1 use of my bwain!”

This fundamental Betty’s Tenet™ is recently (again) supported with scientific evidence:  Translating language is a great synaptic exercise.  Bilingual brains apparently use ‘a different kind of network’ and appear to ‘rewire’  – making bilingual brains also better at multitasking.  Bilingual children also tend to be more correct re grammar and perform better on written tests.  Particularly pertinent is that bilingual adults, while not immune to developing Alzheimer’s disease, are able to function with Alzheimer’s for five or six longer than people who speak one language.

Brava! to cognitive neuroscientist Ellen Bialystok, who has studied bilingualism and how it sharpens the mind for more nearly 40 years.  Now a distinguished research professor of psychology at York University in Toronto, she recently was awarded the Killam Prize for her contributions to social science.  Read more in an interview with Dr. Bialystok in this New York Times article.

More important to Betty’s Love – i.e., to you and your family: Start learning a second language today – and keep using it!

Betty’s Love CAN help!

Just ask Betty’s Love Families like Cathy and her Mom, Marilyn – aged 84 and in mid-stage dementia – who learned Spanish in one afternoon of Betty’s Day Out!™  Join us for language lessons AND dance lessons AND music lessons AND …  Fire up ALL of your brain with Betty’s Love – from wherever you live in the world!

Read more about Betty’s Activities and get busy in Betty’s Love today!

Gracias. Merci beaucoup. Grazie. Go raibh maith agat.
Thank you for supporting Betty’s Vision of Joy!

A new study – of taxi drivers! – by London City University proves the correlated parts of our brains engaged in specific activity will literally grow in response.  The study’s lead, Dr. Eleanor Maguire, and her colleagues agree on the neuroplasticity of our brains, saying collectively:  “Cells that fire together wire together.”

The study supports Betty’s Tenets about Engagement:

• There is NO limit to what our brains CAN learn!
• The benefits of a ‘well rounded’ brain far outweigh those of  a singly developed brain – no matter how highly developed it might be!
• Never retire – lest you “cognitively hang up [your] boots.”  Cognitive aging is about engagement, not years!

The only downside?  Engage too much in one activity and that part’s expansion will draw from another part of the brain.  For example:  A cabbie who expands his brain’s mapping function (to know, for example, all the best eateries in Chicago or alternative routes between New York City and The Hamptons) mightn’t be able to recall the last movie he saw, as that part of his brain was overtaken for mapping.

Read more about the study in The Irish Times.  Then:  Learn more about all you CAN do in Betty’s Learning Programs.  Boost and sustain Mom’s cognition in Betty’s Day Out.  Engage your whole family:  Do Sudoku AND crosswords!  Learn a new language AND dance!  Play the piano AND crochet! 

Whatever you do, as we’ve been proving with families like yours for more than 20 years – and to learn why ‘AND’ is a very big word in Betty’s Love:

Get Busy TODAY in Betty’s Love!

Though research in humans is a long way off – this study involves rats bred to have dementia (God bless all research animals) – it does give hope and a wider perspective for what IS possible.  It is, may we say, also is a study in the positivity of TEAMWORK.  Read more in this New York Times article.

While we continue to pray for a definitive diagnosis, a sustainable treatment, and cure for Alzheimer’s disease (and, first, an understanding of the root causes of Alzheimer’s, dementia, and all cognitive impairment), we are helping families like yours thrive despite its symptoms.  Our transformational message IS a new paradigm for Alzheimer’s families worldwide:

There is so much we CAN do to boost and sustain cognition and so much JOY we find every day!

Please Spread the Word so families like yours CAN find Hope, Joy, and Love in 100+ free and low-cost Betty’s Programs and Services.

Please, if you’re able, support our grassroots movement today.

And please get busy in Betty’s Love – and start boosting your whole family’s brains and JOY today!

So much we CAN do. So much JOY!™

This Summer, when it’s time for a second glass of wine at dinner or lunch …  please raise a glass of water instead and send us its cost!  You’ll help raise awareness of Betty’s Love’s CANJOY! message AND your donation will help us grow.

Betty’s Love is the only charity only helping families like yours thrive despite Alzheimer’s, dementia, and cognitive impairment.  No one helps families at every stage of their journeys – at every age – with every form of cognitive impairment.  And no one has a message like ours:   So much we CAN do.  So much JOY!™

Want to support Betty’s Love at every age, in every stage, everywhere in the world?  Thanks – please DO!

• Join Betty’s 20/30 Club to network and change the world.  It’s fun, free, and FABulous!
• Wear Jeans on Fridays instead!
• Host a Betty’s High Tea for us!
• Make a tax-deductible donation today!

P.S. – Red wine, dark chocolate desserts, and caffeine are ALL great for your brain!  Raising a glass o’water for Betty’s Love? … Well, that’s just-plain great for your soul!

Across town / the globe: YOU’RE helping US change the world.*  THANK YOU!

*Families now resource Betty’s Love from across America and around the world from 100+ countries on five continents.

Betty’s Love is the only Alzheimer’s charity only helping families find support they need, get info they deserve, and take action to boost Mom’s cognition and to ensure Dad and the whole family find JOY every day!

Every Friday this March, kind-brained employees around the world* are wearing jeans to work for a tax-deductible donation of $5 or more.  You and your colleagues can be comfortable at work AND help Betty’s Love grow, too!

Please download this Jeans Day Flyer – March and post it in your school or office today. Then, make your donations right here – it safe, fast, and easy!

Thanks for helping Betty’s Love change brains, lives, and the world…one family, one pair of jeans at a time!

Can’t wear jeans to work?

• Raise a Glass o’ LOVE instead!

• Join us for Betty’s brain-boosting, low-cost Activities-with Love!

• Join Betty’s 20/30 Club to network and change the world.  It’s fun, free, and FABulous!

P.S. – Being comfortable at work is great for your brain!  Being comfortable AND supporting Betty’s Love? … Well, that’s just-plain great for your soul!

Special Thanks-with-Love to Betty’s Granddaughter-with-Love, Jennifer Konrath Coole (seen here in 1989 with her adoring “Nan”), for championing the Wear Jeans-with-Love™ Campaign at Latham & Watkins, LLP, in February 2011.

*On average in 2009 and 2010, Unique Visitors resource www.bettyslove.org from all 50 States plus the District of Columbia and U.S. Territories (e.g., Guam, Puerto Rico, Northern Marianas) and from more than 95 countries on five continents.

Betty’s Love is the only Alzheimer’s charity only helping families find support they need, get info they deserve, and take action to boost Mom’s cognition and to ensure Dad and the whole family find JOY every day!

‘The’ Betty did ordinary things with extraordinary Love, even while living with Alzheimer’s for more than 25 years. Today, Betty’s Love proves every day that the only thing someone living with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia needs is Love As an Action Verb™ – and that’s easy to do! Like hosting a Betty’s High Tea!

Wherever in the world* you live, gather with friends in your home or a local venue  for an inspiring, empowering, brain-boosting event!  Betty’s Love will provide the support, info, and menu.  Your friends will each donate $52 or more – and, instead of buying a purse or jewelry, you’ll learn what you need to begin boosting your family’s brains – and ‘how to’ do it … -with-Love!

So much we CAN do.  So much JOY! And easy as …

1.  Download this Betty’s High Tea Flyer and invite your friends for tea today!

2. Contact us, and we’ll send you what you need to host a fun, FABulous, brain-boosting event.

3. Then, make your donations right here – it safe, fast, and easy!

Thanks for helping Betty’s Love change brains, lives, and the world…one family, one pair of jeans at a time!

Can’t host a High Tea just yet?

• Raise a Glass o’ LOVE instead!

• Wear Jeans on Fridays for Betty’s Love!

• Join us for Betty’s brain-boosting, low-cost Activities-with Love!

P.S. – Drinking tea or any healthy caffeine is great for your brain!

Drinking tea AND supporting Betty’s Love? … Well, that’s just-plain great for your soul!

*Families like yours now resource Betty’s Love from across America and around the world from 100+ countries on five continents.

We’re Raising Awareness and Raising a Glass o’ LOVE ALL Year!

Betty’s 20/30 Club is the first of its kind in the world:  People in their 20s and 30s promoting practical, proven practices to get brain healthy and make brain health the hot topic of their generation.  Raising awareness and learning how to connect with their grandparents – and how to support their parents (who are Caring-with-Love for them) – Betty’s 20/30 Club Members are changing brains, lives, and the world with Betty’s Love’s transformational message:
So much we CAN do.  So much JOY!

Alzheimer’s, dementia, and cognitive impairment affect all generations of a family.  So, Betty’s Love serves all generations with unparalleled programs – and we serve all generations with our campaign to raise awareness of the need, ease, and Joy of getting and keeping brain healthy.  Join us for our next events:

• NEXT MEETING:  Monday, July 11th
  Celebrate with us at a BBQ in La Grange!
• Ongoing:  First Monday of Every Month -
  6:30-7:30p
  New Members Meet’n'Greet at 6:00
  711 West Monroe Street, Chicago
  (Thanks to Old St. Patrick’s Church for use of their great spaces for 20/30′s great people!)
• Cocktails, Art, and Auction … -with-Love!
  November 2011
  Chicago
  Check back for details or contact Betty’s 20/30 Club Leader Lauren at lbrz@bettyslove.org.

• 20/30 Rummage Sale-with-Love™
  Spring 2012
  La Grange, Illinois
  Check back for details or please contact Betty’s 20/30 Club Leader Kerri at kaarnold@bettyslove.org.

Is Betty’s 20/30 Club for you?

Are you:

• young?
• talented?
• wanting to change the world?
• looking for a charity in which to invest your Gifts, hone your skills, and advance your career?

Betty’s 20/30 Club is building momentum and advising our next Board of Directors and ADvisory Board.  Join our grassroots movement and help Betty’s Love help families like yours who need our practical, proven, unparalleled programs and services.

Raising Awareness and Raising Funds

Betty’s 20/30 Club drives our Mission for and about 20- and 30-year-old people who get Betty’s Love.  Betty’s Love empowers and engages Betty’s 20/30 Club Members to know ‘how to’ connect with and embrace their parents or grandparents.  In return, they help Betty’s Love by raising awareness among their peers and raising funds to help us help families like theirs.

Every month, Betty’s 20/30 Club Members alternate social events and fundraising – always practicing our brain-boosting, Joy-filled, Care-with-Love™ philosophy. Betty’s 20/30 Club Members also support our Vision of Joy Campaign with an annual give-or-get donation, by planning and executing FUNdraising events, and by raising awareness among their peers as Betty’s Ambassadors to the world.  [See what we've done already to support families around the world - as a young, one-person, self-funded nonprofit!]

Every day, at every age, please:  Get busy in Betty’s Love!  Join us in our Activities- and Events-with-Love – and please bring 10 twentysomethings with you!

And, if you’re able, please help Betty’s Love grow!

Fifty-two is a big number for me

Begun in 2005 and 501c3 certified in 2007, Betty’s Love provides a practical, proven, positive approach to thriving despite Alzheimer’s, dementia, or any form of cognitive impairment.
We ensure families find support they need, get information they deserve, and take action every day
with all they CAN do to boost and sustain cognition and find JOY every day.

We are called Betty’s Love for two reasons. 1. ‘The’ Betty did ‘ordinary’ things with extraordinary Love – even in the late stages of her journey through Alzheimer’s.  2. We are proving every day that the only thing someone living with cognitive impairment needs from everyone around her or him (one day/ADL/breath at a time) is:  Love As an Action Verb.™  Betty’s Love is becoming recognized as the only Alzheimer’s charity:

• only supporting families.
• offering turn-key programs and services.
• addressing all stages of a journey.
• advocating brain health for and supporting all generations of a family.
• engaging young professionals in Betty’s 20/30 Club – empowering them to keep brain healthy,
  to connect with grandparents, and to support parents who are caring for grandparents.
• proving every day that families CAN thrive in JOY despite all cognitive impairments –
  caused by Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, Down syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, Autism, stroke,
  diabetes, depression, brain injury, anesthesia, or anything that results in ‘Thinking Not Working.’™

Help Betty’s Love Dream BIG (x 52!)

*Every hour, 52 more American families begin an Alzheimer’s journey – and think, “There’s nothing we can do.  Life is over.” And America is only one country, Alzheimer’s disease is only one form of dementia, and dementia is only one cognitive impairment.

One family at a time, Betty’s Love has embraced, engaged, and empowered more than 500 families with 100+ practical, proven, positive Betty’s® Programs and Services – all offered to families for free or at a low cost. Every week, new families contact Betty’s Love.  Without marketing or advertising, families now resource Betty’s Love – in person, by phone, and via the Internet – from all 50 States and 100+ countries on five continents. To date, Betty’s Love has been more than 90% personally funded with an unpaid staff of one.

Call me crazy (many do!) and I am (more than ever, now, on my Life’s crazily unfolding path!) but/and:  Betty’s Love IS.  So, every day, I dare to imagine what Betty’s Love CAN do with proper promotion, a brilliant staff, and your prayers and support.  I Dream BIG! And, although I AM officially O-L-D, I do believe:  Betty’s Love is just getting started!

My Birthday Wishes

1.  Please make time to Care-with-Love™ for yourself.

2.  Please enJOY sweet birdsongs, dancing daylilies, the sun slowly rising (always worth rising quickly to chase!), Kindnesses given and received – and Love, Lessons, and laughter shared with and showered upon all who are Important to you.

3.  Please visit www.vision.bettyslove.org and help Betty’s Love grow. Start a Fundraising Team! Support a Team! Simply Donate! Spread the Word. Our new Friends Asking Friends® site makes it easy!  Raise a Glass! Host a Betty’s High Tea. Wear Jeans on Fridays. Join Betty’s 20/30 Club and change the world. 

Everything YOU do will help perpetuate Betty’s Love and propagate our uniquely positive, transformational message to families worldwide:

So much we CAN do.  So much JOY!™

Dream BIG on my 52^nd Birthday – and every day!
I do!  And I Hope you and nine of your friends
(… and their friends … and their friends …)
will make a tax-deductible gift today of $52
(or $5,252 or $5.20 – every donation helps families!)
and help me help more Betty’s Love Families – and keep changing
brains, lives, and the world … one beloved Mom like mine at a time.

Thank you for supporting Betty’s Vision of Joy today!

One more thing: Please share, forward, and post My Birthday Wish: A Vision of JOY!

New guidelines issued April 19th establish three phases of Alzheimer’s:

• no symptoms manifest but changes in brain are apparent
• symptoms manifest but daily function is still high
• dementia has developed

More pertinent to families living with Alzheimer’s is the Congressional Bill introduced in April 2011 which would create:

• specific cost codes for Alzheimer’s diagnosis
• steps requiring discussions between doctors and their patients

All of this supports TWO long-held Betty’s Tenets (and Betty’s Learning Programs):  A Proper Diagnosis™ is key – and teaming for care sooner than later will produce the best results.

For more on the new guidelines from the National Institute on Aging, please click here.  For all the News You Can Use-with-Love, please click here.

Ensure your family finds the support you need, gets the information you deserve, and takes action today to boost and sustain Mom’s cognition and the whole family’s JOY!

While others legislate, raise money for research, and labor tirelessly to understand, diagnose, treat, and cure Alzheimer’s disease (and all forms of dementia), Betty’s Love is only helping families like yours thrive despite Alzheimer’s, dementia, and all cognitive impairment.  Please help us help families like yours and donate today!

Thank you for helping Betty’s Love grow!

Thanks, also, to 20/30 Club Leader Lauren B. for sharing this breaking news!

Breakthrough in Stem-Cell Research alters Neurons

For the first time, Northwestern Medicine researchers have transformed embryonic stem cells into a critical type of neuron that causes memory loss and is known to die early in Alzheimer’s type of dementia.   This ability to reprogram and grow stem cells can enable new research and drug testing.

Join Betty’s Love in praying that this research will produce definitive knowledge and sustainable treatment.  Amen! And please help Betty’s Love keep helping families like yours.*

Read more about this study in this PDF from Northwestern Medicine:  Stem-Cell NEWS.   Thanks to Rotary Club Governor, Northwestern Kellogg School Lecturer, and Alzheimer’s ADvocate™ Robert C. Knuepfer, Jr., for sharing this extraordinary news!

Click here to read more Betty’s News You Can Use-with-Love™

*Families now resource Betty’s Love from across America and around the world from 100+ countries on five continents.

So much we CAN do. So much JOY!™

• a full understanding of Alzheimer’s disease’s root cause(s);
• a definitive diagnosis (other than autopsy) that is also readily available to all people;
• effective sustainable treatment; and
• a cure

We’re Betty’s Love and we’re not waiting for a cure!

Every day, Betty’s Love is the only Alzheimer’s charity only helping families like yours find support you need, get information you deserve, and take action to boost and sustain Mom’s cognition and JOY.  We are the only charity helping all generations of your family.  We are the only charity with Betty’s Love’s positive, practical, proven message:  So much we CAN do.  So much JOY!

If these studies (110 years into the study of Alzheimer’s form of dementia) makes you feel despair, lest it not produce a cure in time to help your Mom or Dad, husband or daughter, friend or resident:  Please remember these Betty’s Three Things™:

1.  Everything you’re doing-with-Love is sufficient – i.e., just doing your best is exactly what is needed, one day at a time.
2.  You are not
3. You are Loved.

Read more about Betty’s Tenets and our News You Can Use-with-Love.  Then, please support our grassroots movement* to change brains, lives, and the world … one family like yours at a time.

For more on this study, read the studies’ findings published in the April issue of Nature Genetics.  Or, visit this New York Times article by Gina Kolata, a great advocate for keeping Alzheimer’s and dementia in the news.

*Families now resource Betty’s Love from across America and around the world from 100+ countries on five continents.

So much we CAN do. So much JOY!™

• Friend BettysLove on Facebook!
• Join our Facebook Cause!
  
• Follow BettysLove on Twitter!
• Connect with BettysLove on LinkedIn!
• Join Betty’s 20/30 Club - the world’s first group of young professionals getting brain healthy and raising Alzheimer’s awareness! 
  

Thank you for helping Betty’s Love change brains, lives, and the world … one family like yours at a time.

*Personally funded as a charity of one person, Betty’s Love has served 500 families in person – one family like yours at a time – and thousands more on line – from 95 countries on five continents.  Thank you for making Betty’s Love part of YOUR brain-boosting social network!

To keep changing brains, lives, and the world, we need your support.  Rest assured: 100% of your donation serves families just like yours; donations from our American Betty’s Love Families are fully tax deductible.

Please tell us how we can make your international donations work for you – and, more important, how Betty’s Love can help your family today – wherever in the world you live.

Thanks, also, to the TribLocal for running a story about our Embrace Support Group.  We meet regularly, for free, and wherever you are in the world.

Thanks especially, to Karen Deane, who orchestrated both articles.  And thanks to Kerri Arnold, Lauren Brzuszkiewicz, and all our Volunteers-with-Love who work so tirelessly to perpetuate Betty’s Love.   Their Gifts-with-Love honor us immeasurably.  Blessings, indeed!  To read more about Betty’s Love scroll down or follow these links:

http://www.pioneerlocal.com/lagrange/index.html

Please note Joe Cyganowski’s Art-in-photographs:  http://www.pioneerlocal.com/galleries/doings_west/-1,lg-bettyslove-022411.photogallery?index=0

http://triblocal.com/la-grange-la-grange-park/community/stories/2011/02/la-grange-alzheimers-organization-bettys-love-brings-hope-to-families-around-chicago-and-around-the-world/

www.bettyslove.org/embrace/

www.bettyslove.org/give/joy/

Providing a sacred space for Alzheimer’s patients

Maureen Gavan toyed with the idea of buying an old church in Ireland some day and running a bed and breakfast there while writing books. She wound up with an old church and a mission in La Grange instead.

Gavan’s mission is to share Betty’s Love, a nonprofit organization she founded and named for her mother, Betty, who lived with Alzheimer’s disease for 25 years before she died in 2005.

The old church Gavan bought in 2008 is the former Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church on the southeast corner of Kensington and Ogden avenues.

“I got stuck waiting for a train,” she explained, leading her to investigate La Grange and discover the former church, converted to a private residence from 2005 to 2007.

The sacred space serves as somewhat of a silent, though integral partner in Gavan’s quest to share what few perceive as hopeful news when a loved one is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia.

“People think two things. There’s nothing I can do, and life is over,” she said matter-of-factly. “But that is so wrong. There’s so much we can do to boost cognition, and there’s so much joy every day.”

With laptop in hand, Gavan chats via Skype with families across the country and around the world coping with a loved one’s loss of mental and physical capabilities.

“Nobody comes here very often, but it still inspires so much of the work we do. This is an extraordinary sacred space,” she said. “There’s something about the energy after people have been praying here for 124 years.”

As Gavan walks around, the laptop’s camera captures the home’s stained glass windows, former altar, library and upstairs guest room with a spa-like bathtub in the former choir loft. The beautiful setting encourages caregivers to take time for themselves, essential to living with a loved one with Alzheimer’s, she said.

“Like in the airplane they tell you put your oxygen mask on first before you attempt to help anyone else,” she said.

Gavan practices what she preaches in living a brain-boosting lifestyle. The cheery blue kitchen with vibrant tile echoing the stained glass is stocked with organic foods, nuts, pomegranate tea and dark chocolates, among the brain-healthy choices.

Sheet music for a challenging, but favorite piece sits on a grand piano, and an array of puzzle books and maps is scattered on end tables along with dozens of family photos. Pictured are Gavan’s two grandfathers, two aunts, three uncles and her mom, who all lived with Alzheimer’s or some form of dementia.

Not much was written for families 30 years ago when her first uncle was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, Gavan recalled. She read, researched and learned through trial and error what worked best in relating to and helping her family members with mental faculties fading in and out.

“The only thing someone living with any form of thinking problem needs is whatever love would do next,” she said. “Treat them with patience, kindness, generosity and more patience.”

But there are also brain-boosting practical tips to stave off mental deterioration, she said.

“Even with profound cognitive impairment, you can still learn new things and activate parts of the brain never developed before,” Gavan said.

She knows an Alzheimer’s patient who learned Spanish and a woman with Parkinson’s for 27 years who learned to paint.

“Ann Williams took up painting to fire up more of her brain,” Gavan said. “She has a profound shake like Michael J. Fox, but when she paints she doesn’t shake.”

Gradually, Gavan began fielding calls for help from neighbors, friends and strangers. Working for decades as a writer, in sales and advertising and as a corporate trainer and consultant, she decided in 2006 to launch a website and organization offering support and practical advice for families struggling with a loved one’s mental losses.

“I’m a daughter trying to help some other daughter with what I went through,” she said. “I realized there wasn’t one place families could go to for information.

“I started by helping one family at a time, and it’s been over 500 families from 95 countries, and thousands more visit the website at www.bettyslove.org.”

Matt Martin, who grew up in LaGrange Park and now lives in Naperville, said he wished he had known about Betty’s Love’s principles when his favorite aunt, a former nun, no longer knew him, and it became too sad to visit her.

“Maureen’s message was a reality check,” Martin said. “I wish I had taken her class before my aunt became sick.

“The more upbeat approach would have been to help her with puzzles, music or even walks,” he said. “Keep the conversation to things she still appreciated, things in the present, local sounds, sights, smells. We would have had much more pleasant visits.”

Read all you need to know in our News You Can Use-with-Love™

A recent report released by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has released new findings on the optimal intake for Calcium and Vitamin D.  Both are necessary to long-term bone, body, and brain health – but, IOM challenges, more is not necessarily better.  For more, see the IOM’s Consensus Report or read this article from The New York Times.

Then … please be sure to nourish your beautiful brain, body, and bones.  Join Betty’s Love – from wherever in the world you are – for our popular program, All Bra(i)n Nutrition.^TM

To learn more about all your family CAN do with JOY to connect with those you love – at every age, in every stage, every day – contact us.  And, every day, please make time to Care-with-Love^TM for yourself.

Read more about our Core Programs for families like yours.
Join us for all the FREE and low-cost programs ONLY Betty’s Love is providing families.  They’re practical, proven, and positive. AND, in Betty’s Love, there’s always a Betty Gavin Signature Hug AND LAUGHTER waiting for YOU!

Help us grow, if you can.

LBNL:  Please remember (pun intended): We’re Betty’s Love.  So much we CAN do.  So much JOY!™