Author Archives: System Administrator

Walking slows progression of Alzheimer’s

Posted on by System Administrator

I’m still sluggish from all the overindulging I did in the past two weeks.  Because going on a diet is ranked as one of the top 5 New Year’s Resolutions, I thought this study was an appropriate way for us to kick-start 2011.

CHICAGO – Walking may slow cognitive decline in adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as in healthy adults, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

“We found that walking five miles per week protects the brain structure over 10 years in people with Alzheimer’s and MCI, especially in areas of the brain’s key memory and learning centers,” said Cyrus Raji, Ph.D., from the Department of Radiology at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. “We also found that these people had a slower decline in memory loss over five years.”

Alzheimer’s disease is an irreversible, progressive brain disease that slowly destroys memory and cognitive skills. According to the National Institute on Aging, between 2.4 million and 5.1 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease. Based on current population trends, that number is expected to increase significantly over the next decade.

In cases of MCI, a person has cognitive or memory problems exceeding typical age-related memory loss, but not yet as severe as those found in Alzheimer’s disease. About half of the people with MCI progress to Alzheimer’s disease.

“Because a cure for Alzheimer’s is not yet a reality, we hope to find ways of alleviating disease progression or symptoms in people who are already cognitively impaired,” Dr. Raji said.

For the ongoing 20-year study, Dr. Raji and colleagues analyzed the relationship between physical activity and brain structure in 426 people, including 299 healthy adults (mean age 78), and 127 cognitively impaired adults (mean age 81), including 83 adults with MCI and 44 adults with Alzheimer’s dementia.

Patients were recruited from the Cardiovascular Health Study. The researchers monitored how far each of the patients walked in a week. After 10 years, all patients underwent 3-D MRI exams to identify changes in brain volume.

“Volume is a vital sign for the brain,” Dr. Raji said. “When it decreases, that means brain cells are dying. But when it remains higher, brain health is being maintained.”

In addition, patients were given the mini-mental state exam (MMSE) to track cognitive decline over five years. Physical activity levels were correlated with MRI and MMSE results. The analysis adjusted for age, gender, body fat composition, head size, education and other factors.

The findings showed across the board that greater amounts of physical activity were associated with greater brain volume. Cognitively impaired people needed to walk at least 58 city blocks, or approximately five miles, per week to maintain brain volume and slow cognitive decline. The healthy adults needed to walk at least 72 city blocks, or six miles, per week to maintain brain volume and significantly reduce their risk for cognitive decline.

Over five years, MMSE scores decreased by an average of five points in cognitively impaired patients who did not engage in a sufficient level of physical activity, compared with a decrease of only one point in patients who met the physical activity requirement.

“Alzheimer’s is a devastating illness, and unfortunately, walking is not a cure,” Dr. Raji said. “But walking can improve your brain’s resistance to the disease and reduce memory loss over time.”

Coauthors are Kirk Erickson, Ph.D., Oscar Lopez, M.D., James Becker, Ph.D., Caterina Rosano, M.D., Anne Newman, M.D., M.P.H., H. Michael Gach, Ph.D., Paul Thompson, Ph.D., April Ho, B.S., and Lewis Kuller, M.D. Note: Copies of RSNA 2010 news releases and electronic images will be available online at RSNA.org/press10 beginning Monday, Nov. 29. RSNA is an association of more than 46,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists committed to excellence in patient care through education and research. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Ill. (RSNA.org) Editor’s note: The data in these releases may differ from those in the published abstract and those actually presented at the meeting, as researchers continue to update their data right up until the meeting. To ensure you are using the most up-to-date information, please call the RSNA Newsroom at 1-312-949-3233.

It is the best of times. It is the worst of times.

Posted on by System Administrator

Christmas is not my holiday of religion, but it is my holiday of choice. Over the years, this special day has allowed me to turn vegging into a new art form.  I’ve learned how to ignore dirty dishes and laundry in favour of watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” for the 57th time. Christmas Day is my favourite – there is nothing to do.  No stores to rush to, no office to worry about – just leftover Chinese food eaten from the carton, a stack of DVDs to watch and lots and lots of lolling in bed.  That is until this year.

Now we have the new normal – Mom.  This year Christmas represents stat holidays – so who is going to spend the day with her?  Who is going to manage her day while her wonderful caregivers are spending well-deserved time with their own families?  Who is going to take responsibility?  The answers are obvious but not fun.

Thank goodness I have siblings to share the burden and sadly it has become a burden – because there are no stores to go to, no office as an excuse to not take a turn and my mother doesn’t like Chinese food. An entire day with nothing to do but watch TV or movies is endless when spent with a person who can no longer follow the thread of a plot line, who has no interest in current affairs and doesn’t want to go for a walk because the weather is cold and the sidewalks are slippery.  What used to be a delicious indulgence has become a trying necessity.

And yet, I count my blessings, because as another year slips by, my mother is still here with us.  As the New Year approaches I reflect on how times have changed: I miss her sharp tongue; I miss her stubbornness; I miss the gossip she shared about all sorts of people.  But what I have learned to cherish is her sweetness, her easy smile, her simple outlook on life.

To all my friends and family, best wishes for a Happy New Year.  May it be filled with joy and peace and time spent with loved ones.

Margi Oksner

Bilingualism delays onset of Alzheimer’s symptoms

Posted on by System Administrator

Toronto, Canada – A Canadian science team has found more dramatic evidence that speaking two languages can help delay the onset of Alzheimer’s symptoms by as much as five years.

The latest study, led by Baycrest’s Rotman Research Institute, examined the clinical records of more than 200 patients diagnosed with probable Alzheimer’s disease and found that those who have spoken two or more languages consistently over many years experienced a delay in the onset of their symptoms by as much as 5 years. The study is published in the Nov. 9th issue of Neurology.

The science team includes internationally-renowned cognitive researcher Dr. Fergus Craik of the Rotman Research Institute; Dr. Ellen Bialystok of York University, a leading expert in bilingualism research; and Dr. Morris Freedman, one of Canada’s leading clinicians in the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s and other dementias.

“We are not claiming that bilingualism in any way prevents Alzheimer’s or other dementias, but it may contribute to cognitive reserve in the brain which appears to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s symptoms for quite some time,” said Dr. Craik, lead investigator and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Memory.

The brains of people who speak two languages still show deterioration from Alzheimer’s pathology; however, their special ability with two languages seems to equip them with compensatory skills to hold back the tell-tale symptoms of Alzheimer’s, such as memory loss, confusion, and difficulties with problem-solving and planning.

“These results are especially important for multicultural societies like ours in Canada where bilingualism is common,” said Dr. Bialystok, professor of Psychology at York University and associate scientist at the Rotman Research Institute. “We need to understand how bilingualism changes cognitive ability, especially when there are clinical implications as in this case.”

Observations were made on 211 patients diagnosed with probable Alzheimer’s from the Sam and Ida Ross Memory Clinic at Baycrest, from 2007 to 2009. The patients’ date of diagnosis and age of onset of cognitive impairment were recorded along with information on occupational history, education and language history (i.e. fluency in English and any other languages). Following this procedure, 102 patients were classified as bilingual and 109 as monolingual.

The researchers found that bilingual patients had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s 4.3 years later and had reported the onset of symptoms five years later than the monolingual patients. The groups were equivalent on measures of cognitive and occupational level, there was no apparent effect of immigration status, and there were no gender differences.

http://www.youtube.com/v/LLMv720oh7E?fs=1&hl=en_US&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6

The Neurology paper replicates findings from the team’s widely-reported 2007 study led by Dr. Bialystok and published in Neuropsychologia. That study examined the clinical records of 184 patients diagnosed with probable Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia – and found that bilingual patients delayed the onset of their symptoms by four years compared to monolingual patients.

The current study adds to mounting scientific evidence that lifestyle factors – such as regular cardiovascular exercise, a healthy diet, and speaking more than one language – can play a central role in how the brain copes with age-related cognitive decline and diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

“Although a great deal of research is being focused on the development of new and more effective medications for Alzheimer’s disease, there are currently no drug treatments that show any effects on delaying Alzheimer’s symptoms, let alone delaying the onset of these symptoms by up to five years,” said Dr. Freedman, head of Neurology and director of the Sam and Ida Ross Memory Clinic at Baycrest.

This study was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Alzheimer Society of Canada

reprinted from Smart Aging – Powered by Baycrest Innovation and Research, December 2010/January 2011 edition

B17 – BINGO

Posted on by System Administrator

On Mondays and Wednesdays my mother Frida comes to Baycrest for the adult day care program.  I like to visit her on those days because a) I get to see her and b) she loves it when I come to visit her among her cronies.  It makes her feel very special and I must say, it makes me happy to see her happy.

Monday was a good day. When I arrived she had just started playing Bingo. I stood by, not wanting to interrupt the game and noticed that she had absolutely no problem playing.  Whatever number the caller shouted out that was on her card, my mother immediately identified.  She had full grasp of the concept, the game and the numbers.  It was a good day.

Last week, on my post-lunch visit, I arrived just as her little cadre of friends had begun to play Rummikub – a tile version of the card game gin rummy.

My mom has been playing gin rummy, rummy and rummikub in various forms for as long as I can remember.  Growing up, Wednesday night was my mom’s ladies card night – she was one of eight in a group who played weekly, rotating from home to home.  The Wednesday it was at our house, was always filled with excitement –  there were all kinds of goodies – fresh baked desserts, bridge mix in bowls, luscious fruit – and none of it was to be touched – it was for the company.  We children were paraded out to say hello and be nice to the ladies and then off to bed, listening to the shuffling of cards and chatter of good female friends.

By the time I had children of my own, my mother was teaching them to play cards and rummikub at her kitchen table.  Her style and methodology was the same with each child, carefully teaching them about the different suites and explaining how important it was to put the cards in order first by suite and then numerically.  She was very organized and strategic.  The skill and finesse came later.

So back to last week, on my post-lunch visit and her Rummikub game.  There was a lady helping Frida – because she could not organize her tiles – theywere in random order, all four suites mixed together. At first I thought she had a strategy in mind to create a winning hand, but the more I studied her hand, the more I watched her arrange and rearrange her tiles, the more it became evident that she was having difficulty sorting out the tiles and making sense of what was going on around her.

The saddest part was that she was fully cognizant that there was a problem.  She was allowing a helper to work with her; she didn’t exhibit any signs of frustration; she just sighed, resigning herself to this newest state of confusion.  I apologized for interrupting her concentration – and that I would let her get back to her game – I tried to shoulder the responsibility for this new ‘wrinkle’, I tried to make her feel better about herself.  It was not a good day for either of us.

Margi Oksner

Let Me Introduce Dr. Norman Farb

Posted on by System Administrator

On September 1, 2010 Dr. Norman Farb joined the staff at Baycrest as the Women of Baycrest postdoctoral fellow working with Dr. Tiffany Chow in the Frontotemporal Dementia Workgroup.  Norman is dedicated to advancing both public understanding of the disorder and developing new techniques for the assessment and care of patients with dementia.  The other area of Norman’s work is related to caregivers, who are also critically affected by Frontotemporal Dementia and related disorders.

The other evening, Dr. Farb was the guest speaker at the Women of Baycrest annual Membership Appreciation Reception and Dedication.  He spoke about the work he is doing to develop a new model of care to improve quality of life in aging.  Here’s some of what we learned from Dr. Norman Farb.

The Canadian Study of Health and Aging estimates that in 2011 there will be 145,000 new cases of dementia in Canada, of which approximately 93,000 will be women.  This is not simply a problem for the elderly, but one with broader social implications, as we will all be affected by the need to provide additional care for our elderly,

Worldwide, the elderly support ratio – that is the ratio between working-age people under the age of 65 and those 65 and older stands a 9 working age people to 1 elder, but this ratio will fall to 4:1 in the next 40 years.  In Canada the ratio is 5:1 right now, and by 2050 it will be closer to 2:1.  What this means is that many of us will have a parent, or relative in need of care in the coming years, with a proportionally smaller workforce to provide this care.

While increased healthcare spending is one way to provide this extra support, realistically, the biggest adjustments will need to be made by family members.  The question is not IF you will become a caregiver in your lifetime, it’s a matter of WHEN.  Familial caregiving is important and it makes a difference: the absence of a caregiver or having a caregiver who feels overburdened are both major predictors of earlier institutionalization of those with dementia.

Women have particular challenges in caregiving; social factors make women more likely to take on the caregiving role and be more heavily involved in caregiving activities than men.  In Canada over 70% of informal caregivers are women, mostly wives, daughters and daughters-in-law.  What’s more, 30% of these female informal caregivers are employed, and may also be providing care to their own families at the same time; this places increased stresses on women that are greater than what is experienced by male caregivers.  A recent study found that female caregivers had lower scores on 7 out of the 8 scales on a Quality of Life Questionnaire compared to males and an overall decreased quality of life, as a result of more emotional and physical health problems.  One major question that we face as a society in coming years, above and beyond how to care for our aging population is: who cares for the caregivers?

Norman is currently researching a new type of training for caregivers known as mindfulness training.  Derived from eastern meditation practices, mindfulness training helps a person to develop the capacity to directly experience each moment with a sense of acceptance, opening themselves up to immediate experience rather than turning to a world of judgments, explanations and rumination.  In many studies in healthy participants, mindfulness training has been shown to reduce feelings of stress and to promote well-being, and it may also help to protect caregivers from becoming overburdened and sick themselves.

It seems from the research that what the mindfulness training is allowing people to do is to stop worrying about the bigger picture for a moment and to concentrate on what’s actually happening in the room they are in.  In the context of caring for an ill or demented family member, this can be a powerful ability.  Imagine yourself in the role of caregiver for an elder relative, how would you react?  For many of us, there are negative feelings, like we are being forced into a bad situation.  But why is this?  Could it be that we are all secretly hoping that life will continue happily ever after?  Isn’t that the way that fairy tales end?  Cinderella does not end up cleaning bed pans.

There is nothing wrong with having ideals and dreams of a pleasant future.  These ideals become a benchmark by which to motivate ourselves to do and be more.  However, dreams alone do not prepare us to deal with the reality of our aging population and probable roles.  To effectively manage the stresses of familial caregiving, a deeper understanding must be cultivated.  Dr. Norman Farb believes that learning to put our evaluations and ideals aside and accept our present state is a powerful tool for reducing the stresses of confronting a life more ordinary than fairy tale, of allowing us to appreciate the gift of each moment even if that moment is being spent looking after mom or dad.

Margi Oksner

Remembrance Day

Posted on by System Administrator

Yesterday was filled with poignant pauses.  At 11:00 am we observed two minutes of silence to honour those who sacrificed their lives in the name of freedom.

All day, the radio waves were filled with amazing testimonials from survivors of WWII, Korea, Viet Nam and now Afghanistan.  Their stories of comrades lost and bonds of friendship that have endured for 70 years; the sadness to hear that this was the first year without a single World War I veteran present in Ottawa at the national wreath laying.

It was a day of remembrance.

And what of those who can no long remember.  Does my mother remember the family she lost in World War II, the DP camp where she met my father, the year spent in Cyprus because of the British blockade of Israel, the years in Israel while her husband fought in yet another war for independence and then the immigration to Canada – her home for the last 62 years.

My mother has become a veteran of life.  She has survived for 87 years but the last year has been filled with more losses than gains.  What did Remembrance Day mean to her.  My guess – it did not register on any radar screen in her mind.  It will now be our collective role as her children and grandchildren to remember for her.

Margi Oksner

Power of One

Posted on by System Administrator

I feel a bit like a proud mama – you know that feeling we all got the first time we saw our kid walk across a stage dressed as green eggs holding hands with the ham taking their place in the spotlight.  That swelling in your heart that reaffirms that somehow you’ve done your job!

I experienced that feeling again last week at three separate events held by Women of Baycrest.  Power of One was a new spin on an old idea.  Membership is the life-blood of any movement and we are trying to build a movement.  The ground swell that we’ve described as a tsunami with over 250 women joining our ranks couldn’t come to a grinding halt just because we were all busy patting ourselves on the back.  Our success is dependent on growth – one woman who tells two friends, who tells two friends and so on and so on.

Back to Power of One – a great little idea to invite current members to bring a guest to hear all about what we’ve been doing – and of course because Women of Baycrest does things with dash and élan – these events were hosted by some of Toronto’s finest eateries and hot spots.  Lunch at grano’s; cocktails at Sassafraz; and a girl’s night out at Brassaii complete with mini-mani bar!

So why am I popping my buttons?  Because the heart of these events was a very informal talk by our Founder and Chair Lynn Posluns.  Lynn is a most accomplished and professional speaker and Women of Baycrest is her passion.  Lynn often speaks in public and she does it very well – but what made these events different, was her raw emotion and enthusiasm.  Unlike most of her formal addresses, she spoke without notes, without microphone, without visual aids – it was a real conversation; a chance for her to tell it like it is.  A side I often see, but one that isn’t her public persona.  She literally blew them away.  I sat at the back of the room and watched the faces of the women watching her.  It was nothing short of magic.  And as she spoke about the scope of our projects and what we’ve accomplished in less than two years – it sounded impossible that we’ve come so far.

A few highlights:

  • Raised over $1.5 million (a far cry from our first year’s goal of $250,000)
  • Over 275 members (our goal for year one was 100)
  • Funding Dr. Tiffany Chow, Scientist-Clinician, Sam and Ida Ross Memory Clinic, Baycrest
  • Funding Post Doctoral Fellow Dr. Norman Farb for the next two years
  • Well on our way to establishing a $3 million Research Chair in Women’s Brain Health and Aging
  • Creating and funding an Academic Symposium in April, 2011 featuring 5 scientists from around North America to discuss issues of women’s brain health and thereby define the field
  • Creating and funding a one-day women’s conference featuring 14 scientists and mid-life experts to discuss current findings and discuss the future of women’s brain health with the 1,000 anticipated participants
  • Developing and producing the first Brain Health Cookbook
  • Connecting with an array of amazing corporate partners
  • The addition of our Young Women of Baycrest division to include and empower women under 35
  • And of course the long list of the amazing experiences we’ve hosted from educational to culinary to entertainment!

It’s pretty overwhelming.  The past 18 months are now a blur and we don’t stop long enough to look back – because we’re already on to the next project.  Except for one thing – our members.

The other component of our Power of One events was the three members who spoke about their own involvement.  They were nothing short of amazing.  They talked about what I like to call their WBness.  Why becoming a member was important to them.  And what they said was inspiring.

Irene Berkowitz talked about Women of Baycrest’s specificity – that we were single-minded and totally focused on our goal and that all the money we raise is going to one cause – not into a generic pool.  That was the hook for her.

Anita Lapidus spoke about the empowerment of women.  She said, “Is there anyone in this room who has not, in some way, contributed to the on-going Pink Ribbon campaign? This work has profoundly changed the landscape of breast cancer from a disease that was once only whispered to one that raises hundreds of millions for research and treatment. What started as an initiative by a small group of courageous women is now a mega-movement  – all through the power of women who thought it important.  When I envision the potential of Women of Baycrest, I see legions of women who care deeply about being able to age with the dignity of cognition; women getting involved in raising the profile and supporting the research that can make that possible for all. We do this for ourselves and the women in our lives that we love.”

Natalie Gee – a Young Woman of Baycrest – explained that she had never stopped to think about the fact that her brain, her mind was her essence and what would become of her or her mother or her sister if that was lost to her.  As a woman and an entrepreneur in the beauty industry, she spoke to her need to focus not just on body and beauty but especially on brains.

Each event was unique, each event attracted women of totally different demographics and each event made me proud to be associated with these astonishing women.  And the good news – in one short week we welcomed 7 new Women of Baycrest and 9 new Young Women of Baycrest.  We can now boast of over 300 members who are empowered and engaged.

My heart swells with pride!

 Margi Oksner

Announcing the Women of Baycrest Academic Symposium

Posted on by System Administrator

I have been delinquent in my duties as a blogger.  Not so much a case of shirking my responsibilities, but more a case of not being able to reveal some of the amazing things we’re working on.  But now I have the go ahead and want to share some very exciting developments on the Women of Baycrest Academic Symposium that is being held on April 6, 2011 in Toronto.

This has been in the planning stages since early June, and now its official enough that I can divulge what we have been working on.

Just a little background info.

In the spring, our fearless leader, Lynn Posluns pointed out that what we know is what we don’t know.  And it was time to find out where we stood in terms of women’s brain health – globally.  She quite rightly determined that what we really needed to do was define the field of women’s brain health by establishing the base line for where research and science currently stand and then share that information with both the scientific and general communities.   The question became how?  The original plan was to find a scientist to research and write a review of existing literature that Women of Baycrest could then publish in both medical journals (in its scientific format) and also translate into “lay speak” for general consumption. Yes, an ambition undertaking.

As we discussed the project with the expert researchers at Baycrest, it became clear that the best way to accomplish our goals for defining the field of study for women’s brain health, would be to bring the leading thinkers in the area together and have them discuss it in a conference setting and use the outcomes of their discussions as the basis for our magazine and medical journal articles.

Hence, the Women of Baycrest Academic Symposium was born – as an idea.  The really impressive part is how seemingly easy it was to reach out to the scientist to make this a reality.

Our Academic Symposium is now booked for April 6, 2011 – place still to be determined.  It will be open to 250-300 researchers, scientists, allied health care professionals and students who are interested in current thinking and research about women’s brain health.

Here are some of the Symposium details:

 

The day will be made up of morning and afternoon panel discussions to be followed by individual presentations by the participating speakers. The morning session will feature a panel discussion on “The biological bases for sex differences in brain health and aging,” and the afternoon session will focus on “Sex differences in clinical syndromes.” The day will be moderated by Dr. Randy McIntosh, Vice President Research, Baycrest Centre, and Director of the Rotman Research Institute.

Speakers include

  • Dr. Walter Rocca, Professor of Epidemiology and Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota;
  • Dr. Robert Handa, Professor, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Arizona;
  • Dr. Tomas Paus, Anne and Max Tanenbaum, Professor and Chair of Population Neuroscience, Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest;
  • Dr. Gillian Einstein, Director of the Collaborative Graduate Program in Women’s Health, University of Toronto;
  • Dr. Pauline M. Maki, Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago;
  • Dr. Tiffany Chow, Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and Clinician-Scientist at Baycrest’s Sam and Ida Ross Memory Clinic.

Are you impressed with the lineup?  I am!  Sadly, when I read each of the scientist’s individual presentation headings, I didn’t exactly understand what they are going to talk about – but that’s why we are going to translate these documents for the general public.  I’m very excited about the prospects of what we are going to achieve.  Think about it – we are actually going to define the area of women’s brain health so that when we have raised the dollars required to hire our Baycrest Chair in Women’s Brain Health and Aging, we will have created a template of science from which to move forward.  Now we just have to raise the rest of the money….and that is for another blog.

Margi Oksner

One step forward…and then what?

Posted on by System Administrator

When I started writing this entry last week, I was elated. We had just had two wonderful days with my mother Frida.  As you can imagine, the holiday season can be very trying.  But during Rosh Hashanah Frida was engaged and interactive.  We spent time together at synagogue, reading from our prayer books, singing and following along.  Both afternoons were filled with family visits where she  busily talked to different people, looked interested, seemed to be very much a part of the conversations.  I was so happy to see her in such a good state.

I discussed this with my siblings about this and they agreed that the new memory medication in the form of a transdermal patch was really effective.  There seemed to be a marked improvement in her attitude, her ability to carry on a conversation, in general, she seemed quite lucid.

Flash forward to the next of the High Holidays – Yom Kippur – a mere 8 days later.

Frida spent the day waffling back and forth as to whether or not she would come for dinner.  Once she arrived, there was the endless question of why there was no one else at the party besides my husband and me.  The explanation that it was not a party just an early dinner in order to get to synagogue before sundown and the beginning of the fast of Yom Kippur did not register.

The following day, she refused to go to synagogue at all.  This was the first time in my memory that she had missed the memorial service that is a part of the Day of Atonement.  This was always a significant time for my mother – a time to formally recognize her family who perished during the Holocaust, her dearly departed husband and all her other family members who are no longer living.  Was this a sign that she had forgotten the meaning of Yom Kippur?  Was she just tired?  Or was she no longer able to make the connection between Yom Kippur and those she usually mourned on this holy day? I did not force her.  I did not rebuke her.  I gave in to her wishes.

My sister assured me that she was still better than before the patch – that is until she took her out for lunch the next day.  While waiting in line for their table at Frida’s favourite restaurant, they were greeted by an old acquaintance, a long conversation ensured – how lovely to see each other blah, blah, blah – the usual.  The lady went back to her seat.

Not two minutes later, Frida pointed out the same woman and said, “See that red-haired lady over there, I know her – you’d think she’d have the decency to come over and say hello to me.”  What can we say – obviously we have entered the ‘there are good days and there are bad days’ phase of my mother’s illness.  And we seem to be experiencing more bad days.  I suppose the best we can hope for is enjoying and relishing the good ones.

Margi Oksner

Wine, women and shopping!

Posted on by System Administrator

Okay, there is no denying that when it comes to Women of Baycrest I am a bit obnoxious.  Yes I can talk about other things, but right here and now, at this point in my life, this is where my interest lies.  I am not shallow, I am not one-dimensional, I’m actually engaged, interested and passionate.  I’ve become really focused on the science and technology issues around brain health, and how to keep brain fit as long as possible.

So last week I was totally gob-smacked, dumb founded – rendered speechless (if you can imagine).

I was waxing poetic to one of my friends about an event that WB is hosting next week.  It’s our second annual shopping event – More Passion for Fashion. Wine, women and shopping at a discount.  How much fun is that?  And best of all, this year, its right in the middle of TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival).  I think hanging with my peeps on Bloor Street with a glass of wine, people watching, being chauffeured from one location to another in brand new BMWs and trying on shoes sounds like a fun way to spend an evening.

What stopped me in my tracks was the following question.  “So basically all I do is come shopping?”  What kind of question is that?  I want more from my friends.  Yes it’s shopping, but that’s a by-product of the big picture.  Where have I gone wrong if my own friends don’t get it?

Yes there is shopping involved – but it’s the hook – it’s basic Marketing 101. Get them in the door.  Yes its good for the retailers who have sponsored the event, and yes it’s a fundraising vehicle to help support the Women’s Brain Health Research Fund and yes it’s about a fun night, but more importantly it’s about getting the message out to as many people as possible.

This is another chance to tell the amazing  Women of Baycrest story and what we are doing to move the cause of women’s brain health forward. Sharing information that will help us in the very near future as we age, things we can share with our children to get them started on the right road to brain fitness now, things we need to know to help us cope with aging parents – all this and more.

Am I being naive when I think altruistically? Do I believe my own bullshit when I see this as a great opportunity to raise awareness for Women of Baycrest by introducing non-members and friends to what we are all about and attract more dollars to our fundraising cause? Is it wrong to want to educate and have fun at the same time – have people leave an event saying they had a great time and learned something to?  Or is it really just about the shopping?

Margi Oksner