Pictured are Optimist Club President David Kafitz, speaker sponsor Kerry Driggers, and Adina Maynard, who received a copy of the Optimist Creed.
By Rick Abercrombie
Adina Maynard, a highly experienced career nurse, spoke July 24 to St. Andrews Optimists. Maynard worked in the field of oncology and witnessed firsthand a condition called “chemo brain,” a mental fog that affects cancer patients as they progress through and past chemotherapy.
Maynard described the steep slope to normalcy those patients experience, and she has witnessed the use of brain exercises and games in order to help restore normal brain activity. Along with that experience, Maynard saw, one by one, the decline of three beloved women as they went from dementia to Alzheimer’s.
She came to realize that when the brain began to fade, so did household management. Houses became unkempt; very little attention was focused on diet; physical health declined. In Maynard’s exposure to the decline, she then knew that patients with dementia “need eyes on them, 24/7.” Her description of the ordeal was that dementia patients “age backwards.”
During that time, she also saw the application of the mental exercises that were considered routine ways to kick-start the brain and to slow the decline. Maynard saw that most recommended exercises followed a predictable pattern, over and over. Word searches, for example, could be done using the same solving methods, with the the “brain on auto-pilot,” in her words.
Maynard began a deep-dive study of dementia and learned that 45 percent of dementia patients can reverse some of its effects. The key, she came to believe, is stimulation. She became determined to “invent” a game that did not follow a predictable pattern.
Maynard titled the game “Cattywampus for Brain Health.” The game incorporates forcing the brain to think differently through melding, breaking, and rebuilding patterns. The method of reaching a solution for one game would most often not work on the next. So each game requires a fresh approach. The game is now available in an app and can be played on a smart phone.
Game users are encouraged to take their brain management seriously, including:
Quality sleep, often using a CPAP device.
Avoiding alcohol, which functions as a neurotoxin
Committing to a healthy diet.
Social interaction with others, loneliness being a factor in decline.
Physical activity
Maynard summarized by saying, “Healthy aging is one of the greatest gifts you can give your family.”
