Protect and Improve Brain Health

Life’s Essential 8

Eight simple areas to focus on to improve your cardiovascular health as a profound way to improve brain health and function as you age.

U.S. Pointer logo with purple text and icons for Alzheimer's Association.

U.S. POINTER

Learn how four pillars - diet, exercise, heart health, and cognitive challenge/social engagement - can protect cognitive function in reduce your risk of dementia.

Proven Methods to Help Caregivers

The DICE Approach

A simple method to help caregivers reduce their loved ones’ agitation, depression, aggression, hallucinations, and wandering and thereby reduce their own stress and burnout.

An icon of a blue puzzle piece with a red heart in the top right corner.

Dementia CareAssist app

The University of Kansas Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center created this mobile application to help dementia caregivers manage challenging behaviors. The app walks caregivers through potential contributing factors to the problematic behavior, and provides tips to cope for each behavior.

Podcasts, Audiobooks, and eBooks

Graphic for the Age of Aging podcast by Penn Memory Center, featuring a microphone icon with sound waves on a dark blue background.
Collection of five books about Alzheimer's disease, dementia, and personal experiences with these conditions. The covers feature titles, author names, and various artwork including a woman's portrait, abstract purple mountains, flowers, an eye, and a broken heart with a gratitude message.

Age of Aging Podcast

Living well with an aging brain is the focus of this podcast, which is released every Tuesday and explores a broad range of topics, including new cutting-edge research and what it means to age with independence and dignity.

Books by Persons Living with Dementia

Do you have cognitive impairment or dementia? Reading books by people going through a similar experience can be extremely helpful, both emotionally and practically. We recommend checking out this great list of books written by persons living with dementia (PLWD) by the Dementia Alliance International.

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Books for Care Partners

MaineHealth Lending Library

This Lending Library is a fantastic resource for anyone in Maine to access a wide variety of health-related eBooks and audio books for free.

This library offers two of our favorite books for care partners, which you can find here:

National, State, and Local Organizations Here to Help

Alzheimers.gov

Alzheimer’s Association: alz.org‍ ‍

Alzheimer’s Association - Maine chapter: alz.org/maine/

A Place to Start:https://www.aplace2start.com/

Southern Maine Area on Aging: https://www.smaaa.org/

American Parkinson Disease Association
apdaparkinson.org, 1-800-223-2732

Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration: theaftd.org, 1-866-507-7222

Family Caregiver Alliance: National Center on Caregiving: caregiver.org/about-fca

Maine Parkinson Society: maineparkinsonsociety.org

The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA)
biausa.org, 1-800-444-6443

BIAA Maine Chapter: biausa.org/find-bia/maine

The Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) Coalition
multiplesystematrophy.org1-866-737-5999

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokeninds.nih.gov/health-information/disorders/frontotemporal-disorders

National Institute on Aging
nia.nih.gov/health/topics/frontotemporal-disorders

National Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society
nationalmssociety.org, 1-800-344-4867