Featured Session: Maria Shriver, Alexandra Socha and Farida Sohrabji with Ashley C. Ford
Women and Alzheimer’s Disease
SXSW, Austin, TX
March 8, 2019
“Your brain is your best asset — not your breasts or your butt.”
So says Maria Shriver. On the opening day of SXSW 2019, Maria Shriver, journalist, author, former First Lady of California, and the founder of the nonprofit The Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement, took part in a panel on women’s brain health.
Joining Shriver on the panel were Dr. Fardia Sohrabji, director of the Women’s Health in Neuroscience Program at the Texas A&M College of Medicine and actress Alexandra Socha, an advocate with the Alzheimer’s Association. Socha became involved after her mother, age 50, came down with the disease.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, nearly two-thirds of Americans who are living with Alzheimer’s are women. Women in their 60’s are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease as they are to develop breast cancer. On the other side, more than 60% of Alzheimer’s and dementia caregivers are women.
“O
ur mission is to tell you to care about your brain starting in your 30s,” Shriver stressed. She believes that women need to think about brain health much earlier in life, “when they’re in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s,” Shriver says. While many women are focusing on breast cancer, women are twice as likely to get Alzheimer’s, she says.
Stressing a lifestyle change, Shriver would like young women to evaluate everything, from what they are eating to how much sleep they get. Since learning more about the disease, Shriver has changed the way she lives her own life. Meditation, a healthy diet with less sugar, and “me time” are all a part of her current lifestyle.
A new campaign, consisting of a public service announcement and a social media camera effect, made their debut during the SXSW session. The Karaoke-style camera effect is available on Facebook, and people can sing along with the “AlzheimHER’s Chorus” and share it on social media. The Alzheimer’s Association and the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement partnered with Austin advertising agency GSD&M on the campaign.