Sharing her personal experiences, Amy Huggins presented the science behind musical therapy for alzheimer's patients.  It is a human phenomena that musical memory is not impacted by alzheimer's the way so many other functions are.  The rhythms introduced in music can affect the ability to speak.  Where science has dramatically reduced the death rates for many diseases, the rate of alzheimer's deaths is increasing.  It is called the "Silver Tsunami," impacting more women than men.  There is a desperate need for more funding to address remediation or a cure.  Amy encouraged those interested to look up the work/ books /talks that have been published by Dr. Rudolph Tanzi and Deepak Chopra regarding the brain.

 

Through the creation of a Rotary Action Group(RAG) focused on Alzheimer's and Dementia, Amy believes we can make a difference as we have done in many other cases by creating a sustainable global project.  When this RAG meets they toss all of their change in a "blue bucket" to be donated to an alzheimer's cure research trust; to date $9.2M has been accumulated for grants.

 

As she learned more about the impact of music, she launched a local chapter of Music Mends Minds which meets every week.  This group was able to continue even through COVID restrictions meeting virtually and expanding their reach in the greater community.  There are materials being updated that outline how to establish a local program, and what requirements or critical elements are necessary (e.g., dedicated musical director; source of instruments; musical therapist, etc.)   Amy welcomed anyone to join in the weekly Zoom sing-a-long meetings: Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday, 1-2PM PDST.  Use the following link and select ZOOM PLATFORM in the title bar.

 

https://www.musicmendsminds.org/

 

Most recently a Rotary District project has been launched in Mumbai, India to gather scientific metrics for use in an application for a global grant.  To be of use universally, the research done and programs developed must be culturally sensitive.

 

https://www.brainandlife.org/the-magazine/bl-current-issue/