{"id":15602,"date":"2024-08-07T08:08:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-07T12:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/?p=15602"},"modified":"2024-08-05T11:16:00","modified_gmt":"2024-08-05T15:16:00","slug":"living-to-the-fullest-after-an-alzheimers-diagnosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/2024\/08\/07\/living-to-the-fullest-after-an-alzheimers-diagnosis\/","title":{"rendered":"Living to the Fullest After an Alzheimer’s Diagnosis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Advice From Former Colgate University President Rebecca S. Chopp<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When former Colgate University President Rebecca S. Chopp was diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s disease five years ago, the first neurologist she saw gave a grim prognosis: She wouldn\u2019t even be able to button her shirt in a few years. But, as the liberal arts has taught her, if you don\u2019t like the answer you get, \u201cask the question again; ask it deeper,\u201d she told an audience gathered in Colgate Memorial Chapel in April. When she asked a second neurologist for an opinion, that doctor said, \u201cThere\u2019s so much more living you can do.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n

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Illustration by Bruce Morser ’76<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Embracing this credo of living life to the fullest, Chopp has written the book Still Me:<\/em> Accepting Alzheimer\u2019s Without Losing Yourself <\/em>and has become an Alzheimer\u2019s activist and educator. She has delivered a TED Talk on the subject and in the spring came to Colgate to participate in a panel discussion with Ellen Percy Kraly, professor of geography and environmental studies emerita, and Doug Johnson, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of psychological and brain sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was at Colgate where I began to realize how the arts, science, and athletics come together in the phrase we always use, \u2018the spirit that is Colgate\u2019 \u2014 and it\u2019s about being a full person, a whole person, and how all of this can combine into making a life worth living,\u201d Chopp said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After serving as Colgate\u2019s 15th president, she became president of Swarthmore College and then chancellor of the University of Denver. Chopp was in the prime of her life when she was diagnosed, she said at the Colgate event. After working through her despair, she decided to \u201clive with joy,\u201d as that second neurologist told her she could do, and start researching how to live well. She turned that \u201cprescription\u201d into gifts she shares with others:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBuild your body to prolong your brain. <\/strong>I wrote this book, and here\u2019s how I did it. I have a little Pomsky (a mix between a Pomeranian and a Husky), and he\u2019s very active. So we walked extremely fast for about an hour to an hour and a half every morning. That got all those chemicals in my brain to allow me to concentrate, to go home and write that book. Exercise is extremely important. If you don\u2019t do it, start. And if you do [exercise], increase it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCreativity, with the 100,000 billion neurons in the brain, allows a kind of flexibility.<\/strong> It forms new pathways, and it also reduces anxiety. So create, doodle, dance; music is fabulous. Any kind of artistic activity. I learned to paint.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSleep is really important. <\/strong>When I [worked at Colgate] and throughout my life, I slept about four hours a night…. [Now] I sleep about nine to 10 hours a day, which is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery morsel you eat is brain boosting or brain destroying. <\/strong>Adopt a Mediterranean diet. I gave up all processed foods.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAbide in awe. <\/strong>Call it spirituality. Call it religion. Whatever you need… Awe is that feeling of being connected to transcendence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The panel discussion with Chopp kicked off the University\u2019s Arts, Creativity, and Innovation Weekend.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Colgate University President and Alzheimer’s educator Rebecca S. Chopp shares her advice for “living with joy.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":15629,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[568,2338,684,2102,2339,2263,1156,600,2340,1523],"coauthors":[388],"class_list":["post-15602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scene","tag-advice","tag-alzheimers-disease","tag-author","tag-creativity","tag-dementia","tag-exercise","tag-higher-education","tag-liberal-arts","tag-rebecca-s-chopp","tag-sleep"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palXSH-43E","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/07\/Resize-image-project-4.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15602"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15928,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15602\/revisions\/15928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15602"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=15602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}