Free weekly newsletter for caregivers navigating brain injury, CTE, dementia, Parkinson's, and PTSD. Real information. Peer-reviewed. From people who've been where you are.
Your brain is still working. So are you.
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FROM THE NEST | Issue 14 Your brain is still working. So are you. ROB'S CORNER World Brain Day. I have a complicated relationship with that phrase. When you spend your career in medicine, when you teach at the doctoral level, when your entire professional identity is built on a brain that performed under conditions most people will never encounter, being told your brain is the problem is a specific kind of loss. But here is what I have learned, and I did not learn it easily. The brain that cannot find the word it is looking for is still searching. The brain that gets overwhelmed at the mall was once the brain calling in air support in a hot LZ while simultaneously managing a trauma patient under fire. That capacity does not disappear. It reroutes. It compensates. It finds different paths through damaged terrain. My brain is not what it was. But it has not stopped working. It has not stopped trying. And on the days when I can feel it searching, when I know the word is in there and I just cannot get to it yet, I try to remember that the search itself is the brain doing exactly what it was built to do. It is still in there. So am I. -- Rob Robbins HEATHER'S TRANSLATION World Brain Day was created by the World Federation of Neurology to promote brain health awareness globally. The 2026 theme is Brain Health for All Ages. I want to talk about who that includes. It includes the person whose brain is changing. The person who cannot find the word, who gets lost in a familiar store, who wakes up some mornings further from themselves than they were the night before. Brain health is not only for people whose brains are performing typically. It is for every brain, at every stage, under every condition. It also includes the caregiver. Because what chronic caregiving does to the caregiver's brain is documented, measurable, and largely ignored in public brain health conversations. Elevated cortisol. Disrupted sleep architecture. Accelerated cellular aging. A nervous system that has been running on high alert for months or years without adequate recovery. Your brain is under stress too. That is not a complaint. It is a clinical fact. And it deserves the same attention you are giving to the brain of the person you are caring for. World Brain Day is not just a day for neurologists and research institutions. It is a day for everyone navigating neurological disease, from either seat at the table. The patient and the caregiver both brought their brains into this. Both brains deserve care. We built RNA for both of you. -- Heather Robbins THE MEDICAL FACT The World Federation of Neurology established World Brain Day on July 22 to coincide with its founding date in 1957. Each year focuses on a specific aspect of brain health with the goal of reducing the global burden of neurological disease. Neurological conditions are the leading cause of disability worldwide and the second leading cause of death globally, according to the Global Burden of Disease Study. They affect an estimated one in three people over the course of a lifetime. Caregiver brain health is an emerging area of research with significant clinical implications. A landmark study by Epel and Blackburn at UC San Francisco found that caregivers of people with dementia had measurably shorter telomeres than age-matched non-caregivers, indicating accelerated biological aging at the cellular level. Telomere length is a validated biomarker of cellular aging and stress-related disease risk. The same study found that perceived stress, not caregiving itself, was the strongest predictor of telomere shortening. Caregivers who reported lower perceived stress showed significantly less biological aging than those who reported higher stress, regardless of caregiving load. Your perception of the situation affects your biology. That finding has been replicated across multiple subsequent studies and it is one of the strongest arguments for caregiver mental health support as a medical intervention, not a luxury. Sources: GBD 2016 Neurology Collaborators. Global, regional, and national burden of neurological disorders. Lancet Neurology, 2019. Epel, E.S. et al. Accelerated telomere shortening in response to life stress. PNAS, 2004. WANT TO GO DEEPER? If this landed somewhere close to home, these resources are here when you are ready. Brain Injury 101: Start Here Parkinson's Disease Learning Path Caregiver Support at Robbins Nest Alliance Watch the Series: We Have to Tell What's Happening Browse the RNA Shop Robbins Nest Alliance provides free, peer-reviewed caregiver education across neurological conditions. If someone in your life needs this, forward it. That is how we grow. robbinsnestalliance.com |
Heather at Robbins Nest Alliance
Free weekly newsletter for caregivers navigating brain injury, CTE, dementia, Parkinson's, and PTSD. Real information. Peer-reviewed. From people who've been where you are.
Heather’s Corner Rob booked a cruise while I was away. Usually, when an unexpected purchase arrives, I investigate the return policy. This one came with a departure date. We had never taken a vacation together like this. So after some debate, we kept it. Then I began the very relaxing process of preparing to relax. Doctor’s appointments needed moving. Our schedule needed clearing. The nonprofit needed enough work finished ahead of time to keep going without me answering emails from the ocean....
Rob's Corner: The Quiet Got Me I love war movies and history in general. Heather doesn't, not really, she tolerates them, tunes out half the dialogue, and has heard the same films enough times in the background to know them by heart anyway. So when I asked her to actually sit and watch a new one with me, that was already a good night. We did it right. Couch fluffed, snacks out, surround sound on, lights off. Fifteen minutes in, I started narrating the equipment on screen, the names of the...
Rob's Corner: The Carboy Incident Years ago I planted grapevines in the backyard. Syrah, Chardonnay, Zinfandel, a few table grapes for good measure. I have no memory of what I was thinking at the time, but they've been growing ever since, and this year I finally decided we were making wine. Braden and Audrey got me winemaking kits for Christmas and my birthday, which I took as a mandate. So I went out and picked, basket after basket, sorted by variety, and got everything ready for press day....