Live with Maria Shriver on Alzheimer’s and a Meaningful Life

Maria Shriver has just released her newest book titled I’ve Been Thinking…Reflections, Prayers, and Meditations for a Meaningful Life. Full of inspiration, wisdom, and moving meditations, Shriver is certainly qualified to talk about living a life with purpose: she is a Peabody and Emmy Award-winning journalist, an NBC News Special Anchor, a New York Times best-selling author, the founder of The Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement, and a mother of four.

I recently interviewed Shriver on Facebook Live (video below), and we took time to talk about Alzheimer’s, our time exploring Costa Rica for NBC, and living a life of both purpose and happiness. Although she spent most of her career as a journalist and producer, Shriver has spent the past decade focused on spreading awareness and searching for a cure for Alzheimer’s. It’s both professional and personal — her father, Sargent Shriver, died from the disease in 2011.

She’s on a mission to find a cure, but also to make women aware of the disease’s gender gap. Women receive two-thirds of all diagnoses, and Shriver wants women everywhere to know that at 60 years old, they are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than breast cancer. We’ve included a short summary below the video.

“Your looks will go, so concentrate on your brain.”—Eunice Shriver, founder of the Special Olympics, to her daughter Maria Shriver

Every 66 seconds, someone in America develops Alzheimer’s disease. Two thirds of these people are women. Alzheimer’s, like many diseases, is diagnosed later in life but starts developing much earlier. So Alzheimer’s prevention should be part of your life early — in your 30s, 40s, and 50s.

Tips for Keeping Alzheimer’s at Bay:

Move more, move often. Walk, run, bike, swim, hike, dance, exercise.
Sleep more.
Eat the Mediterranean way. More veggies, more plants, and eat meat sparingly.
Keep learning and keep your brain engaged.
Decrease your stress levels.

“In I’ve Been Thinking . . . Shriver serves up golden nuggets of wisdom, honesty, and inspiration that take us out of our individual worlds and connects us to what’s important, true, and meaningful in the journey of being human.”—Mark Hyman, MD, Medical Director of Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Functional Medicine