Sarah Widmeyer: Caregiving Taught Her More Women Were Needed in Alzheimer’s Research

Sarah Widmeyer joins Being Patient Live Talks to discuss her experience caring for her mother, Elaine, who passed away from Alzheimer’s in 2022, and how the experience set her off on the path to advocating for more gender diversity in clinical research. Widmeyer is an SVP of Wealth Strategies and CMO at Richardson Wealth, and she’s passionate about improving research and access to care for women. The end goal: to improve outcomes for women like her mom.
Inspired by her experience as a caregiver and advocating for her mom as a patient, Widmeyer now serves on the Board of Directors of the Women’s Brain Health Initiative, an organization on funding research and creating education programs to combat brain-aging diseases that primarily affect women.
Watch the full Live Talk to learn more about her caregiving experience and her passion for advancing research on women’s brain health.
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Being Patient is an editorially independent journalism outlet for news and reporting about brain health, cognitive science, and neurodegenerative diseases. In our Live Talk series on Facebook, former Wall Street Journal Editor and founder of Being Patient, Deborah Kan, interviews brain health experts and people living with dementia.
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[@jeffciastko3152]

I don't think by expressing the beliefs that active lifestyle and brain active exercises along with higher education are somehow a way of preventing Alzheimer's. It creates a false sense of security and optimization that if i live a certain way, it won't happen to me. I'm sure those things are beneficial for overall health but not a surefire way of preventing Alzheimer's and shouldn't be expressing that it is. My wife is in the final stages of Alzheimer's. She was diagnosed in early 2019. She was always healthy and active. Holds a masters degree in education. We had a very active social life, and nothing stopped her from getting it. I'm her full time care giver and it is heartbreaking.

[@pbtg6805]

I concur, sir. I have been diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s recently. And I have had people tell me, “ if you’d just read more, play a certain game on your phone, etc., etc., this will slow down the progression… “. I just listen, but am thinking, “ where’s their published research with great publicity! Whether you have 3+ degrees or wait tables in a diner for a living, Alzheimer’s does not discriminate.