From San Diego to Florida, this cross-country trek raises Alzheimer’s awareness while spotlighting the power of natural movement, smart footwear, and a strong community.
In this episode of The MOVEMENT Movement, Steven Sashen interviews Judy Benjamin, who embarked on a remarkable journey from San Diego to Florida to raise awareness for Alzheimer’s disease. Judy’s powerful story highlights the importance of early detection, proper walking techniques, and footwear from Xero Shoes in managing her own early Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Through personal anecdotes, she emphasizes lifestyle changes like exercise, diet, and humor to enhance brain health while shedding light on the emotional and financial burdens faced by families affected by Alzheimer’s.
Key Takeaways:
→ Why it’s vital to focus on good posture, foot placement, and body alignment during walks.
→ How people should educate themselves about Alzheimer’s disease and the Bredesen Protocol.
→ Why incorporating humor into your daily life helps navigate challenging situations.
→ How prioritizing exercise as a key component of a healthy lifestyle is crucial.
→ The importance of balancing enjoyment while taking care of your health.
Judy Benjamin, Ph.D., lives a life centered on making a difference in the World. With a doctorate in Medical Anthropology from Binghamton University, Benjamin had an accomplished career focused on conflict-affected and less developed countries, applying professional social science skills in gender, education, health, and economic development across over 30 countries worldwide. Before her coaching practice, she focused on reconstruction and development in conflict-affected countries. Previously, she has worked for organizations such as CARE International, the International Rescue Committee, the Academy for Educational Development, the United States Agency for International Development, the UN World Food Program, UNICEF, and the UN Development Program. She is a National Board-Certified and ReCODE-certified Health and Wellness Coach with Apollo Health, a yoga teacher, and a therapist.
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Links Mentioned: http://NaturallyIntense.net
Episode Transcript
Steven Sashen
Some people say, I’m going to go for a walk. But the person you’re about to meet on today’s episode of the Movement Movement took that to an extreme that you probably won’t believe, but will inspire you and hopefully make you take some action about why she did what she did. But more about that when we get started for real on the Movement Movement, the podcast for people who want to know the truth about what it takes to have a happy, healthy, strong body. Starting feet first, you know, those things at the end of your legs that are there to support the rest of your body, everything above them. We also here break down the propaganda, the mythology, sometimes the flat out lies, lies you’ve been told about what it takes to walk, run, hike, play, do yoga, CrossFit, play in the NBA even, and to do that effectively and efficiently and enjoyably. And I say enjoyably because if you’re not having fun, you’re probably not going to keep it up anyway. So make sure you’re having a good time. I’m Stephen Sashen, co founder and chief barefoot officer here at Xero Shoes and we call this the Movement Movement because we are creating a movement that involves you. More about that in a second about natural movement, letting your body do what it’s made to do and not getting in the way with some things that are artificial that probably cause problems that they sometimes claim they are there to cure. Now here’s how you can get involved. It’s really easy. Go to our website, www.join the movement movement.com nothing to do when you get there, you don’t really need to join. That’s where there’s previous episodes, all the places you can find the podcast, all the previous, I said previous episodes, all the places you can find us on social media and basically you know what to do. Give us a thumbs up. Share like, leave a review, the gist of it, you know, you know how it works. If you want to be part of the tribe, just subscribe and spread the word. So let’s get started. I’m very happy to have our guest here, Dr. Judy Benjamin. Judy, do me a favor. Tell people who you are, where you are, where you were and what the hell you’re up to.
Judy Benjamin
I love it. Thank you, Stephen, for that introduction. I’m so thrilled to be here with you today. Well, I am actually in Tallahassee, Florida. I’m just outside of Tallahassee. I am, my name is Judy Benjamin, which you’re correct in saying. And back several months ago, I decided April 5, I started out On a little walk from San Diego, California to Florida. And I just decided, you know what? I can do this. And here I am, 2600. I’ll turn 2600 today, 2600 miles later, all on these. Well, this. I’ve gone through a few, as you know, but these. This is my current daily favorite. And I have not worn any other shoes other than these. I will tell you that I love them, but I wanted to do something different because two reasons. My mom passed away from Alzheimer’s about 20 years ago, and in those days, there was absolutely nothing. I mean, even today, people will just give you a diagnosis and say, get your affairs in order, and that’s it. And she sadly took about 20 years that she finally gave in to the disease, or the disease finally got her and she passed away. And so I kind of want to honor her by making. Calling attention to the fact that there now are things you can do. And I’m not saying that everybody can cure Alzheimer’s and that you can reverse it 100%. I’m going to tell you, if you are interested, I’ll tell you kind of how I did it. But. So that was part one of my reason. Part two of my reason is that I myself was diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s 13 years ago. And I knew it was coming because I started getting all the symptoms. I won’t go into it right now, but I was having the classic symptoms, the same as my mom had. And I was absolutely devastated. I said, I cannot put my family through this. I know what’s ahead. And I was just incredibly depressed. A very good friend of mine happened to know Dr. Dale Bredesen, who’s a neurologist out in San Francisco. And she said, you know, Dr. Bredesen is working on a theory for reversing the cognitive decline in dementia. Call him up, go see him. So I did. She called him and actually made an appointment. I flew from New York out to San Francisco and spent about two and a half hours with him. And he told me what I could do to start reversing the. Basically, it’s inflammation in your brain, but, you know, a lot, lot more to it than that. But I came back just with a burning desire to. This is my only hope. I’m going to do this, come hell or high water. And that’s kind of how I’m looking at the walk, really, because it’s like, I feel like if you. If you have a little grit in your attitude, you can make things happen. And that was my attitude about this whole thing. And I thought if can walk across the country and tell people, both from media, from just meeting people along the way and let them know, it gives a lot of hope. And that’s what I’ve found so far. I’ve been through now California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, tiny bit of Georgia, just a little snippet. And now I’m in Florida and I’m 81 years old. So if I can do it, anybody can do it.
Steven Sashen
So did you have a birthday while you were walking?
Judy Benjamin
Did, actually, because all of my Pre advertisements said 80 year old woman in June. June 11th was my birthday.
Steven Sashen
Wait, wait, wait, wait. How did we never figure this out? We have the same birthday.
Judy Benjamin
Really? You’re kidding me.
Steven Sashen
Swear to God.
Judy Benjamin
Oh, my goodness. Well, great minds come from great places, I guess, at great times. But you know what? We have different years of BIR.
Steven Sashen
Yeah, well, that’s true. I mean, I’m 63 and my mother, I mean, well, part of it. I want to back up and tell some people. You know, how this conversation started in a way. My mother similarly had Alzheimer’s. My father’s mother did. My father died before we would know if he was going to develop it. And my mom passed after 14 years of dealing with it just a year ago. A year ago. Just a couple days ago, actually. Yeah, sorry, Yeah, a couple days ago. And, and yes, really, really unpleasant. And. But when we started chatting and I want to highlight something that you said, and it’s frankly, the reason that I continued my conversation with you is you said, look, here’s what I did, and it worked for me and it might not be right for everybody. And I couldn’t appreciate that more because so many people love to have a single answer for everything, especially when it’s something as profound as Alzheimer’s or cancer or things like Parkinson’s or Ms. And there’s always going to be someone who claims they have a cure and that it works, you know, 100% of the time for everyone. And if it works at all, it’s usually not for everyone. So your honesty and integrity was hugely important for my decision to, you know, see what we could do to help you out.
Judy Benjamin
Well, I’m so grateful that we had that conversation. And it’s just turned out to be an incredibly important part of my journey, I have to tell you that. You know, really.
Steven Sashen
Well, let’s just, you know, I mean, the idea, it’s funny. There’s. There’s a guy named Dean Carnassus who’s famous for having done 50 marathons in 50 days. And it’s a similarly, you know, kind of wacky thing. And when I met him, I, I went to introduce myself. He goes, oh, I know who you are. I said, I don’t think you do. He’s yeah, you’re Stephen Sash. And I said, no, I’m the anti Dean Carnassus. He said, he said what? I said, you will wake up and say, let’s go for a run and you finish it. A day later I will wake up and say, I’m going to go train on the track and I’m done with my workout in under 15 minutes. So it’s a whole, whole different game. But I mean, there’s so many things that one could think of to do to bring awareness to Alzheimer’s in general and this treatment and everything around it. But seriously, what made you just go, I mean, what were you doing prior to mapping out a path across the country that made you think, okay, walk across the country?
Judy Benjamin
Well, actually for, you know, let’s just say pre Covid for a minute because for the last 25, 30 years I’ve been very much involved in international development and humanitarian help assistance and I did a lot of contract work for USAID and for the UN and the World bank and I’d go to these war affected countries and do evaluations and figure out how are we spending the money to help these people and what are we doing. So I had a really exciting job and I loved it. And I was always traveling and you know, high stress level. And then when Covid happened, my last assignment was in Afghanistan. So I had come back from Afghanistan, I was writing up my report and then no travel and so I did a bunch of stuff. Then during COVID I became a contact tracer with the D.C. board of Health and kind of kept myself really busy. But as all of that passed, thank goodness and we’re now in, you know, more or less in some sort of new normal. I just found that my. I am a board certified coach, a health coach. And I love working with people and trying to tell them what I’ve done and guide them and help them. I love that. But I’m. My level of energy has always been so high that I found I got to do something different. You know, I want to do something different and I love to exercise, I love to walk, I’m a yoga teacher, so I’m all about don’t follow good balance. And I don’t know, it just kind of hit me one day, I thought, you know, I think I’m just going to walk across the country. It’s kind of. I mean, there was nothing really inspiring me other than that, you know, I just thought, why not?
Steven Sashen
You know, and what’d you have to. What’d you do to prep for it? I don’t mean, like, physically, although you might have done that. But I mean, like, logistically, this is not something where you literally just put on a pair of shoes, grab a, you know, thing of water and throw it in your pack and go for a walk.
Judy Benjamin
Well, that’s a great question, Stephen. It really is. Because I thought in the beginning, you know, I usually. I’ve done some marathons and mountain climbing and stuff like that, and I always prepared for it. But I thought, you know, how am I going to do this? So the first few weekends, I mean, that after I had this idea, I would put a backpack on, get my water, and I would just say, how many hours today can I walk and feel comfortable walking? Because I had never walked that length of time, you know, and it’s different from a marathon because there you’ve, you know, you’re trained and you’re, you know, it’s going to be X amount of time based on your speed. But this was just like going. And so I did this for a couple of weekends, and then I thought, you know, this is nonsense. There’s no way I can train for this. It’s either going to be. I’m either going to do it or not do it. And. And I loved. And I watched. I have to tell you this because I really owe you a note of gratitude here. I watched your YouTube on how to walk and different ways of walking uphill, downhill, how to place a foot. And I honestly didn’t really know that before. I hadn’t thought about, you know, how to place your heel, how to align your shoulders and your hips over your knees. And so I thought, well, I’m going to try this. I would go out practicing. I’m thinking, I watch your video. So I’m, like, going really crazy, kind of slow with it until it became a natural rhythm for me. And I realized that no matter how far you walk, or I don’t want to say what condition, you do have to be healthy in order to do the thing that I’ve done. But it’s putting one foot in front of the other and stepping, but having good posture. Because I watch people now all over, many people younger, many years younger than I am, in their 50s and 60s, and they’re walking, like, bent over or hunched over. And I’m just. I want to go over and like, press them into shape. I don’t. But because for me, even if I get tired, you know, I say, okay, straighten up. Put that string up here. You know, get that straight line. And that cuts down your fatigue, at least that it has for me. So I get up every morning with great enthusiasm and just go. And I feel great at the end of the day. Am I tired? Sure I am. But I walk eight to 10 hours a day, you know, just walking.
Steven Sashen
And did you. What have you done for just backup support along the way? I mean, before you even get there, like, how’d you plan the route? Because there’s some sections of that where, you know, there’s like nothing for a long time.
Judy Benjamin
Tell me about it. I could. I thought I would die before I got out of the state of Texas. I think it was three months. I mean, at least. At least two and a half months in Texas. And I went the southern route. I’ll tell you why in a second. But it was just desert, desert, desert. I saw so many tarantulas crossing the street. I mean, amazing armadillos and tarantulas. I mean, lots of. But what the. The way I planned it basically is I used the Adventure Cyclists Association’s mapping for cyclists because, as you know, many people ride the bike across and they’ve got three primary routes coast to coast. They’ve got a northern, a middle central area, and a southern. And I decided on the southern because I calculated the distance and that in a straight line from San Diego to St. Augustine or Jacksonville is basically the same, was the shortest route. And I thought, well, I’m not trying to prove the longest route. I wanted to go that route. The other part of that decision was I didn’t want to go through the Rockies when it was really icy cold. Much more of a hot weather person. And I made that decision. There were days in Texas when I thought, you know, you are stupid. You should have gone the other way. But I take a sauna every day at home, and I have a sauna in my home, and I’m used to hot temperature. And it really didn’t bother me. My drivers for my support vehicle were. They were complaining a lot, but for me, it was not that bad. But so the. The planning was the. The bike maps and then I. Small RV that goes along, not next to me, but they. I leave them in the morning and two or three hours later they’ll catch up, give me fresh water, a snack, change of shoes. Sometimes I switch out my shoes, and especially, you know, if it’s rained or anything and. And then I go another two or three hours and that’s how we do it.
Steven Sashen
What are they doing while you’re walking? And they’re just hanging out in the rv?
Judy Benjamin
I don’t know. Why? That’s a great question. I’m afraid to ask. I think maybe watching videos, I don’t know. No, actually, I’m being a little facetious because it depends. I was very fortunate because I’ve had. I had two filmmakers in the beginning. One of them was Mike, and he’s a very talented filmmaker. He was with me for a while and he would be editing and doing, working on other films that he had done. And then my next driver was Fabio and he was a drone pilot, a really talented drone pilot pilot. So he would fly the drone or, you know, chat with his friends. And I’ve had a couple of my girlfriends along the way and they’ve done, you know, read books or, you know, took take done photographs. And then currently a old friend of mine, David, he’s a violin player, he plays in an orchestra and he loves. When I’m not in the van, he just practices the violin and does some video and so forth. So people find things to do. I mean, it’s amazing.
Steven Sashen
So most, most interesting or fun. Least interesting or fun.
Judy Benjamin
Of what, the whole trip or.
Steven Sashen
Yeah, pick, pick, pick events that stick out of your mind. Because, I mean, I’m partly, you know, I’m also just imagining. I’m imagining two things. One, these sort of unusual things that you didn’t expect and then. Which could be people showing up or things happening or, you know, or that’s kind of. Let’s call that an external thing versus unusual, unexpected internal things. Just what’s happening in your mind as you’re doing this. And, and I can imagine both, you know, up and down for both of those categories. So I’ve got a good two by two matrix for internal, external, good, bad.
Judy Benjamin
Yeah, that’s, that’s a great. It’s a thoughtful question and I should probably have given it more thought. But I think that what’s interesting, what’s been really interesting to me is, you know, there’s a lot of solitude about walking alone. And I actually love that I, I am a people person, but I really, really embrace the fact that I’m out there. I don’t have any interruptions except when the state patrol stops and ask if I need water or something, trying to give me a ride. They’ve been very nice. But I’m thinking, and what has happened to my brain in that sort of quiet solitude is that I’ve had memories come back from my early childhood. I’ve remembered things that my parents said to me that I totally forgotten about, you know, or my, my sisters or friends that I knew. And it would just, like, come to me. And I thought, wow, that is a gift that my, you know, that being in a peaceful state and the rhythm of walking, putting one foot in front of the other, and it, to me, it’s very therapeutic. So I love that and I love the fact that meeting all kinds of people, I mean, I have so many stories. I’m writing them up because I think they’re, they’re, they’re worth other people reading about them. But things I didn’t know that I wouldn’t like as much as I don’t like it is I, I’ve never been afraid of heights. You know, I did Kilimanjaro. I’ve done. You know, I played flying aerobatic airplanes and hanging out of planes. Never had a feeling of height, but it’s going over all of these long causeways with the bridges and, and the trucks go, and they vibrate and everything. And I look over at the water and I think it really. I got to a point where I really don’t like that. It really gives me, like, a weird physical, queasy feeling in my stomach. And I don’t know what that means, but it’s something that I’ve developed on the walk.
Steven Sashen
You should watch videos of like, those Nepali and Tibetan buses that are going up the Himalayas, you know, on a road that is barely wide enough for the bus. And sometimes, like, having to put wheels up on the mountain itself to fit and, and that’ just, you know, desensitize you because that stuff is insane. And I know. Yeah, that’s crazy. So any people show up to, like, walk with you, Any fun people that you ran into that you didn’t imagine bumping into or, or, or conversations. I imagine that there’s also like three or four questions that anyone who bumps into you asks non stop and, and you have to have, you know, your favorite answer for that without making you want to punch somebody, including yourself, in the face for saying it.
Judy Benjamin
Well, of course everybody wants to know. Like, they’re usually very amazed and they find out how old I am. And then they want to know, like, why are you doing this? You know, that’s the big question. So I basically answer it in a shorter form that I answered with you. But the kind of people I mean, I’ve Met some really interesting people. I just think of the, one of the funniest things that happened that was. And it’s getting close to how Halloween, you know, now it’s in October, but I spent a few nights, a number of nights in the Walmart parking lots because I’ll be in places that don’t have a hotel or motel.
Steven Sashen
Yeah.
Judy Benjamin
And I figure, well, I’ll just sleep in the rv. And so I’ve got an extension on the back of the RV that’s a rectangular thing with a black zippered bag that I put extra stuff in. And it’s kind of like humpy shape like that. So somebody called the police on me in Walmart because they said I was carrying a body in the back of my vehicle. And the police came out and this really nice officer, his name was Moore and he was, he was just delightful, it turned out. But he said, ma’, am, I’m gonna have to ask you to open that in the back because. And it looked, when I looked at, I thought, yeah, it kind of looks like a body. It’s got like feet here. I thought. And so I, I, we laughed. So I opened it up and showed him and, and, and let him know that I didn’t actually have a body. But I thought that was so funny that people seriously enough to call the police and say I was carrying a body.
Steven Sashen
Well, once he checked you out that you didn’t have a body, now you have the perfect place to hide a body.
Judy Benjamin
I know it’s that time of the year, but, but just kind people. I’ve had people walk with me to answer your question and just write to me on, you know, I have Instagram and Facebook and TikTok and all of those and they’ll. When I can. I don’t get to answer everyone and I don’t actually have the time to. I will eventually, but I haven’t had time to answer everyone but they’ll want to meet me. And I still have people meeting up in the next couple of weeks. I’ve only got, I’m finishing up November 15th, so. And I’ve only, I, I really need to drag my feet a little bit because I’m kind of going to get there a little sooner. But that we kind of had to pick a date so that we could have a little media coverage and that sort of thing and get my family down to, to go across. I want to, I put my toes in the Pacific Ocean. I want to put my toes, maybe my whole body in the Atlantic Ocean when I get there. So that, that’s kind of my, my goal. But yeah, it’s. It’s just been an incredible journey. The people who’ve walked with me have been great. You know, I’ve had a few things like the hill, in the hill country of, of Texas where they had the flooding, you know, so bad. And I was supposed to walk right through that area. And when we got really close, I went into one of the local sheriff’s office and we looked at the maps and I got their advice and I was told, no, the river’s up 12ft, the road’s closed. So I basically had to modify based on that. And now it was sad because so many people were really, you know, their lives were really badly affected by that. And. Yeah, and I went through the Apache reservation, which was huge. Is huge. And then people were just so fantastic coming out to me and, you know, saying prayers over me and blessings over me. And that was really, really a treat. I didn’t realize how many people have dogs that are not kept, you know, like, in the fence. And so that’s one thing I’ve been really kind of experimenting with. I love animals and I’m not afraid of dogs. And I do have walking sticks that are, that are metal. So when I’ve been. I had five dogs in the Apache reservation area come out, big dogs. And we’re not talking like little ones, big dogs. And they had like, they always have like a lead dog. And they kind of circled me and, you know, they get closer and closer and I just did this sort of swirling dance with the clanging them together. And I think they dogs looked at me and thought, but is she crazy? You know, we’re not gonna bother her. So I haven’t been bitten, and I hope I don’t. I bought a box of dog bones, the milk bones, because I figured I could at least throw them some bones and maybe that’ll distract them. But I’ve had more episodes with dogs than I, than I care to mention. But so far I’ve. I’m on the winning side of that one. And that’s been too bad.
Steven Sashen
I had, I had an ex girlfriend who used to, who complained to me one day, you just treat all dogs like they know you and like you. I said, yeah, because they do. I’d never had an experience otherwise, so I’m going to stick with it. And it worked out so far, so good. So where, so where exactly are you finishing up?
Judy Benjamin
Well, the plan is to finish in St. Augustine.
Steven Sashen
Okay. On.
Judy Benjamin
And you said on the 15th, Saturday the 15th, there there’s a possibility that we may go up to a Beach about 25 miles up the coast. And the reason that there’s a special annual event that’s going to take place starting that day called the Festival of Lights, which they do every year, and I didn’t realize that. And it’s going to be a pretty congested traffic and road closures and things like that. So we just are discussing it now. It’ll either be St. Augustine or the beach right outside of St. Augustine.
Steven Sashen
Got it. So that’s, I hope. Well, first of all, I mean, we’re not anywhere close to wrapping this up. But while we’re talking about itinerary things, let people know where they can find your itinerary. So if anybody wants to join you in these last couple weeks, they can do that.
Judy Benjamin
That would be great. Yeah, the JudyWalks.com is the website and it shows the map where I am. So that’s the, one of the best places. Judy walks.com and then on the Instagram, it’s Judy Walks America and that, that clicks into TikTok Instagram and so forth. But the, the root is shown on Judy walks.com and how’s the, you know.
Steven Sashen
Back to the part about education, people, educating people about Alzheimer’s and about Bredesence Protocol. How’s that gone for you?
Judy Benjamin
Well, I think it’s, it’s going really well because everyone, once you start talking about it and letting people know what you’re, what I’m doing and sharing my own story, I think that it’s relevant because I do have a personal story to tell. They want to know what can I do? Well, unfortunately, it’s more complicated than being able to stand there and do an elevator pitch and say, this is all you have to do. So I usually refer them to Dr. Bredesen and Dr. Bredesen’s books. And I give them the basic, I give them the basic idea of the basic seven principles, which is exercise, diet, sleep, lower your stress rate, make sure you’re not in any toxic environment like mold or you’re not out in where they’re spraying glyphosate or Roundup, and you’re not using Roundup in your garden. Even golfers, I mean, they, they put this stuff on golf courses all the time, and they go out and play golf, kick up the grass, and then they wear their shoes in their homes, on their carpet and whatnot. And it’s, it’s really, it’s, it’s very bad. There’s a lot of very research that’s pointing to the inhalants, the toxic inhalants that we should avoid, especially for things like Parkinson’s. Parkinson’s. Parkinson’s disease is particularly in that direction. I mean, pointing to the fact that that’s one of the primary things. So I do my best to refer them to a source and then I ask people if they want to write to me. And I’d always say, when I finish my walk, then I’ll be able to be more responsive and to that. But it’s essentially, you know, exercise is probably one of the most important things because as you know, when you exercise, your, your blood, your heart rate increases, your blood flow is better. Therefore you’re getting oxygen throughout your body, but especially to the brain. And the brain needs a lot of oxygen to function. So if you can exercise, it also produces what’s called brain derived neurotropic factor, or bdnf. We need that. And so that is why daily exercise, not like once or twice a week, but, you know, people need to move more. And walking is perfect. You don’t have to run a marathon to do exercise or spend your life in the gym if you don’t want to, you know, get out in nature, preferably. But if you have a treadmill at home, you can do that too. So exercise. And then related to that oxygen is sleeping. A lot of people have sleep apnea and they don’t realize it or they deny that they have it. But, you know, certainly snoring is one of the factors that, you know, tells you that you’re not breathing through your nose, you’re breathing through your mouth. And that needs to be addressed. Because if you, if you spend the entire night not getting enough oxygen to the brain, you lose neurons. You actually have neurons that die. And we don’t want that. We want all of our brain cells to keep firing. Right, so. So that’s it. And then eating is just giving up junk food? Not no more. I mean, staying away from processed food and eating real food, you know, it doesn’t have to be, it doesn’t have to be vegan or vegetarian or whatever. It can be whatever works for you, but it should be real food and not made in a factory with a thousand names that you can’t pronounce in the ingredients. That’s not good for it. We’re not, we’re not chemistry experiments and we weren’t ever meant to digest and process all that stuff.
Steven Sashen
Well, some of it does break. I mean, admittedly, some of it does break down because of the hydrochloric acid in your stomach. But you’re. But the point is still that there are some molecules that get carried along for the ride that we don’t know what the effects are. I mean, we don’t even need to get into talking about micro nanoplastics, which is just freaky that we have, you know, a credit card’s worth of plastic floating around in our body at any given average, which is just bizarre. And if it was a gold card, that would be one thing, but if it’s just one of those Amex green, you don’t get any benefits from it. And people. Yeah, who are you? So I must say the stand up comic in me, or the former stand up comic in me knows there’s just an infinite number of jokes about someone going for a walk about Alzheimer’s and just accidentally going across the country because they didn’t know which way home was. So I don’t need to dive in there.
Judy Benjamin
Still looking for home. But that. Yes. Yeah.
Steven Sashen
Yeah.
Judy Benjamin
Well, you know, you have to have humor. You have to have humor about all of this. It’s. Otherwise life is going to be too, too dull if you don’t.
Steven Sashen
Can I, can I tell you, I have two very funny stories about, from my mother with Alzheimer’s. One of them is not safe for work, so people have to find me privately for that one. But. But this was one of my favorite things ever. I. My sister and I would constantly test her to see sort of where her mind was at any given time. So we sit down. My sister’s name is Ellen. We sit down with my mom and my sister says, do you know who I am? And my mom says, no. And I say, do you know who I am? She goes, I don’t think so. My sister asked again, do you know who I am? She goes, I feel like I should. I ask again, do you know who I am? She goes, are you Mark? I went, no. My sister says, do you have any children? My mom goes, oh, yeah. Oh, how many? She’s three or four, Just two. And my sister says, do you know their names? And my mom says, stephen and Ellen. It’s like, oh. So my sister says, wow, do you know who I am? My mom goes, no. I said, do you know who I am? And my mom looks around conspiratorially to make sure there’s no one around. She leans in, she goes, do you people know who you are?
Judy Benjamin
That’s a great story. I love that.
Steven Sashen
Oh my God. It was, you know, I realized I was my mother’s child in that moment because as her mind was disappearing, the only thing left, everything she said was an attempt at a joke. Sometimes it was, sometimes definitely wasn’t, but, but clearly that was the goal. And I was like, oh, okay, yeah, I’m just her turned up to 11, so and, and I interviewed her. At one point we, they had brought in a soprano singer and she sang show tunes for about an hour. And my mom sang along, knew every word, which amazed me because we never had music in our house. I mean, I have no idea where those came from for her, but she knew every song, every lyrics to every one of the songs. And the end of this hour she said, wow, I haven’t felt this good in days. And I said, oh, oh, so you can compare how you’re feeling now to a memory of how you felt in the past. And she goes, nah, I just say things like that because it makes people feel better. But I then questioned her about her experience. Like she lost the ability to understand photographs. She didn’t know who people were in photographs, didn’t recognize them at all. And then she also didn’t understand mirrors. So she complained about how there was a lady in her bathroom who just wouldn’t shut up up. Which I thought was hysterical. So yeah, yeah, asked her about her experience and I couldn’t tell if some of her answers were an accurate representation or just the mind making up stories to come up with an answer to the question. But if you didn’t know I was speaking to someone with late stage Alzheimer’s, this could have been someone’s guru. I mean it’s like, so, you know, do you think about what you’re going to do tomorrow? No, I have no place for tomorrow. I’m just aware of what’s happening now. And even that is just leaving me, the moment I pay attention to it, it’s like, geez, people have paid thousands from somebody wearing a, you know, wearing a loincloth and a mountain in the Himalayas. So, and just like over and over that it was fascinating just hearing kind of the essentialness of awareness and consciousness as much as she was able to communicate it. And then, then there’s just the other phenomenon, which is that, that the, the options for long term care are so limited and so unacceptable. Frankly, if my mother knew that we, that she was still alive, you know, I mean, my mother used to say to my sister and I when we were children, if I’m ever worse than that lady and would point to someone who was way better than she had been for the last 12 years, she’d say, just back the car out of the driveway with my chair at the end of the driveway and forget to look back.
Judy Benjamin
Back.
Steven Sashen
And if she had any idea, you know, she would have taken herself out. Not an option.
Judy Benjamin
Yeah.
Steven Sashen
And if she had any idea how much we spent keeping her alive when all she could do was sit and stare, she killed my sister and I. So it’s. It’s really. It’s one of the things that we want to do is help try to bring awareness to just treatment and alternatives. I mean, the irony for the places that do have some sort of assisted suicide euthanasia program for people with Alzheimer’s, you have to be of sound mind to say, yes, you want to do it, which bit of a paradox it is.
Judy Benjamin
And it’s such an important topic, and it definitely affects every family when there’s a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. And it’s. You know, I know my sister and I, we went through and tried everything, and it just. Just, you know, it’s just really, really one of the hardest things that. That happened to any families. But I. I know that what I saw happening with my mom, there was a time in. In early on in the disease where she knew she had a memory problem. She knew she had a problem, and it bothered her.
Steven Sashen
Right.
Judy Benjamin
But then there’s that bridge that they go over that they don’t know anymore. It’s like some of the comments that you’re. You’re saying, talking about that your mom made that. And in a way, it might sound a little cruel, but in a way, it’s a blessing that they don’t know, because my mom would have been like yours, horrified to know that. And it’s just. That’s where it shifts to the family. That’s where you and Ellen had the brunt, because you still suffer seeing your mom do that, but your mom is in a different space.
Steven Sashen
Well, that was the thing, you know, while I was at that Soprano performance thing, I realized something very similar to what you did, which was nobody in that room had the idea they had a problem. My mother never thought she had a problem. It never occurred to her. What was amazing was she was completely willing to accept when my father said, you can’t drive or you can’t cook or you can’t whatever.
Steven Sashen
Actually wait. It’s another one of my mom’s moments. When my father died, my mom. Everything had to be in the right place, or it would confuse her, and she’d kind of. Of get in a loop and just start something over. So one night, a couple of Us are sitting around and she says, I’m just gonna have a couple spoonfuls of ice cream and then I’m gonna go to bed. So she’d have two spoonfuls of her favorite Breyer’s vanilla. And then on the way to the bedroom, something was out of place and it would set her off and she’d come back. I’m just gonna have two spoonfuls of ice cream and then I’m gonna go to bed. And after the fifth time she comes back, I’m gonna have two spoonfuls of why is there no ice cream in this house? But that was, that was the extent of what she perceived as a problem.
Steven Sashen
So I’m in this room and the first thing is again, no one in that room thought they had a problem. And then it occurred to me that what we people who are the children of these people or relatives or friends think, oh my gosh, I’m going to suffer if this happens to me. But no, look, like you said, they’re not suffering. Now again, for my mother never had any suffering, never was aware there was a problem.
But so our projections about how bad it’s going to be, they’re wrong too. And that’s a lot of what’s keeping, let’s call it, you know, the, the Alzheimer’s industrial complex alive is sometimes, I mean, look, there’s people, there are people in places making a lot of money keeping people alive who otherwise wouldn’t be. In fact, and this is a kind of public service announcement, my mother, she did have long term care insurance, which ran out after a while. And we moved her into a facility that we were paying for. And then we just couldn’t afford to keep her at that facility. And so we found somewhere that was like a Medicaid facility. And we said to the place where she was, we’re going to have to move her. And she’d been there for like five years. And we said, we’re going to have to move her. And they said, why? They said, well, we found somewhere less expensive. They said, how much less expensive? We said, half this price. They said, oh, we’ll just drop our prices. So like, excuse me, for the last five years, you’ve charged us twice what you were willing to accept.
And so this whole, this whole, thing just, I think, needs to be examined from the. What we think is going on for this person. Sometimes people are keeping someone alive out of just, you know, what’s the word? Not sympathy, but just, you know, you’re keeping your memories alive. They’re Already going. I remember my father’s mother when she had Alzheimer’s. My father was very upset once when she didn’t recognize him and thought he was his brother.
And I was about 14 at the time. And I’m thinking it’s not personal, but he took it very personally. So, you know, the understanding what their experience is, more exploration of what our experience is, the family members and friends and how true or not true it may be and how we deal with that, and then the technical part of it as well, and the financial part of it.
There’s so much to dive into, especially with an aging population. And so I’m just so thrilled that you’re bringing attention to the whole thing at all, let alone what people can do to improve their health span. And as you said, the only thing that is currently clearly beneficial for longevity and health span is exercise. Absolutely everything else.
Judy Benjamin
No, absolutely. And the whole thing is, even if you buy or get extension of your health span by five years or one year, but five or 10 years or that’s a gift. I mean, there’s no, there are no side effects to living a healthy lifestyle, except for good side effects.
Steven Sashen
Yeah.
Judy Benjamin
You know, and, and that’s the message, because people don’t want to give up what they enjoy doing that’s detrimental to them. And that’s when I said in the beginning about having grit, you know, having the willingness to do what’s necessary. And I remember reading years ago, something to the effect. I’m going to misquote it probably, but, but, but successful people do things that unsuccessful people aren’t willing to do. In other words, you keep showing up to do what you need to do, and sometimes it’s hard. And, you know, if I’m talking to people who have a real sweet tooth, for example, and they want to eat a lot of sugar. Sugar is the neurotoxin. I mean, if you have so much of it, it’s just not going to be good for your brain, for your blood pressure, for anything. If they really say to me, look, I can’t give up my sweets, then you can’t keep doing the same things and expect a different result. You know what I mean? It’s like, you’ve got to be willing to make some sacrifices here. And I don’t mean that to sound hardlined about it, but I know that it works better if you’re willing to do the right thing.
Steven Sashen
There’s all, you know, there is the tricky phenomenon where people that we know who’ve done all the right things die early of something Or I had, you know, cancer in my eye, came out of nowhere. No one knows what’s caught, what caused it. Happily, my doctors say they’ve never seen anyone who healed from this as well as I have. But at the same time, you know, when I go to the Melanoma Research foundation gala to support research, I’m sitting with people who have stage four melanoma, which is not just cutaneous skin cancer, but, but melanoma can be in your brain and your bones and your, you know, all over the place. And this is going to sound really weird, but it’s so wonderful hanging out with these people. I had a 12 week window where I didn’t know if I was going to live or die. They know that they’re on the way out and they are just making the best of it. And so we have a really good time at these events. But, but we all know people who have just, you know, longevity in their genes and they smoke and they drink and they do whatever and they live to be whatever. I mean, the bottom line is we just, just don’t know what that last day is, which is a whole other question. It’s a great hanging out with friends. Question of would you want to know when you’re going to die? My answer is definitely, but so you.
Judy Benjamin
Can get, have more fun or what?
Steven Sashen
Oh, absolutely. Well, I, you know, I, I’m known among my friends for, with some, if someone is diagnosed with something terminal, saying in that same conspiratorial way that my mom said, do you know who you are, are, or do people know who you are? I will turn to them and go, pretty amazing, right? And they will. 2. Every one of them has said the same thing, which is, oh my God, I’m only doing what I want with who I want for as long as I want. I’m not making any excuses. I’m having the best time of my life. Until, you know, just the physical stuff gets very, very difficult and then you can, then there’s a whole conversation about that. But, and the humor part, you know, you gotta, you gotta choose your battles on that one. My, my wife’s nephew had an inoperable brain cancer. And at one point, you know, like halfway into it, the whole family was being very morose. And I just said to him, you know, actually it’s a good thing that you have cancer in your brain. And he goes, why? I said, well, it’s not affecting a part of your body that you ever use.
Judy Benjamin
And once he did he laugh.
Steven Sashen
Yeah, once he cracked up, everybody was cool. With it. So. But the, the point is, you know, there are things that we know can have a demonstrable impact now even. And whether we’re, whether the cards are so that as soon as you finish giving up chocolate cake, you’re going to get hit by a bus or you can eat as much chocolate cake as you want and the bus misses you every time. We don’t know. But, you know, being judicious with chocolate cake. Not that I have a thing about chocolate cake, but being judicious and not that I know where the best chocolate cake in the world is. D Bar in Denver. But regardless, you know, if you can’t enjoy things in, in a way that allows you to enjoy the rest of your life, then, you know, then that’s, that’s problematic. So.
Judy Benjamin
Oh, I totally agree. And I never say to people, don’t do anything ever, because life, it’s. Quality of life really. You know, you’ve gotta, you’ve got to enjoy your life and, and do them. But, but there’s also a period at which you, you, you do have to figure out there’s a responsibility for taking care of one’s body. Just like if you have a fine automobile. I love antique cars and sports cars and things. And I mean, people spend so much more time taking care of things like that, their boat or their car than they do thinking about their own body and, and doing the exercise or, you know, eating properly or making sure that. And that that’s, that’s the message, really. It’s not like you have to be a te. Totaler constantly. No, all the time.
Steven Sashen
Well, even what you said about bredesence protocol and what I read about it, the, the vast majority of it is just straight common sense. And, and then after that, there’s some tweaks to. Some tweaks to that, which is also what we all know, which is keep, you know, refined carbohydrates, it’s down a bit. Good fats up. Protein, appropriately. Fiber is a good one too. And these are not. This is not news. This is what people have been saying forever. But we just. To your point, I think part of it is that we’ve become so detached from finding and preparing and enjoying food that comes from, you know, food that it seems more complicated than it actually is to get enough protein, to get the right kind of fats, to get enough fiber, et cetera. And there’s ways of doing that that are enjoyable enough that that becomes your default rather than something that you’re forcing yourself to do. Now, the exercise thing, I Will confess is especially as we get older, finding the thing that you like to do that works for your body and your psychology could take a bunch of experimenting. There’s no question about it. It and, but well worth it. I mean, I’m now doing a workout that is, I mean I’ve been an athlete my whole life and it is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It takes 10 minutes three times a week and I am gassed at the end of it and I’m recovering for. I said to my, the coach that I work with, so is the rest of my life going to be that I’m only not sore one day a week? And he goes, yeah, pretty much. So I get Sundays where, where suddenly I’m not feeling sore somewhere. And well, but it makes me so happy because that very intense, very short thing that, that produces results is fits my body and my psychology perfect. I did this one exercise today. I’m gonna, I’ll show off for the people who know. It’s called a Nordic hamstring curl. So you basically support your like, imagine lying on the ground, put your feet under something and then set up so you’re sitting on your knees and then you just go down slowly until your face is on the ground again. And ideally then you come back up. It’s a hamstring exercise. Well, well, I went all the way down, all the way up, back up for 30 seconds and then just could do the negative part like down as far as I could until I fell for the next 30 seconds. I’m a 63 year old dude. There’s not a whole lot of people who can do that at all. And that makes me really, it makes me really happy. Not that, I mean, because I can do it because I’m doing it at 63, but also it’s like one of those. It’s insane doing that. And that makes me happy.
Judy Benjamin
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean the fact, I think there’s that the thrill and that we get and the sense of achievement that we get when we do something like that really makes a difference. Yeah. And you know, I, I feel that, I think with my walk, even though I don’t on a daily basis, I don’t go, oh, hooray, look at me, I walked, you know, 20 miles today. I, I think it’s, it’s just, yeah, you do these things and it feels good that you’re pushing yourself a little bit, you know, to make that happen.
Steven Sashen
There’s a, there’s a point where there’s a word for this. It’s not that it’s a hermetic effect, but there’s something about. Yeah. Doing, doing. Finding that you can do a little more than you thought you could. That, that some days, boy, you wish you didn’t do it and other days you really are happy that you did it. Even on that day you wish. Wish you didn’t.
Judy Benjamin
That’s a cool way to look at it.
Steven Sashen
I mean, kind of work.
Judy Benjamin
I love it. I’d love to hear about your program. You have to send me something on that because when I’m finished with my walk, I’m going to need something I’m a little bit scared about. What will I do when I’m not getting up and walking for eight hours?
Steven Sashen
You know, that’s. It’s a really good question that’ll be interesting to see what happens in your brain and your body. I imagine you’re gonna have to taper a bit in a certain way because otherwise it’ll just be too much to just give it up cold turkey, I think.
Judy Benjamin
So I’ll have to do something.
Steven Sashen
Well, and here I’ll just say right now. I mean there’s no secret. The guy that I work out with, you can find him on YouTube. His name is Kevin Richardson and he calls what he does naturally intense high intensity bodybuilding. It’s not about body. I mean it’s. You don’t have to be a bodybuilder. I think He’s@naturally intense.net. i’m gonna. Here, I’m gonna check that really quick. Just because why wouldn’t I. Naturally intense. I’m pretty sure that’s right.net. am I right? Oh, nope. Something. Wait, I’ll find it. Wait. Naturally intense personal training. Why is my. Oh, my computer’s like freaking out on me. I can’t figure out why. Anyway, we’ll look it up, then we’ll put it in the show notes.
Judy Benjamin
Yeah, I’d love to. I’d love to know more about it because I’m all about, well, keeping this 81 year old body in good shape for the shape I’m in.
Steven Sashen
Exactly. Well, I will warn people. What Kevin does to see if you want to work out with him is he will give you a leg day workout. And he does this on Zoom so he’s walking through in real time. And if you survive leg day and want to come back, you’re insane. And then that’s. So the last question that occurs to me and I popped into my head once or twice and I kept forgetting it. It is not uncommon that someone will Say to me, well, you know, we didn’t evolve to walk long distances on concrete. And so this whole barefoot shoe thing is bullshit. What would you say to those people?
Judy Benjamin
I would say that what we, what we have, that we’re, we’re gifted with when we’re born is a very well designed foot. And that foot likes to be in the position of the foot, meaning the toes spread out a little bit and everything lined up. And if you can put, if you want to cram that wonderful design of the toes and the foot into a shoe that squeezes everything together and you’re going to expect that to be what was meant to be and, and perform well, you’re, you’re wrong. It’s just not happening. So I think that it doesn’t matter. I walk across grass, pebbles, gravel, dirt, sand and concrete and I, I love the fact that I can tell if I close my eyes, I know what surface I’m walking on and what I’m about to, how my body needs to adjust itself to keep balance. So that’s, that’s my answer to it. I don’t, I, I, I don’t agree with these two, three inch stacked foam rubber that puts your body in a leaning forward position, which doesn’t make any sense at all to me.
Steven Sashen
I, I also like to say we didn’t evolve to do standing backflips either. But if you want, I’ll do one right now. Now. Or fly jet planes or do in. I mean, there’s lots of things that we didn’t evolve doing, but we are capable of doing. Of course, anyone who says you can’t, you know, walk long distance in a minimalist shoe, I, of course, just tell them to look at you so.
Judy Benjamin
Well, exactly. They can, they can look me up because I’m clocking my miles and I’m keeping excellent records. So I have not walked a single step without barefoot shoes. So there you go. Thank you.
Steven Sashen
Perfect. Thank you. Thank you.
Judy Benjamin
So once again, no problems. I know you don’t like to focus on that, but I can tell you, everybody always asks me, well, do you have any knee pains? Do you have any ankle pains or foot pains? I have to honest, as of today, I do not. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, but as of today, everything works well. There you go.
Steven Sashen
You mentioned the how to walk video and I’ll put a link to that in the show notes as well. Well, it’s something that, you know, everyone thinks, well, I know how to walk. And it’s like, well, that’s an interesting thing to say. If you go to different countries and watch how people walk, there’s like a difference in different places. If you watch, families absolutely tend to walk similarly and different from each other. So there are ways that bodies can move more effectively and efficiently and enjoyably than others. And. But we can habituate to things that are not good and then we just lose the ability to recognize how not good they are are until we discover something that feels better. And like you said, it takes a while just to get that in your brain enough that your brain goes. That’s the default. So we’ll link to that.
Judy Benjamin
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Steven Sashen
Judy, it’s been an absolute pleasure. I’m so thrilled that we’ve been able to help you in the small way that we have. I wish we could have done more, frankly, but this has been, this is an amazing accomplishment for any human being and for you personally and for the reasons that you did it. I’m just, just thrilled and grateful and can’t thank everyone enough. Do me a favor and just hit everyone with the URLs again where people can find you and what you’re up to for these last couple of weeks. And even if it’s after November 15, 2025, go there and find out more about how you can be helpful.
Judy Benjamin
Absolutely. It’s Judy walks.com and Judy walks America for the Instagram and TikTok account. And if they really want to send me an email, they can send one to judy@access longevity.com access longevity.com well, once again, appreciate you putting it in the in the show notes and thank you for inviting me and thank you, thank you, thank you for supporting and sponsoring with the shoes. Honestly, it’s on. I honestly believe I would not have been able to do this without zero shoes. Oh, that’s honest truth.
Steven Sashen
I I a. It’s wonderful to hear. And like you said, sometimes doing things, to be successful, you have to do hard things. Running a business like this is really hard. And it’s hearing stories like yours, not as extreme as yours, but the, hey, you’ve changed my life in some way. We hear it every day. And it’s why everyone in this company is committed to what we’re doing. And my wife and I couldn’t be more grateful. I mean, after 16 years, we never imagined this is where we would be and that we would have helped millions of people discover, cover the comfort, fun and benefits of natural movement. And we just want to do more and more of that. So if you’ve been listening to this and you want to help as well. It’s really easy to do that. Head over to our website for the podcast at least, which is www.jointhemovementmovement.com. there’s nothing you need to do to join. There’s no fee, there’s no dance you have to do every morning, although that’d be really fun. It’s just a place where you can find previous episodes, all the ways to engage with us on social media. If you want to find the podcast somewhere else, we can show you where to do that. And the gist of it is help us spread the word and create a movement. Movement. Give us a like and a thumbs up and a review and a five star rating somewhere. Just spread the word, subscribe to hear about new episodes. And like I like to say, if you want to be part of the tribe, just subscribe. And more importantly, most importantly, just go out, have fun and live life feet first.