Tapping Mindfulness to Treat Memory Loss | Claudia Wong, FNP-BC

by Anthony Effinger

The Think Neuro podcast from Pacific Neuroscience Institute takes you into the clinic, operating room and laboratory with doctors and surgeons who are tackling the most challenging brain diseases and disorders. Host: Anthony Effinger

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Episode 36: Show Notes

Claudia Wong is a family nurse practitioner specializing in memory loss, Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. A few years ago, she trained to teach restorative yoga. After that, she went traveling, and the trip turned into a two-year journey into the contemplative arts. She did more yoga training in Bali, learned about healing with Tibetan singing bowls in India, and practiced meditation in Thailand. When she returned, she brought all those things back to use in her practice.

Dementia and memory loss cause anxiety. Sufferers are often nervous about missing appointments and other events. That stress can compound their illness. A mindfulness practice like meditation or yoga can calm the aging brain and reduce the symptoms of memory loss, she finds.

Listen to this episode to learn more about how Claudia’s journey to the East helps her get the most out of her practice in Western medicine.

About Claudia Wong

Claudia Wong, FNP-BC, is an AANP Board Certified Family Nurse Practitioner specializing in the care of memory loss, mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. As a Brain Health Nurse Practitioner at the Pacific Brain Health Center, Claudia works closely with physicians and other multidisciplinary team members to provide a collaborative approach to managing these neurodegenerative disorders. Claudia helps patients and their families by creating mutual goals and roadmaps through clinical evaluation, as well as providing guidance with medical, behavioral and psychosocial recommendations. She also helps with research focusing on personalized interventions to optimize brain health in those with memory loss.

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Anthony Effinger

Think Neuro's host is Anthony Effinger, an award-winning journalist who is fascinated with neuroscience and the workings of the brain. Anthony spent 24 years at Bloomberg News, where he covered all aspects of finance, with forays into science and health. In 2006, the Association of Health Care Journalists awarded him first prize for Playing the Odds, an in-depth piece on the changing strategies used to treat prostate cancer. These days, he is a staff writer at Willamette Week, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper in Portland, Oregon, where he lives with his wife and two children.

Last updated: January 18th, 2023