Hope for the Caregiver

Live from Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee, this is Hope for the Caregiver, the nation's number one show for the family caregiver.

I am Peter Rosenberger bringing you three decades of experience to help you stay strong and healthy as you take care of someone who is not. And we do that simply through volume. Volume. That's the key.

Volume. Oh, we're glad to have you with us. If you want to be on the show, 877-655-6755. And it is just a delightful day in Tennessee. A little warm, but it's a great day in Tennessee. And it's a great day to start being a healthy caregiver. Healthy caregivers make better caregivers. And if you want to follow along on Facebook Live, you can. We're streaming the show and then we put it out on our YouTube channel a little bit later. And that is Hope for the Caregiver on Facebook. The YouTube channel is Hope for the Caregiver.

I try to be consistent. And our Twitter account is Hope, the number four caregiver. And then our podcast, which is free because I put the show out there in full segments and then clips of it.

The podcast is CaregiverPodcast.com. I mean, how hard is that? I mean, we try to make things very easy and friendly. And speaking of easy and friendly, here he is, the Baron of the board, the salt of the sound, the Earl of Engineering, the man who put the word care into care to do the honor, sir. It is John Butler, the Count of Mighty Disco, everyone. Mighty disco. Mighty. Mighty disco.

Every time I hear like a Count of Monte Cristo reference, I think of Shawshank Redemption. Of course you do. Yeah. Well, it's a- I have to wear a cervical collar sometimes when you talk because you take right turns so fast. That's my job, Peter.

Yes, it is. I'm here to play the part of the audience. And you know, if there's anything about caregivers. Well, and God love you for it. I'm sorry, I'm a little bit dressed up.

I just came from a tractor pull, so- Well, you know, you are. You're looking really spiffy today. Well, thank you.

I cut myself on that sharp. Well, God love you. I am speaking tonight later on in a church east of here. And Gracie and I are actually going to go over there and speak. And so we're looking forward to that. So I'm going to be flying out of here, running over there.

You guys really should log on to the Facebook live feed. I mean, Peter's got cufflinks on and everything. Well, I mean, you know, I got an image to- I'm standing next to Gracie tonight.

You know, I mean, you know, really. She is a- boy, she looks fabulous day too. And I took a- I posted a picture of her today.

She was mad at me because she likes to go after church. She likes to go out to dinner. Okay.

Do you know where she likes to go? Is it Waffle House? Waffle House. Yeah. Okay.

Now, if I remember right, you get like smothered covered caps or something like that? No, today I was- I was- I dialed it back a little bit and had the Fiesta omelet. Hey, not bad.

With jalapenos in it, which is always good to have jalapenos and all that kind of stuff while you're on the air. Absolutely. Oh, it's just wonderful.

Yeah, it's just really stuck. You know, you should have somebody advising you on what not- oh, that's me. Thanks very much. Thank you very little there, John. All right, listen, we've got a lot to cover today and I need to get to our caregiver tip of the day. Our caregiver tip of the day. What is it again? Our caregiver tip of the day. There you go.

All right, our caregiver tip of the day brought to you by AARP of Tennessee, aarp.org slash T-N. And this is a kind of an esoterical thing, but I was thinking about it today and I was doing some reading and something this morning and I saw the difference of this. Learn to embrace quiet more than silence. Ooh, I like that. Learn to embrace quiet more than silence. And let me talk about that.

You can give somebody the silent treatment and you could have fury coming through the silent treatment. I mean, we've all seen that. We've all done that. Well, I have. I don't know if you've done it, John. Oh, yeah. I'm a gold medal winner. And don't forget, I am the crash test dummy of caregivers.

So if you could fail at it, I have failed at it. And you could give somebody the silent treatment and communicate fury and rage and all kinds of things. But being quiet is something altogether different.

That is something internally going on with you and you're settling yourself down. On my CD, I've got a CD called Songs for the Caregiver. It's on iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify, and everything else. And I would really recommend you listen to it because it's very calming. And the first hymn that I play on it, just a piano arrangement. And then Gracie sings about half the songs.

And if you haven't heard Gracie sing, well, do yourself a favor because the girl could really sing. But the first hymn is, there is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of God, a place where sin cannot molest near to the heart of God. Quiet is much different than silent. And quiet is something that we as caregivers can embrace for our own heart, for our own souls. We've got so much noise. There's like a wall of noise as a caregiver.

It's hard to say it any better than that. It's a wall of noise that just comes at us. And it's very hard for us to be quiet in our hearts. We have to work at that.

That is not something that will come naturally to us. We have to, number one, want it. Number two, seek it.

Number three, actively work towards that. But it is attainable that you can have that quiet place in your own heart no matter what's going on around you. And that is critical to us as caregivers.

That if we don't learn to settle ourselves down and we get so pulled into all this noise and we get so turned around and everything else, it will cripple us. And those of you who are already in that place understand exactly what I'm talking about. And for those of you new to the show, by the way, if you've never heard this show before, we're distributed through the whole country on Salem Radio Network. And I'm very grateful to have them with us at the Truth Network.

We're in Alaska to Miami. And you're just now tuning in. You're thinking, this is a show for caregivers? Are you kidding me? No, I'm not kidding you. We're all- We kid each other.

Yeah. We're all about strengthening the family caregiver. And I'm not going to tell you how to do the one and done task very often. We got that.

Once you got it, you got it. You don't need really a lot of constant reminders on how to deal with doctors or hospitals or give a shot or whatever. But we as caregivers need regular recalibration of how to maintain calmness in the midst of some very, very difficult things. Maintaining quiet. Maintaining quiet.

See, that's why he's the Count of Mighty Disco. That's why he is there in the booth, ensconced behind the glass wall. He's her medically sealed.

He's her medically sealed behind the glass. And because we do, we've got to bring that quiet into our heart. It's attainable. I promise you it is.

I promise you it is. And I talk to way too many people that if you really boil it down to what they're looking for, they're looking to be settled. They feel so unbalanced.

They feel so disoriented. And they want to be settled. Money's not going to settle you, does it? The lack of money can make it more unsettling.

I agree with that. But money's not going to settle you. You can be settled in the midst of craziness. Now, how do I know this? Well, go back and look in the book of Acts and you'll see where Paul and Silas at midnight after being beaten and thrown into prison were singing hymns.

Now, I don't know how many of you have been beaten and thrown in prison lately. John, you don't really need to come in here. You just stay out of the covers. Just walk away, John. Just walk away.

There's nothing to see here, John. But, you know, how many of us would be singing hymns in that kind of situation? What did they know about being settled, about being quiet, about being settled in their own hearts that allowed them to do that?

Because whatever they know, I think that would be very helpful to us. And they knew, just like that hymn says on Songs for the Caregivers, I really recommend you getting this. It will help with this. There is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of God, a place where sin cannot molest near to the heart of God. And I love playing that hymn.

And I've played it thousands of times and I just love it. And that's how I settle myself down. What are you doing to settle yourself down? It might be that early morning cup of coffee.

It can be. Sitting on the back porch, which is not a quiet place or a silent place, but it is a quiet place. It's a good night. We're not looking for silence. We're looking for quiet.

And quiet is a state of being. I'm convinced of that. I am just truly convinced of that.

So that's our caregiver tip of the day is look for that. And we've got a lot to... I'm just looking at my wife is posting on Facebook Live. She said, I shall not go silent into that good night.

I shall not. And she's doing it all caps. My wife doesn't go silent anywhere. I mean, the woman is full throttle. Is she quoting Bill Paulman from Independence Day?

Actually, no. She's quoting Dylan Thomas. But, Gracie, God love you. But when she sings, it quietens me down.

And I've watched this often with her. And I think there's something about music that does that. And Hans Christian Andersen said, where words fail, music speaks. And something about that just settles your spirit down. How many of you all right now are not settled in your spirit right now? How many of you all are just agitated and feel very discombobulated? This is the time to stop. Let's just start collecting our thoughts and move towards a place of being quiet.

OK. Later on in the show, we've got a very special guest at the bottom of the hour, Jacqueline – it's a real name, but I call her Jackie Shepherd. She's got her new book, Silent Takeover, How the Body Hijacks the Mind. You're not going to want to miss that.

And a lot of things to go. Your calls as well, 877-655-6755. And also, I've got – I need you to do something for me if you don't mind, please.

Go out to standingwithhope.com. We're going to Africa in two weeks. John, I want to try to figure out – to call in from Africa. You're going to help me with this, right? We'll re-task the satellite.

Absolutely. OK. Well, we're going to figure something out. But we're going to Africa with the Prosthetic Limb Ministry of Standing with Hope.

After Gracie gave up both of her legs, this was her vision to do this. And I got a couple of team members that could really use some support going. They're helping raise – one in particular, Gerald – I won't mention your names, but Gerald. And he's our senior prosthetist going with us.

I need some help with these guys to help get them over the edge. It's expensive to go over there, but it's a great work. We're given the gift that keeps on walking. I mean, go back in the Book of Acts again in Chapter 3, where silver and gold have I none, but such as I have I give. In the name of Jesus, stand up and walk. That's what we do, and they do. I won't – y'all don't tell anybody I just said what I'm getting ready to say. Just kind of keep this twixt us. But I remember one time Franklin Graham was asking me about our work over there, and I told him, I said, Franklin, we've got so many people standing.

It looks like a Benny Hinn crusade being played backwards. If you don't get that, count yourself lucky. Y'all don't say anything about that. Don't tell anybody about that. But that was – well, he kind of just kind of eased away from me. Have you ever had somebody just ease away from you, John? That's – well, you know. Hey, listen, this is Hope for the Caregiver. We'll be right back. This is Peter Rosenberg.

Don't go away. Here's some great news. If you missed the deadline to sign up for health insurance or if you signed up for a plan you're not happy with, you still have a choice. MediShare is a health care sharing program.

Hundreds of thousands of Christians are part of this. It can save you a lot. Typical savings for a family is about 500 bucks a month. You can join MediShare anytime. It's easy to call and look into it.

There's no pressure at all. And man, what a difference it can make. 855-25-SHARE.

That's 855-25-SHARE. Have you ever struggled to trust God when lousy things happen to you? I'm Gracie Rosenberger, and in 1983, I experienced a horrific car accident leading to 80 surgeries and both legs amputated. I questioned why God allowed something so brutal to happen to me.

But over time, my questions changed, and I discovered courage to trust God. That understanding, along with an appreciation for quality prosthetic limbs, led me to establish Standing with Hope. For more than a dozen years, we've been working with the government of Ghana and West Africa, equipping and training local workers to build and maintain quality prosthetic limbs for their own people. On a regular basis, we purchase and ship equipment and supplies.

And with the help of inmates in a Tennessee prison, we also recycle parts from donated limbs. All of this is to point others to Christ, the source of my hope and strength. Please visit standingwithhope.com to learn more and participate in lifting others up. That's standingwithhope.com. I'm Gracie, and I am standing with hope. You know, first off, that moment of silence just before Stevie Ray Vaughan comes on is actually appropriate, John. It really is.

But it's caught in a crossfire. You ever feel like you're caught in a crossfire as a caregiver? Welcome back to the show for caregivers about caregivers hosted by a caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger bringing you three decades, not one, not two, but three decades of experience as a caregiver to help you stay strong and healthy as you take care of someone who is not.

The number is 877-655-6755. And I've got a very special guest on the phone with me right now, Ashley Briggs. Ashley, you with us?

I am. Good afternoon, Peter. Oh, it's a treat to have you here, Ashley. How are you feeling?

Doing well. All right, listen. Before we get to why you're calling here, you've got to help us introduce our section. Our segment for this section is called our Today's Senior Moment. Are you ready for this?

This is a high honor. Are you ready for this? I'm ready. Okay. All you have to do is say, Today's Senior Moment, and go ahead and say that already. Okay. Today's... One more time, because we had a technical difficulty with somebody who was caught in a crossfire. One more time, Ashley.

Okay. Today's Senior Moment. You know, John and I spent hours, okay, minutes picking that out for our theme for Today's Senior Moment. But our Today's Senior Moment is brought to you by Morning Point, Senior Living and Memory Care Centers, and that's morningpoint.com.

And today, Ashley, who is with Morning Point, and it's got a big announcement she's going to give us today, but here's our Today's Senior Moment. Take time for stillness or make time for illness. Take time for stillness or make time for illness.

And so many of us, and again, I'm going with the theme here. Our first section here, we had learning to be quiet rather than just silent. But now we're going to look for stillness, all about settling ourselves down, because the stress we live with, and if we don't learn to just be still for a little bit, just be still, we're going to end up making ourselves sick.

So this is applying across the board. I was actually giving this advice to my mother and father. My mother's been in the hospital for four months now, and she just got home this week. And she was sitting out on the deck this morning with Dad, looking at all the doors, and I said, Mom, that's the key.

Take time for stillness, because you don't have any more time to make for illness. So that is our Today's Senior Moment. Ashley, tell us a little bit about Morning Point. What's the big announcement that we've got going on this week? Well, this week, on Thursday, from four to seven, we're celebrating the grand opening of our Lantern Alzheimer's Center of Excellence. It's a dedicated 44-apartment assisted living just for those living with Alzheimer's and dementia. What are some of the things that you guys are going to have there that is unique to this population group that maybe other places would not have? Well, first, we focused our approach to care on a concept called the Best Friends Approach.

So all of our staff participate in our programming. We really focus on bringing the community in, letting the residents participate in outreach projects and volunteerships throughout the community, just making sure that we're not just entertaining people, we're giving them some of their independence back. When folks, there are a lot of people listening across the country now on this show, and this is a local event happening here in the Nashville area, but when people are looking at making a transition into this type of facility, what are some tips that you would offer folks that may not have access to the Morning Point facilities here in this area and in the South, but what are some tips that you would just want people to look out for? Here's some things you might want to just watch out for and make sure that whatever facility you're looking at has these things. Well, I always tell people that when they're touring communities like ours or assisted living, pay attention to how the staff are interacting with the residents and each other. A lot of places, they've got the nice finishes, they have the beautiful calendars, but really what makes the difference is how your care staff are approaching residents, and that speaks volumes. You want to see people not just providing activities of daily living care, but sitting down, having a cup of coffee with the residents, helping them maneuver the space, allowing them to take ownership of part of their care as well.

It's not all about being kind of a cruise ship mentality where we gather everybody up and entertain them and then feed them and send them on their way. Again, it's all about watching how they're letting people be who they are. What would be a big red flag to you? If you walked into a place and you saw this, you would just say, no way, we're not staying here. A big red flag for me would be just an absence of staff involvement, seeing nurses and care staff sitting behind closed doors, that kind of thing. You want to see them out and about with the residents.

You want to see them interacting. You want to see them letting residents help with projects. We've all got a lot of tasks to take care of throughout the day, but giving that extra five, 10 minutes to let our residents participate, that's going to make a world of difference.

Well, that's great advice. That's what people need because people don't know anymore. They're panicked and that's why I love having you guys as a part of this show because you're such a steady hand. You have such a wonderful organization, morningpoint.com, and that's point with an E. Ashley, thank you. This is going to be an exciting week for you guys. Thank you so much. Thank you, Peter. We look forward to our community coming out and celebrating with us. Again, that's Thursday night, August 2nd from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. It's going to be awesome.

I'll put it out there on the podcast. Hey, this is Hope for the Caregiver. This is the nation's number one show for caregivers. We're glad you're with us.

Don't go away. We've got more to go. Here's some great news. If you missed the deadline to sign up for health insurance or if you signed up for a plan you're not happy with, you still have a choice. MediShare is a health care sharing program.

Hundreds of thousands of Christians are part of this. It can save you a lot. Typical savings for families about five hundred bucks a month. You can join MediShare anytime. It's easy to call and look into it.

There's no pressure at all. And man, what a difference it can make. Eight five five twenty five share.

That's eight five five twenty five share. Have you ever struggled to trust God when lousy things happen to you? I'm Gracie Rosenberger and in 1983 I experienced a horrific car accident leading to 80 surgeries and both legs amputated. I questioned why God allowed something so brutal to happen to me.

But over time my questions changed and I discovered courage to trust God. That understanding along with an appreciation for quality prosthetic limbs led me to establish Standing with Hope. For more than a dozen years we've been working with the government of Ghana and West Africa, equipping and training local workers to build and maintain quality prosthetic limbs for their own people. On a regular basis we purchase and ship equipment and supplies.

And with the help of inmates in a Tennessee prison we also recycle parts from donated limbs. All of this is to point others to Christ, the source of my hope and strength. Please visit standingwithhope.com to learn more and participate in lifting others up. That's standingwithhope.com. I'm Gracie and I am standing with hope. Everything's all right. Everything is all right. Thank you, John.

Count of mighty disco. This is hope for the caregiver. This is the nation's number one show for the family caregiver. We're glad that you are with us and thank you. Thank you.

Follow along on Facebook live. If you want to be on the show, you can call into 877-655-6755. And right now I have a guest on the show just as a very interesting, smart, passionate lady about health, of helping you move to a place where everything is all right. This is Jackie Shepherd. Jackie, you with us? I'm here, Peter.

Well, God love you. How are you feeling? I feel great. I try to get John to have James Brown on.

You know, I feel good like I knew that I would. And uh, but you know, I don't know what happened to John in there, but that's all right. John, you okay in there?

He's given me the eye. I'm just going to give you the nod. Jackie is an author, speaker, and just an amazing treasure trove of information about moving you from point A to point B. And what point B is, is you being healthier. And I preach on this show a lot, and I'm wearing a coat and tie today, so I will say preach, but I preach on this and how important it is for us as caregivers to be healthy and to respect the amount of stress that we have on us as caregivers. Her book is called, I'm a hold it up for the Facebook Live folks that are watching on video, Silent Takeover, How the Body Hijacks the Mind.

Silent Takeover, How the Body Hijacks the Mind. Jackie, talk to us a little bit about your own journey because you kind of went through the meat grinder of health issues and you took matters into your own hands and said, enough is enough. I'm going to, I'm going to empower myself on this. And this is something I really want caregivers to do themselves.

I want all of us to do this, empower ourselves. Tell us about your journey a little bit, then we're going to get in some of your thoughts on other things. Okay, Peter, I did not have good health as a child. It was hepatitis, meningitis, nephritis, not a healthy teenager, surgeries in my young adulthood, breast cancer 1993. And I began to realize that my health had to, I had, if I wanted to change my health, I had to change a lot of my thinking. And the thinking was, I just go to the doctor, get a pill, I'm supposed to get better.

That was not working out for me. And so, yes, Peter, I had to, one of the reasons that I did so much research on physical health was because of my own health. And then in my sixties, I began to experience some short-term memory loss. So where did it go from there? I mean, you, you got into this and you realize, okay, I'm just going to go to the doctor.

I'm going to just, you know, get my regular stuff, but it wasn't obviously enough. You weren't moving in the direction you wanted to. What did you find out? Well, I had already been doing years and years of research. I think, you know, enough about my background to know I started researching the effects of metabolism on ADD, ADHD, and autism quite early, seventies and eighties. I was doing my best to find out what's wrong with these children.

What's wrong with these teenagers. I had a private school for a number of years. You found it, you founded a private school, didn't you?

Yes, that's correct. Okay. So you saw this, you saw your own health and you saw the health of a lot of kids who were going through a lot of things and you said something's not connecting. Well, I think that it had actually happened way before I started the private school.

I noticed the changes in the classroom and I felt that the answers we were getting were not adequate. And then I was privileged to collaborate with a research pediatrician and we were able to start looking deeper into maybe the causes for how their brain was malfunctioning. And that, some of that is in my book, Silent Takeover, but a lot of what is in the book is the effects of metabolism on depression, bipolar, schizophrenia, and so forth. Well, and you've spent a good bit of time documenting so many different research. I mean, I was impressed that how deeply you went into this and the science of it and showing people, okay, look, we're killing ourselves and we're treating the wrong thing. And I've seen this so many times in my own life and in other lives of others that we just kind of go through these patterns that we develop and not realizing that it is a, and I love the title of the book, Silent Takeover, and our bodies are dictating to our mind how we're going to function.

And it wasn't enough for a 15 minute office visit with a physician evidently. And you said, I'm going to do something about this. I'm going to get healthy. And I think this is what we as caregivers have to do. We have to have that kind of passion and how we approach this. Here's something I want you to spend a little bit of time on because a lot of people will come up and then they'll say, okay, well, you need to do this. You need to do this. You need to do this. And they take advantage of folks who are struggling and feeling like they're just under water and they're grasping at something. And then somebody would come along and say, well, here's the latest, greatest product. Take this nutraceutical or take this thing right here.

Forget all these prescription drugs, do this and this. How do you, you've seen all of this. I mean, there's nothing that has come your way that, you know, you've seen it all. And I'm not saying that that means that you're older. That just means that you're experienced, Jackie.

I just want to clarify that. Okay. But you have, in your years that you've seen these things, how do you weed out and recognize the snake oil versus here's a healthier path? What are some things that you've done? Let me say first, Peter, that I don't mind if people know I'm 75 years old.

And I don't mind if they know that 50 years of those 50 years I have been in researching these various subjects. Peter, you are exactly right. Well, many meaning friends will offer us all sorts of supplements, all sorts of things to take.

And it's not that they're all bad. But we have to be able to know what's best and what really suits what our bodies need. So I think the very first thing, Peter, that they need to look for is validated science that is peer reviewed. Now, peer reviewed means that they've got to have two or three other universities, research hospitals, or so forth, doing the same clinical trial.

They have to get exactly the same results before that can become a peer reviewed, validated clinical trial. The best place, if you're taking a supplement, if someone comes to you and offers you something to take, go to the website, pubmed.gov. This is the most respected science research site in the world.

It's international. It is the National Medical Library, the United States, as well as the National Institute of Health. Put the name of that supplement in there or put the drug you're taking. You can also research health disorders and diseases there.

See what the true scientific authorities in the world say about that supplement before you put it in your mouth. Well, that is, I love that because so many people will just say, oh, no, no, no, this is really great and there's so many different scientific things on it. This is a way for us to check ourselves. And I want my fellow caregivers to be skeptical.

I want all of us to be just hard-nosed skeptical because you know what? We don't have a lot of margin for error. So number one, validated science peer review.

And it's got to be more than just one thing, right? There's got to be more than just one study. So what's a number that you would feel comfortable saying, okay, this stuff has, they've really done their homework on this and here's the number of peer reviews.

What's a number and up that you would feel comfortable with? Well, if that supplement is on PubMed.gov, it's already been peer reviewed before it could be submitted. And only a certain percentage of those clinical trials will be on PubMed.gov because they have to be completely pristine. There can't be any if and an and about it because this is where doctors, research scientists go for their research. So if someone comes and offers you something, go to PubMed.gov, put the name of that supplement in the search window, see if there are any clinical trials on it. That's a very good way to check it out. All right, clinical trials.

What's next? What's another way to make sure you don't get pulled into a situation where somebody's just taking you for a ride and giving you something that's basically a placebo or worse yet, even harmful? Right. That's very true. And that's, there isn't a term, they call it graft, G-R-A-S. And that stands for generally regarded as safe. And if it's got that little notation, generally regarded as safe, that means there's a long history of safe usage.

Now that may be in another culture, another country, maybe it's India, China, Australia or something, when it comes to herbs and plants and so forth. But when these are combined, it's, I like to see if it's graft, is it generally regarded as safe. Secondly, are groups like the banned substances control group, have they verified it? Now, if you're an Olympian, a professional athlete, you're looking for that little symbol on a supplement that says B-S-C-G. If it has been approved by that group, it's okay for a professional athlete, Olympian and so forth to take it. So these are very important things to learn about and to look for on your dietary supplement. Well, by the way, John has that on his shirt, grass.

He's generally regarded as safe. So we're all very thankful for that. All right. I only got just a little bit more time. You got one more that you could, because I really don't, Jackie, I look at you as somebody who has done a lot of work so that others who are just overwhelmed don't have to.

And there's no way that I could catch up with where you are. The learning curve is just too steep. So I need to learn from people like you, from you, not like you, from you.

What do I need to look out for? And I really want you to guide us through that one more time. One more tip that you got that you could just help people stay safe because people don't know somebody comes from the church and they're, you know, they got Jesus all over it and they're given something that's just really costing them money and doing nothing for them or hurting them.

Peter, I think the other thing, I'm going to bind two into one. You need to make sure it's produced by a respected and reliable company under the highest industry standards. You don't want it from a backyard lab.

And you need to stay on these proven, scientific-validated products for an extended time, a year perhaps, because you've got to have the cellular renewal. So it's not just take a pill, a magic pill. So, Peter, I want to say one more thing, but I'm going to throw it back to you, okay? All right. Throw it back to me.

Okay. I hear tomorrow's your birthday. It is my birthday. So happy birthday. I'm only 35, but I look much older.

It's all that mileage and it ain't interstate miles. I thought you were 28, man. I'll be 55 tomorrow. I'm honored to know you, Peter.

I'm honored to know Gracie and I'm just thrilled to be a part of the hope that you're giving to people. Well, you came to me over a year ago and you talked to me about some things and I want folks to be able to hear this because I said, okay, I'll follow you down this path a little bit, Jackie, because I am incredibly skeptical and everything because I get approached about a lot of this, but I took your counsel. We spent some time with it and all I can tell you is a year and a half, not a year later, a year and a half later, a year later, my blood work, my cholesterol went down. I'm on no cholesterol medication. I'm 55 years old. I take no cholesterol medication. I take no blood pressure medication.

I take no medication of any kind. Blood pressure went down, cholesterol went down, triglycerides went down. Everything that needed to go down went down. Now, some of it needs to go down a little faster and that's my weight, but I'm working on that, but I didn't do anything different except listen to you. I did what you told me to do and I used myself as a guinea pig. So that's why I'm willing to have this conversation on the air because I wouldn't do this with just anybody and I wouldn't do this about anybody because there's too many people out there that are raking people away in this and so you've done something extraordinary and I'd appreciate this very much. If somebody wants to get in touch with you and find out more about this, what they can do, your book and so forth, what's the best way to do that? I'm going to give you an email address, Peter, and I'm going to put this on Facebook Live so people can get it from there as well, then I'll put it out on the podcast. So go ahead.

Okay, it's gettingstrongnowatoutlook.com, I'll repeat that, gettingstrongnowatoutlook.com. All right, well listen, I've got to run here because we're up against a heartbreak. Jackie Sheppard, author of Silent Takeover, How the Body Hijacks the Mind, Jackie, I am so grateful you came on, you're going to come back on again with me, okay?

Peter, I'd love to, thank you so much for having me on. All right, well listen, behave yourself and I'll talk to you soon, okay? All right. Thank you.

Bye-bye. Hey, this is Hope for the Caregiver, we're about getting strong right now, that's what we want to do and we're going to put this out on the website at hopeforthecaregiver.com and the podcast, Hope for the Caregiver, and you can go to all those sites and get it. Healthy caregivers make better caregivers, that's what we're all about.

Here's some great news. If you missed the deadline to sign up for health insurance or if you signed up for a plan you're not happy with, you still have a choice. MediShare is a healthcare sharing program, hundreds of thousands of Christians are part of this.

It can save you a lot, typical savings for a family is about 500 bucks a month. You can join MediShare anytime, it's easy to call and look into it, there's no pressure at all, and man, what a difference it can make, 855-25-SHARE, that's 855-25-SHARE. Have you ever struggled to trust God when lousy things happen to you? I'm Gracie Rosenberger and in 1983 I experienced a horrific car accident leading to 80 surgeries and both legs amputated.

I questioned why God allowed something so brutal to happen to me, but over time my questions changed and I discovered courage to trust God. That understanding along with an appreciation for quality prosthetic limbs led me to establish standing with hope. For more than a dozen years we've been working with the government of Ghana and West Africa equipping and training local workers to build and maintain quality prosthetic limbs for their own people.

On a regular basis we purchase and ship equipment and supplies and with the help of inmates in a Tennessee prison we also recycle parts from donated limbs. All of this is to point others to Christ, the source of my hope and strength. Please visit standingwithhope.com to learn more and participate in lifting others up. That's standingwithhope.com. I'm Gracie and I am standing with hope.

Oh, baby, you ain't seen nothing yet. This is Hope for the Caregiver, the nation's number one show for the family caregiver. We are on a mission to help you stay strong and healthy as you take care of someone who's not. You don't have to live a miserable life. You do not have to be this way. You can be as happy or as miserable as you choose to be and this show is all about equipping you on how to live a calmer, healthier, and dare I say it, an even more joyful life.

I am Peter Rosenberger bringing you three decades of experience, not one, not two, but three decades of experience to help you stay healthy. That's what I love to do. Hope for the Caregiver is the name of the show and that is our mission here.

All right? Hey, speaking of mission, I'm heading over to Africa. I just saw that Moses Koo is watching us on Facebook Live from Ghana.

Moses, I'm coming to see you and we're going over there. Standing with Hope is a presenting sponsor of this show and it is the ministry that Gracie and I founded many, many years ago. The first program we have is a prosthetic limb outreach to Gracie's fellow amputees in West Africa and the second one we have is this show, Hope for the Caregiver. And when we do this with prosthetics, we're all about teaching and equipping the workers there on how to do this for their own people. Moses is the director of the National Prosthetic and Orthotic Center and he is watching us live on Facebook Live and if you can too, if you want to dial in really quick and we'll post this ad on our YouTube channel later on and he is the director of that. We watched him move up the ranks. He started out as a young technician and now he's the director of the whole center and we're going over there in about two and a half weeks. So Moses, I hope you're ready for us because we're coming.

You ain't seen nothing yet and you could be a part of this. We have two different components of what we do. We not only provide equipment and supplies, but we also go over there physically and teach and train and equip and a part of the equipment or supplies comes through the local prison here in Tennessee where inmates help us recycle prosthetic limbs. They come from all over the country to a local prison here in Middle Tennessee and inmates in a one-of-a-kind program in the whole world or that's Toto del Mundo for those of you south of the border. Inmates will strip these limbs down. I call it Operation Footloose and they will help us recycle the parts, feet, the pylon, the knees, the adapters, the screws even if we need to do that and we'll send all that. We'll purchase more supplies and send that over there and then we will build custom-fit legs over there, carbon fiber, acrylic resin, laminate sockets just like Gracie wears here.

The same type of socket. That's the whole point of this and she says, you know, I don't want to put a leg on somebody that I'm not willing to wear myself and we're going over there and we're asking for your help. StandingWithHope.com if you want to be a part of that, 25 bucks, 2,500, whatever's on your heart, it'll go towards this trip. We've got a couple of team members that really need the help in raising their support to go and you could be a part of that right now at StandingWithHope.com.

Just see where it says right on the front page, see the team members and you can be a part of sending some folks over there and doing this. They go walking and leaping and praising God. It is an amazing ministry to watch and you've got broken lives in the prison who are working with parts from broken people and we're breaking those down to take over and send over to other broken people. All of this was the vision of a woman with a broken body, 80 surgeries, both legs amputated and that's what my wife has journeyed through and we do all of this to point to the one who was broken for us. Standing With Hope. How about that? StandingWithHope.com. Listen, John, it's been a spectacular show.

Let me review real quick here. Our caregiver tip of the day was to see the difference between quiet and silence. You can be angry and silent. Quiet is a state of mind and a state of heart and that's what I want to help myself and my fellow caregivers get to, where we can start learning to be quiet as we deal with some of these things.

Just be settled in our own spirit. I think so many caregivers just feel unsettled all the time and just because you're silent with somebody doesn't mean that you're quiet in your heart. The first song on my CD, Psalms for the Caregiver, there is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of God.

I love that hymn, near to the heart of God. And then our today's senior moment was take time for stillness or make time for illness. If we don't learn to be still, we're going to have to make time to be ill because that's what happened to us. And then we get ourselves all stressed out and worked up.

Let's learn to be still. And then if you want to go get a copy of this book, Silent Takeover, How the Body Hijacks the Mind with Jackie Shepard Overcoming Emotional, Mental and Addictive Disorders, it is a great read. A lot of research in this book. It's a great read. If you want to help protect your own health, that's what we're all about here is healthy caregivers make better caregivers. Today's a great day to start being healthy. Hey, listen, I've got to run. There's so much more at standingwithhope.com and we'll see you next week. This is Peter Rosenberg. Thanks for joining us.