Unleashing Brain Potential: What is Neuro Wellness?
January 24, 2024 | Episode 8
Producer’s Note: The following is an AI-generated transcript of The Wellness Conversation, an OhioHealth Podcast
SPEAKERS: Missy Gleason, Marcus Thorpe, Guest: Lauren Esposito, PT, DPT
Missy Gleason 0:14
Welcome to the wellness conversation and OhioHealth podcast, a show dedicated to exploring health and wellness topics to inform and educate. I'm your host Missy Gleason. And I'm joined by my co-host, Marcus Thorpe.
Marcus Thorpe 0:26
Thanks for listening. If you're a regular listener, we welcome you back. If this is your first time, we welcome you for the first time. Just to catch you up on who we are, Missy and I are teammates on OhioHealth marketing communications team, and we have what we think is gonna be a very impactful guest and a topic for this podcast,
Missy Gleason 0:40
Our brain, the epicenter of what we do, who we are our emotions, our movement, it's our everything, the supercomputer for life, we know we have to take care of it.
Marcus Thorpe 0:52
On today's episode, we're gonna get you into some of the diseases that can attack the brain, how to exercise specific to each disease, it can really make a difference. And the OhioHealth Neuroscience Wellness Center can really impact disease state, and fighting back.
Missy Gleason 1:06
So to help us better understand this topic, we have a very special guest joining us today, Lauren Esposito, the manager of the OhioHealth Neuroscience Wellness Center. Welcome.
Lauren Esposito
Thanks for having me.
Marcus Thorpe 1:17
Awesome to have you. I've known you for a long time just through our work with the neuroscience space, I know how impactful you have been as a big part of your team. So our listeners might be curious to learn a little bit about you what is neuroscience, wellness?
Lauren Esposito
1:32
Neuroscience, wellness is a lot of different things. And we really started I would say on a grassroots effort, just creating classes for I'm a physical therapist by background. So we were creating wellness classes for our patients, after they would graduate from therapy. But it really morphed into seeing this community connection, and just in an empowering space that became the neuroscience Wellness Center.
Missy Gleason 1:55
So how did you become involved in neuro wellness.
Lauren Esposito
So my first program that I created was a wellness program for people living with multiple sclerosis. So I started this 12 week program, many moons ago. And what I didn't really see happening is that everyone would want to continue. So then we grew and we started creating classes after they graduated the 12 weeks that were these ongoing classes, and then we expanded into the region. And that's what led me to work on the project for the neuroscience Wellness Center, and then ultimately become the manager.
Marcus Thorpe 2:28
for folks who don't know about the neuroscience Wellness Center, it is it's tucked back between where Kobacker House is, and the McConnell Heart Health Center, are really beautiful space, but not just the space, and the drive is beautiful. This building is truly one of a kind. I mean, it's state of the art. It's won awards just on its design itself. But talk about this area and why it's so special and so different from what people are going to see really anywhere. Yeah,
Lauren Esposito
I think when you think about the space, first and foremost, you walk in, and almost every room that's client facing is floor to ceiling windows, so really bringing that element of nature inside. So that healing element of just being outside in nature is not something that our clients always have the ability to access, depending on their physical mobility. So we wanted to create an environment where they could interact with nature. So we have a yoga deck, we have a members garden, we have accessible areas onto the path. So that's like you walk in and it's just open. And then the next thing is just the community feel. So you walk in, and I always say our members are all coming there for a reason that they don't want to. Nobody wants to have a neurologic condition that brings them to the center. So we want the space to feel very safe. And very supportive. So it's you walk in and it just feels like home. Like you're hanging out with your you know, Best Buddies, a neighborhood feel people hang out, and then you get some exercise while you're there.
Missy Gleason 3:59
So let's talk a little bit more about exercise. How important is it especially disease specific exercise for those with neurological conditions?
Lauren Esposito
It's so important. You know, we know that exercise is beneficial for the general public. And anything that can happen to the general public in terms of deconditioning weakness, that can happen to somebody living with a neurologic condition. The impact could be a little bit greater though. So if you're somebody who, let's say deals with fatigue, motor fatigue, cognitive fatigue, and then you add deconditioning. On top of that the impact is just profound. So we always want to talk about building that foundation and building strength conditioning. To decrease some of those other symptoms. It doesn't always make them go away, but it can reduce the impact.
Marcus Thorpe 4:50
I think about my own personal journey. I don't have a neurological condition but I walk into a gym. It can be overwhelming. It can be intimidating. There can be a lot of different things. things to go work out that I don't know how to use that, or somebody's looking at me that I tried to put my self and my mom shoes who has multiple sclerosis in Texas. And she has heat sensitivity, or she has something that she can't do because she maybe drags a leg. And so not having the confidence to walk into a regular gym, can you talk about how this space is different than the experience you'd have when you walk into just a local fitness center?
Lauren Esposito
So everything was designed to be accessible from even just the grade of the parking lot. So we want to remove all barriers, because we know for our clients, it just takes a lot of energy to even get there. So we're trying to eliminate any barriers, or any difficulties just even getting through the door. Then we talk about exactly what you said, which is kind of the intimidation factor. So the first thing that you're gonna do is you're going to meet with an exercise physiologist for a one on one appointment, talk about your goals, your health history, do a little bit of a movement assessment just to see what equipment might be safe for you, or what equipment when you might want to avoid. And then you have a second appointment, which is let's teach you how to do all the things. So not just, here's our space, here's our equipment, let's actually practice getting on and off. Let's talk about your settings. And then we have equipment that is smart enabled through Technogym. So it tracks all your repetitions it does the counting for you. It has a computer system that stores it for you. And then we have our classes, which again walk you through everything but all offer modifications based on your mobility.
Missy Gleason 6:37
That's amazing. And so there's more than just physical exercises that's happening at the neuroscience Wellness Center. Can you talk about how you integrate that physical activity with cognitive exercises into your members plans?
Lauren Esposito
Yeah, so we have a couple classes that we say aren't necessarily high impact from a physical standpoint. So we have a class called Brain games that we do, which is you know, memory processing, dual tasking. So you're thinking about just the things you might do for fun with friends and family playing Jeopardy, playing Wheel of Fortune, doing Sudoku, but then we take an element of the people in the room and what they may or may not be able to do. So you may have somebody who can articulate very quickly. So they might want a shout out and answer. But you may have somebody who has trouble getting their words out. So we give people maybe a whiteboard, or we wait, everyone gets a certain amount of time to think about their answer. So they all have kind of that equal opportunity. And then we have classes like our functional fitness class where we talk about everyday movements, and we break them down and we go a little bit slower. We have our gardening class. So it's looking at well, it's more of a member's garden, so they get to plan everything out. How do you design your space, planting the things in your garden. So we just try to incorporate everyday activity into what we do and then make it fun.
Marcus Thorpe 8:02
Couple of months ago, on the podcast, we had a chance to talk to Amy Kleski talking about exercise and kind of getting back in the rhythm of those kinds of things. When you look at mental well being Can you talk about the holistic approach to wellness and how really the mental health part of this as a big part of people's success and willingness and want to push past these disease specific issues they're dealing with?
Lauren Esposito
Absolutely. So I think it's always important to have a community, right a community who maybe understands what you're going through are couldn't really or, you know, the person next to you maybe has the same condition. So people are creating bonds of somebody who really understands them, or maybe as a safe space for them. So that first and foremost, it's like an accountability, right, they show up for each other. But then they have that person who if they're having a bad day, it's like, I really do understand. So as a physical therapist, not having a neurologic condition myself, like I, I've never experienced the things that my my patients have experienced. But when we created these groups, and you just saw this bond of I've had my patients I I never knew anyone with multiple sclerosis before. And then they create the class and then all of a sudden they had their people where they go out to dinner, they go out to sporting events, and they do things outside of class together. And it was just this. I can't say it any other way than just to safe space. And then we also are very lucky being OhioHealth to have so many other resources in the system. So we host support groups. You know, the team at the center or exercise base, but we have social workers and mental health professionals in our system that come in and host support groups at the center. That really just adds an extra element of support for our clients.
Missy Gleason 9:57
Let's dig a little bit deeper into that. team aspect of the center. Can you talk about who's leading the classes and the programming? I mean, you just said there's a ton of collaborating going on.
Lauren Esposito
Absolutely. So the majority of the team at the neuroscience Wellness Center are exercise physiologists, who've, you know, studied exercise in their bachelor's or master's degree, they are leading most of our programs and our ongoing group fitness classes. Then when you layer in some of our specialty programming, like our yoga or pilates, or our dance classes, we have specialty team trained group fitness instructors. But what we did, which is another element is we worked with our rehab team, to our physical therapists or occupational therapists, or speech therapists. And we created training modules that add more of an element of the specialty nature to the training that our exercise physiologist get. So we review different precautions and contraindications for working with these specific disease states as part of the onboarding experience, for new exercise physiologist coming to the center. And then we obviously have our membership services department who really touches everything that's happening for you as a, as a member from the moment that you join the center, to your first class. So we have people who coordinate your experience. And then we have something that we call rehab to wellness. So we have our therapists who can come to the center with their patients. So let's say you're getting ready to graduate from therapy, but you're just not sure you're a little bit nervous about coming to a gym, the therapist can bring the client over and assess any barriers to community exercise to really have that warm handoff of my therapist brought me here, I know that I can safely do it. And I met some of the people before I even joined. So we work together. So
Marcus Thorpe 11:43
if you're driving by 315, and you have a chance to see OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, you see the neuroscience center, it's pretty simple, right? You have a stroke, you have MS , you have Parkinson's, you get plugged in, you see your doctor, you go to your clinic, and you do all those things. But with a neuroscience Wellness Center, it's membership based. Let's talk about that. Because it is a little bit different than just the patient side of things. This is a membership based thing. How do you become a member? How does it work for them? How do they move through? You talked about it a little bit there. But could you go a little bit further? Absolutely.
Lauren Esposito
So becoming a member is really easy. Basically, you just give us a call, we schedule a tour, you come in and you see the space, hopefully you love it as much as I do. And then you sign up for your membership. So your membership is a month to month. Or you could pay annually, but most clients do month to month. And that includes all of the classes that we offer at the center. It includes all of our programs that we offer at the center, there's also additional things that you can do like one on one personal training, you don't need to have a referral from a physician, or a nurse practitioner or your therapist to become a member of the center. So that's a question I get a lot. If my neurologist isn't with OhioHealth, can I become a member? And absolutely, this was created for the community, you don't have to necessarily have a neurologist at OhioHealth. To be a member at the center. You just have to have a neurologic condition or be the care partner of somebody living with a neurologic condition.
Marcus Thorpe 13:12
I do want to talk about caregivers, because when we talk about folks with neurological conditions, usually at least in the early stages, and maybe beyond that early stage, you do have to have someone there that's going to help guide you through and maybe taking you different places and those kinds of things. How does it work for a caregiver to be able to come in and still be part of the process for this member for this patient?
Lauren Esposito
That's a great question. And one of my favorite topics. So I'll rewind the clock a little bit to the thing I hated seeing the most when I was running classes is if I had a client who was not able to drive themselves to class, their care partner, maybe dropped them off and then sat in their car in the parking lot. And if you think about what we said earlier, where everybody needs exercise, everyone needs to take care of their their well being. Having somebody spend an hour sitting outside, when they could have been exercising was really something that I wanted to at least provide the option for our care partners. So care partners can be a member at the center. So they can exercise right alongside their loved one, they can exercise independently from their loved one. They can take their own classes, they can take the same classes, the same programs, or if they're like, I don't want to exercise, you know, while I'm here helping my loved one they can just help out. So that would be kind of that personal assistant type of atmosphere where there's no membership, they're just helping their loved one but if they're getting in their own workout, then they could have their own membership and access the facility just like anybody else.
Marcus Thorpe 14:36
I love that and you painted the picture right of somebody sitting in there and not being part of the process just being completely out of the loop of what's going on and just sitting in their car. I love that idea. I think it's so awesome.
Missy Gleason 14:49
So all of this sounds super amazing. And I'm sure our listeners there's a few people out there who are like this. This sounds great. I would love to do this but they might be worried about the cost What options are available there?
Lauren Esposito
Yeah, so we're very fortunate that the, the physicians and nurse practitioners, the therapists, really everyone at OhioHealth feels very passionately about access to services, independent of financial means. So there are scholarships that are available through OhioHealth, through generous gifts from the community and from our internal OhioHealth associates to help offset the cost of membership. The one thing that we do have, in addition to the scholarship is really, to be eligible for a scholarship, you have to demonstrate the ability to come and participate. So you have to average coming twice a week for scholarship renewal, who really want you to come. So that is available at something that you can talk with our membership services coordinator about if you come in for a visit, to see what options there might be.
Marcus Thorpe 15:53
So theremight be some listeners who are struggling with a neurological condition. And, you know, trying to decide I'm really having a tough time with this. What advice would you give someone about seeking help or, or finding a support system or plugging into something like the neuroscience Wellness Center?
Lauren Esposito
Yeah, I think the first piece of advice that I would give is find the person you trust to have the conversation with, it's not an easy one to have. Most of our members at the center do start with physical therapy, it's a great place to have that independent connection with a therapist to talk about maybe some of the barriers that you're anticipating before starting an exercise program. But I've never met anyone who has told me man, I wish I didn't start exercising. So
Marcus Thorpe 16:42
yeah, it's, it's funny, not funny, but I think about my mom, and again, multiple sclerosis and, and she's diagnosed 20-25 years ago. And as soon as she started getting back on that bike and exercising, she started feeling better. And then she would connect with people at like a senior center and talk about their different conditions. And you're right, there's just something to be said for not feeling alone, the Dempsey Center at Riverside is a great place to, to find classes and support groups and those kinds of things. And again, it's all about plugging in. You're not alone, you're never alone on this on this journey. So big.
Missy Gleason 17:23
I would love to know without revealing any confidential information, of course, because we want to, you know, protect our members and our patients. But is there a success story that really embodies the center's impact on somebody's life that you can share?
Lauren Esposito
Oh, there's so many. So the one that comes to mind is, I had a, a member who she'd been in my class for a long time. And she said to me, my nephew ran up to me, and I didn't think twice about picking him up. And she'd never done that before. And I just was like, wow, that's just that's not measurable. That's not you know, that's not something you write a goal about. But it was just so impactful. She picked up her nephew, she didn't think about losing her balance, she didn't think that she was not going to be strong enough to do it. I'll never forget that that was early on, in teaching the MS wellness program, but it really stuck with me. How
Marcus Thorpe 18:25
about your team members? I mean, you talk about folks that love probably going to work. And again, if people can go to the OhioHealth newsroom, which is a website we have, we've done plenty of stories, there's pictures of the neuroscience Wellness Center, it's a beautiful space, but for your team members that come in and get to live in this space and work in this space. I mean, it's got to be your self included. You just get out of bed and you're like I'm going to just the right spot. Oh,
absolutely. I say this a little tongue in cheek, but we try not to take ourselves too seriously. It's a space where we have fun. So there's a ton of laughter There's a ton of I don't know, just positive energy. And you do feel the impact that you're having on a day to day basis. And our members are so lovely. I can't think of a day that somebody doesn't say thank you. Right? So having someone say thank you to you, it always feels good, but you know that you're making a difference. They tell you how much the space means to them. There's no space like this really, for anybody living with a neurologic condition. So I think they're thankful and then we we hear about it
Open for 2, 2 1/2 years now.
Lauren Esposito
So we have actually when I think about the the group from MS wellness that I've been talking about some of the members that were my very first program many many years years ago, years before the center even opened our members still today. So you have people that were on the pre journey who advocated for needing a space who showed their commitment to showing up, then they became, you know, founding members of the center, and they're still there today, which is great.
Missy Gleason 20:17
The science of neurology in general just has grown so much over even the last 20 years, my dad had a stroke 25 years ago. And just knowing today, what could have done been done for him when he had a stroke 25 years ago, is it makes me a little bit sad. But it also makes me very excited about the future. If it's somebody in my family, again, has this happened to them? There's more for them out there. Are there any other new innovations or therapies that you have at the center, or you're looking forward to adding at the center?
Lauren Esposito
Yeah, I think it's not necessarily an innovation or a therapy that we're looking to add. But there's just more research that's coming out across the board for neurologic conditions about intensity. So we look at high intensity interval training in Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis, high intensity training and stroke survivors. And there's all positive results. So we're just learning more about pushing the boundaries and not treating people with kid gloves, so to speak, of just really pushing people to their full potential. So that's really exciting. When you, you know, there's members who are if you come in the center, and they're taking our total body conditioning or bootcamp class, they're running laps around the center, and a lot of people would come in and say, well, what's the neuroscience Wellness Center? I wouldn't think you would have people running. I'm like, Well, why not? If they're capable of running, and it's not a contraindication? It's not going to cause them any harm? Well, then why not? If that's what they want to do, I have a member who prior to he was one of the originals before actually joining the center, didn't start running until he joined a program and then ran a 5k with his family, you know, so there's so many different things that can happen, that I think we have to be willing to try and not limit people because we're scared, people know, they're on limits, right?
Marcus Thorpe 22:17
We've covered a lot of ground there. But is there anything that we may be left out that you think our listeners might need to know or be excited to know that that would help them in this journey or making decisions based on where they are from a neurological standpoint,
Lauren Esposito
one thing we didn't cover, if there's any listeners out there who aren't living in the Central Ohio area is that we partner with other community centers. So we have trainings that we offer to the YMCA, who might be interested in adding classes closer to home. And then we offer virtual options for those who can't maybe make it into the center. So we're trying to extend our reach. So I always encourage people to reach out and we can try and help you find something closer to home. That's one of the things that the center was designed to do is create programs and then bring them out to the community. So we're working on that. And hopefully, there'll be more of the virtual programming going on, and then classes closer to home. Yeah, I'm really excited about that opportunity.
Marcus Thorpe 23:16
You're right, because there's plenty of folks that need this that are in a Mansfield, or in a Marion or down in Athens that still want to be part of a cutting edge program. And this is a great way to do that, too. Absolutely.
Missy Gleason 23:27
So as we get towards the end of our podcast, we'd love to bring in some fun questions to get to know you as a person are you getting for those? Wonderful. All right, so first step outside of the world of neuroscience and wellness, do you have any hidden talents or hobbies that might surprise our listeners?
Lauren Esposito
So it might be considered a talent? I don't know. I've run nine marathons full marathon. So I guess my talent is just kind of grinding through it. I would say so. Yes. I wouldn't say I'm fast by any means. But I can definitely chip off one mile at a time to like crush that finish line.
Marcus Thorpe 24:06
Well, nine, you got to do one more than to get 10
Lauren Esposito
I know. I know. I hate odd numbers.
Marcus Thorpe 24:12
You're super busy. So I know you're going from day to night. But are there books that you're into do listen to music. Was there a song that kind of inspires you that is unrelated to profession? I mean, what do you what do you dive into when you're not working hard?
Speaker 1 24:28
So I love reading. I'm currently reading The fourth wing which is uh huh. I can't even put it down. So good. If you haven't watched or read it yet. It's like the Harry Potter of you know,
Missy Gleason 24:39
I just I read it already. And I restarted it. Oh, it's so good. Whoa, I know.
Lauren Esposito
I won't Don't worry very close. But aside from that, I love home renovation projects I love like busting down walls tearing out steps rebuilding things. That's a definite stress reliever for me. I bet.
Missy Gleason 25:00
Well, anytime you got to take a sledgehammer to something, you're relieving some stress. Let's move to travel. If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would you go and why?
Lauren Esposito
So, I took my first solo trip to Spain in April, so I am definitely on my travel kick, but I think my next trip is going to be Croatia. I have a fascination with sailboats. I've never been on one but I think they're just beautiful. And it's a huge sailing area. So I'm, I'm thinking about Croatia next.
Marcus Thorpe 25:33
I love it. Do you have a guilty pleasure TV show or a movie something that you're like? Or you're flipping through the channels and you see like, No, I gotta watch this even though I've seen it a million times.
Lauren Esposito
I could watch Harry Potter on repeat like anytime it's on I'm gonna watch it but guilty pleasure. Probably anything in the Bravo franchise.
Marcus Thorpe 25:51
A lot of Bravo going on. Not me. I
Lauren Esposito
don't watch it below. Ceiling. Never get it
Missy Gleason 25:58
or watch it. Last getting to know your question. I would love to know if you have a favorite restaurant or must eat dish in the Columbus area or surrounding areas.
Lauren Esposito
Oh, I love so many different places. I have a love affair with hummus. And Aladdin's hands down has the best hummus ever. I've DoorDash did a few.
Marcus Thorpe 26:31
Well, Lauren Esposito, you were one of my favorite people since I when I first got here. And you and I first connected I thought to myself that this is a person that knows a lot about a lot. And we knew when we were putting this podcast together, we're kicking around ideas you were definitely near, if not at the top of the list of people. We knew we needed to get here because you're passionate you love what you do. You love the difference that you're making in the neuroscience Wellness Center is doing that every single day. So we can't thank you enough for coming on and shed some light on the great work happening there. Absolutely. Thank
Lauren Esposito
you for having me. It's been fun. Yeah, it has been
Marcus Thorpe 27:02
fun. We appreciate it. And thank you for joining us for this episode of the wellness conversation and OhioHealth podcast. Before we wrap up, we do invite you to follow us on all major social channels. Want to make sure you stay up to date on any new episodes as well as other health and wellness topics. And if you're looking for more information on the OhioHealth services and locations, very easy to do and ohiohealth.com
Missy Gleason 27:24
and the information in this episode will also be available in written form on the OhioHealth wellness blog. You can find that @blog.ohiohealth.com Thanks for joining us and be sure to subscribe as we continue our exploration of important health and wellness topics with OhioHealth experts. We'll see you next time.