Dementia & Brain Health Resources: Latest Webinars & Tools for Healthy Aging
At WE Seniors, our mission is to support healthy, active, and informed aging for older adults across the greater Edmonton area. As part of this commitment, we are expanding our dementia and cognitive health resources to ensure seniors, caregivers, and families can access trusted, up-to-date information.
Dementia affects many members of our community, and staying informed is one of the most powerful tools for early awareness, prevention, and confident decision-making. This page brings together reliable educational materials from respected sources—such as the McMaster Optimal Aging Portal, the BrainXchange, and the Alzheimer Society of Canada—along with new resources that we will continue to add over time.
By sharing research-based webinars, emerging studies, practical tools, and easy-to-understand educational content, we aim to empower older adults to stay engaged, supported, and proactive about their brain health.
Is dementia a vaccine-preventable condition?
Date: Wednesday, December 10th 2025
Time: 5:00 PM MDT (7:00 PM EST)
Cost: Free
Platform: Zoom
For many, dementia is one of the scariest parts of aging. While habits like exercising, eating well, and staying socially active help reduce risk, they require long-term effort. What if lowering your risk by about 20% could be as simple as a couple of visits to your doctor or pharmacist? New research shows that vaccines for shingles, influenza, pneumonia, and more not only protect against infection but also reduce the risk of dementia and other conditions.
Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about the science behind these findings and how vaccines play a role in healthy aging.
About the speaker:
Dr. Dawn Bowdish is a professor with the Department of Medicine and Executive Director of the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health. She is a member of the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging (MIRA), the McMaster Immunology Research Centre (MIRC) and the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research (IIDR). She also holds associate memberships with the departments of Biochemistry & Biomedical Sciences and Chemistry & Chemical Biology. From 2014 to 2024, Bowdish held a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Aging and Immunity. Her research has appeared in more than 180 peer-reviewed publications and consists of over 17,000 citations. She also runs the Bowdish Lab at McMaster where she mentors the next generation of infectious disease researchers.
This talk is part of the Optimal Aging Portal Webinar Series, a great resource of evidence-based healthy aging information, and is hosted by Dr. Anthony Levinson. All talks are recorded and archived for future viewing.
Visit our RESOURCES to learn more about McMaster Optimal Aging Portal.
Recording – LIFE (Lifestyle Interventions to Fend off dEmentia): A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis of Lifestyle Interventions to Prevent Dementia
Join this webinar series, featuring Zahra Goodarzi, MD. MSc. FRCPC and Jennifer Watt, MD. PhD. FRCPC.They will review analyses of studies that explore lifestyle interventions for the reduction in cognitive impairment in healthy populations.
This event was hosted on November 19th, 2025.
Want to view more Prevention Resources from BrainXchange?
Heads Up for Healthier Brains – Alzheimer Society of Canada
Help for today. Hope for tomorrow… ®
