If your memory has been slipping lately, the last place you'd think to look is your medicine cabinet. But what if the very pills your doctor prescribed are quietly re-wiring your brain? There are nine medications, common ones, ones millions of Americans over 60 take every single day, that research now links to rapidly progressive dementia.
Not gradual cognitive decline, rapid, as in months, not decades. And the most terrifying part? Most doctors never warn you.
Most patients never connect the dots. This isn't a theory. This isn't fear-mongering.
This is backed by hard science that the pharmaceutical industry has spent years downplaying. And before you take your next dose tonight, you need to hear this. Stay with me until the very end, because the number one medication on this list is something close to 70% of Americans over 60 take regularly without a second thought.
One landmark study found it increases dementia risk by over 50% with just 3 years of consistent use. 3 years. That's a number that should stop you cold.
I'm Dr Michael Carter, a physician specialized in senior health with over 15 years of dedicated clinical experience. I've sat across from hundreds of patients, brilliant, sharp, funny people who came to me confused about why their memory was failing. Why they were forgetting their grandchildren's names.
Why they couldn't balance their checkbook anymore. And time after time, when we dug into their medication lists, we found the same culprits hiding in plain sight. What I'm about to share goes against what most doctors will tell you in a routine 15-minute appointment.
There simply isn't time to have this conversation in most clinical settings. But I've seen it with my own eyes, patient after patient, and I refuse to stay silent any longer. Before we continue, I need to ask you something.
If you currently take any prescription medication daily, type daily in the comments right now. You are not alone. And what you learn today may be the most important medical information you ever receive.
Now, let me explain what's actually happening inside your brain, so you understand why this matters so urgently. Your brain is not a passive organ. It is constantly cleaning itself, communicating, rewiring.
It has a protective barrier called the blood-brain barrier that filters what enters. But here's the problem. After 60, that barrier becomes more permeable, more vulnerable.
Certain chemicals that your brain once kept out can now slip through. And when they do, they disrupt the neurotransmitters responsible for memory, attention, and executive function. The medical community has known about this for decades.
There is an entire classification of medications called anticholinergic drugs, and their documented link to cognitive decline, even permanent cognitive decline, is not new science. But it is deeply underreported. A 2023 analysis published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience estimated that medication-induced cognitive impairment accounts for somewhere between 12 and 23% of dementia cases in adults over 65.
That means potentially one in five dementia diagnoses may have a pharmaceutical trigger. And here's what terrifies me most. Many of these cases are reversible if caught early enough, if you know what to look for.
If you know what to ask your doctor, which is exactly why this conversation has to happen right now. Before we continue, if this information feels urgent to you, and it should, hit that like button right now. This is the kind of video that saves lives when it reaches the right people.
So, let's count them down from concerning to absolutely critical. Number nine is where we begin. And trust me, by the time we reach number one, you will never look at your medicine cabinet the same way again.
Number nine. Sleep aids containing diphenhydramine. If you've ever reached for Benadryl, ZzzQuil, Unisom, or any over-the-counter sleep aid with a name ending in PM, you've taken diphenhydramine.
It's one of the most widely used compounds in America. It's sold in grocery stores, gas stations, airports. It's considered so safe that most people assume it's harmless.
After all, you don't need a prescription to buy it. But, diphenhydramine is a first-generation antihistamine with powerful anticholinergic activity. That means it works by blocking acetylcholine, one of the most critical neurotransmitters for memory formation and cognitive function.
When you block acetylcholine repeatedly, especially in a brain that's already aging, you are not just getting sleepy. You are disrupting the very chemistry your brain uses to store and retrieve memories. A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, which followed over 3,000 seniors for 10 years, found that individuals who used anticholinergic drugs like diphenhydramine regularly had a significantly higher risk of developing dementia.
Those who used them for more than 3 years showed a 54% increased risk compared to those who never used them. And here is the cruel irony. Sleep deprivation itself is a risk factor for dementia.
So, seniors reach for a sleep aid to protect their brain, not knowing they may be accelerating exactly what they fear. Here's something most people miss. The confusion and next-day grogginess many people feel after taking diphenhydramine, what's casually called a hangover from the pill, is actually short-term anticholinergic toxicity.
The brain is telling you something is wrong. And if you're doing this three, four nights a week for years, the cumulative effect on your neurons is not trivial. If you struggle with sleep and you're over 60, there are far safer alternatives.
Melatonin at low doses, magnesium glycinate, and cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, known as CBT-I, have all demonstrated effectiveness without the neuro- toxic risk. But, we're just getting started. Number eight.
Bladder medications for overactive bladder. For millions of seniors, nighttime bathroom trips are a constant disruption. The urgency, the frequency, the embarrassment.
So, doctors prescribe medications like oxybutynin, tolterodine, and solifenacin, sold under brand names like Detrol and Ditropan. These drugs work. They calm the bladder.
They reduce urgency. They help people sleep through the night. But, they are also potently anticholinergic, and their effects on the aging brain are being reconsidered by neurologists worldwide.
A 2015 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine tracked almost 3,000 seniors over 7 years. Those taking strong anticholinergic medications, particularly bladder drugs, showed significantly accelerated brain atrophy on MRI imaging and dramatically lower cognitive scores. We are not talking about subjective reports of feeling foggy.
We are talking about measurable physical shrinkage of the brain. The bladder may feel better, but the brain is paying the price. Here's the practical truth.
For overactive bladder, pelvic floor physical therapy has shown equivalent or superior long-term outcomes compared to medication without a single side effect on the brain. Dietary modifications, reducing caffeine and alcohol, avoiding certain trigger foods, and timed voiding strategies can provide meaningful relief. And for patients with specific anatomical causes, there are non-pharmacological interventions worth exploring with a urologist.
If you or someone you love is on oxybutynin, especially long-term, this is a conversation worth having with your doctor today. Number seven. Certain antidepressants, specifically tricyclics, not all antidepressants carry the same risk.
The newer generation of antidepressants, including SSRIs like sertraline and escitalopram, have relatively low anticholinergic activity and are generally considered safer for cognitive function. But older antidepressants, the tricyclics, including amitriptyline, nortriptyline, and doxepin, tell a different story. These medications are still widely prescribed, not always for depression, but for pain management, nerve pain, migraine prevention, and even sleep.
They are cheap, they work for multiple conditions, and many physicians continue to prescribe them out of habit. But their anticholinergic burden is substantial. Research published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry found that long-term use of tricyclic antidepressants in adults over 60 was associated with a 46% increase in dementia incidence compared to non-users.
Here's something most people miss. When amitriptyline is prescribed for chronic pain or insomnia, the patient often has no idea they're taking an antidepressant with a history of cognitive risk. They're told it helps with nerve pain.
They trust that. They take it for years. And by the time memory problems emerge, the connection to the medication is rarely made.
If you've been on any tricyclic medication for more than a year and you're over 60, ask your prescribing doctor specifically about the anticholinergic risk and whether a safer alternative exists. Number six. Certain acid reflux medications, specifically proton pump inhibitors.
Heartburn is one of the most common complaints among older adults. And proton pump inhibitors, or PPIs, including omeprazole, pantoprazole, and esomeprazole, sold as Prilosec, Protonix, and Nexium, are among the most prescribed medications in the entire country. They seem benign.
They stop acid. They ease discomfort. Millions of people take them indefinitely, sometimes for decades.
But a growing body of research is raising serious alarms. A large 2023 study published in Neurology examined over 64,000 participants and found that individuals who took PPIs consistently for more than 4 and 1/2 years had a 33% higher risk of developing dementia compared to non-users. The proposed mechanism is threefold.
First, long-term PPI use significantly reduces absorption of vitamin B12 and magnesium, both of which are critical for neurological function. Second, they alter gut microbiome composition, and the gut-brain axis is increasingly understood to play a profound role in cognitive health. Third, there is emerging evidence that PPIs may directly increase beta-amyloid production in the brain, the very proteins that accumulate in Alzheimer's disease.
Here's something most people miss. PPIs were originally designed for short-term use, typically 4 to 8 weeks. They were never intended to be taken for years or decades.
But because they're effective and well-tolerated in the short-term, many patients simply never stop. If you've been on a PPI for more than a year, this is worth a focused conversation with your physician. Diet modification, elevating the head of your bed, avoiding late meals, and targeted supplements can often reduce or eliminate the need for long-term pharmaceutical acid suppression.
I want to pause here and tell you about a patient who changed the way I approach these conversations. Her name was Patricia. 71 years old, a retired school teacher from Atlanta, Georgia.
She had been teaching for 34 years before retiring at 65. Sharp as a tack. The kind of woman who did the crossword puzzle in ink.
Her daughter brought her to my office because she'd become concerned. Over the previous 8 months, Patricia had started repeating herself in conversations. She'd forgotten a granddaughter's birthday for the first time in her life.
She'd gotten confused driving to a grocery store she'd visited every week for 20 years. Her primary care doctor had gently mentioned the possibility of early Alzheimer's. The family was devastated.
When I sat down with Patricia and her daughter and went through her medication list carefully, the picture became very clear very quickly. She was on a bladder medication, a sleep aid with diphenhydramine, and had been on a PPI for nearly 6 years for reflux. Three medications, three significant anticholinergic or neurotoxic contributors, all prescribed by different doctors who had never evaluated her full medication profile together.
I worked with her primary care team to gradually and safely taper all three medications, replacing each one with non-pharmacological alternatives. We supplemented her B12, which had dropped to borderline deficient. We addressed her sleep with magnesium and sleep hygiene strategies.
We managed her bladder symptoms with pelvic floor therapy. Eight months later, her daughter called my office in tears. Happy tears.
Patricia had completed the crossword in ink again that morning for the first time in almost a year. She told me, "Dr Carter, I feel like someone turned the lights back on. " This wasn't a miracle.
This was her brain finally getting what it needed instead of what was working against it. And you can experience exactly the same thing if you know where to look. If you're finding this important, and I believe you are, please hit like and subscribe right now.
My mission is to give you information most doctors simply don't have time to deliver. Subscribe so you never miss what we share here every week. And please share this video with someone you love.
A parent, a sibling, a friend. They deserve to know this. Number five.
Certain antihistamines beyond sleep aids. We already discussed diphenhydramine, but the anticholinergic antihistamine family extends further. Hydroxyzine, sold under brand names Vistaril and Atarax, is commonly prescribed for anxiety, itching, and insomnia.
Promethazine is used for nausea and motion sickness. Cyproheptadine is prescribed for appetite stimulation and migraines. All of them carry significant anticholinergic load, and all of them are frequently prescribed to older adults without adequate discussion of cumulative cognitive risk.
What makes this particularly insidious is that hydroxyzine is increasingly used as a supposedly safer, non-addictive alternative to benzodiazepines for anxiety management in seniors. And while it may indeed carry lower addiction risk, the cognitive trade-off can be severe. A 2021 analysis published in Nutrients found that seniors on hydroxyzine long-term showed measurably worse performance on tests of verbal memory and processing speed compared to matched controls.
Here's something most people miss. The cognitive effects of these medications can mimic the very symptoms of early dementia. Confusion, slowed thinking, word-finding difficulty, poor short-term recall.
This creates a dangerous feedback loop where a physician sees worsening cognition, doesn't connect it to the medication, and may even increase the dose or add another prescription to address what they perceive as a primary neurological condition. Number four. Certain medications for dizziness and nausea.
Meclizine, sold as Antivert and Bonine, is one of the most commonly prescribed medications for dizziness and vertigo in older adults. Vertigo is extremely common after 60 due to changes in the inner ear and meclizine provides real, meaningful relief. Most patients take it without concern.
But meclizine is deeply anticholinergic. And the Beers Criteria, the definitive clinical reference for medication safety in older adults, published by the American Geriatrics Society, explicitly lists meclizine as a medication to avoid in seniors due to its cognitive risk profile. Similarly, promethazine and prochlorperazine, used for nausea, have significant neurological side effects in older populations that extend well beyond short-term sedation.
Research published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that seniors taking meclizine long-term showed significantly higher rates of cognitive decline than those whose vertigo was managed through vestibular rehabilitation. A physical therapy-based approach that actually retrains the brain's balance centers without any pharmacological side effects. Here's something most people miss.
Vestibular rehabilitation is significantly underutilized in senior care. Studies show it is effective in 70 to 80% of common vertigo cases. It is covered by most insurers.
It carries zero cognitive risk, but it requires effort and referral, and it is far less convenient than a pill. That convenience gap is costing people their memories. Number three, muscle relaxants.
Cyclobenzaprine, methocarbamol, carisoprodol, baclofen. These medications are prescribed after injuries, for chronic back pain, for fibromyalgia, for tension headaches. They're powerful.
They provide relief. Seniors in pain reach for them, often with genuine desperation. But muscle relaxants have some of the highest anticholinergic burden of any medication category.
And the Beers criteria lists multiple muscle relaxants as explicitly inappropriate for adults over 65. A 2019 study published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine found that muscle relaxant use in older adults was associated with a 38% increased risk of incident dementia over a 5-year follow-up period. That increase was dose-dependent, meaning the more frequently the drug was used, the higher the risk climbed.
Here's the particularly difficult truth about this category. Chronic pain is real. It is debilitating.
It is under-treated. Many seniors cannot function without relief, and I understand that completely. But there are alternatives.
Physical therapy, topical pain relief, acupuncture, low-dose naltrexone for fibromyalgia, targeted nerve blocks, even certain dietary approaches that address inflammatory causes of chronic pain, that can provide meaningful relief without the cognitive cost. The goal is never to take away pain management. The goal is to find pain management that doesn't cost you your mind.
Let me tell you about William. William was 77 years old, a retired contractor from Minneapolis, strong man, independent, proud of it. He'd had a lower back injury 5 years earlier and had been on cyclobenzaprine regularly since then.
His back pain was manageable, but his wife, Dorothy, noticed that he had become increasingly forgetful over the previous 18 months. He forgot to pay bills. He started losing his keys constantly.
He missed a doctor's appointment and had no memory of the scheduling it. When I reviewed William's complete medication history, cyclobenzaprine had been continuously renewed at every appointment without reassessment. Nobody had asked whether he still needed it.
Nobody had evaluated his cognitive status in relation to it. We worked with his pain management team to transition William off cyclobenzaprine over a 6-week period, introducing physical therapy and a topical anti-inflammatory protocol simultaneously. Within 3 months, Dorothy pulled me aside in the waiting room.
She had tears in her eyes. She said, "Dr Carter, my husband is back. He told a joke at dinner last week that had the whole family laughing.
He hasn't done that in 2 years. " William's back was fine. His brain was something else entirely.
This wasn't magic. This was removing a chemical barrier that had been suppressing his cognition for years. Now, I want to hear from you.
Have you ever noticed cognitive symptoms, foggy thinking, memory gaps, word-finding difficulty that seemed to correlate with starting a new medication? Share your experience in the comments below. I read every single one of these messages.
Your story might help someone else recognize what's happening to them. Number two. Benzodiazepines and related sleep medications.
We've arrived at a category that deserves serious attention, and I I you to lean in for this one. Benzodiazepines include some of the most recognized names in American pharmacology. Valium, Xanax, Ativan, Klonopin.
These medications are prescribed for anxiety, panic disorder, insomnia, and seizure management. They're fast-acting, effective, and deeply habit-forming. And for seniors, they represent one of the most significant pharmaceutical risks to long-term cognitive health that exists.
The related Z-drug category, including zolpidem, sold as Ambien, zopiclone, and eszopiclone, sold as Lunesta, works through similar brain receptor mechanisms and carries comparable risks. A landmark French cohort study, published in the British Medical Journal, followed nearly 8,000 older adults over 15 years. Benzodiazepine users had a 51% increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease compared to non-users.
The risk increased with longer duration and higher dose. A 2023 meta-analysis, published in Frontiers in Aging, examined 14 separate studies encompassing over 100,000 participants. The pooled conclusion was unambiguous.
Long-term benzodiazepine use in adults over 65 is associated with a significant and dose-dependent increase in dementia risk. The mechanism is increasingly well understood. Benzodiazepines potentiate GABA, the brain's primary inhibitory neurotransmitter, producing sedation and anxiety relief.
But chronic potentiation of GABA in aging neurons disrupts neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to form and maintain connections. It accelerates neuronal atrophy in the hippocampus, the brain's primary memory center. And it can produce a state of what neurologists call chemical dementia, a syndrome that mimics Alzheimer's and can be mistaken for it.
Here is what I need you to hear clearly. If you are currently taking a benzodiazepine, do not stop abruptly. Benzodiazepine withdrawal can be medically dangerous, even life-threatening in certain circumstances.
Any reduction must be done gradually, slowly, and under medical supervision. This is not a medication you can simply discontinue on your own. But it is a medication you should discuss with your physician.
You should ask whether continued use is appropriate. You should explore tapering strategies. And you should know that your risk increases with every year of ongoing use.
Here's something most people miss. Many seniors who were prescribed a benzodiazepine for a short-term situational crisis, a loss, a surgery, a period of acute anxiety, simply never stopped taking it. Because stopping felt too difficult.
Because the prescription kept getting renewed. Because nobody revisited the original indication. And now, 5 or 10 or 15 years later, they're on a medication that is quietly and systematically damaging the architecture of their memory.
Before I reveal the number one medication on this list, I want you to do something simple. If you have a family member or close friend over 60, who you think might be affected by what you're learning today, pull out your phone right now and share this video with them. Not tomorrow.
Right now. The information you share today could be the thing that saves their memory. That's not an exaggeration.
That is exactly what has happened for patient after patient in my career. Number one. The medication close to 70% of Americans over 60 take regularly and the one most heavily underestimated in terms of cognitive risk.
Diphenhydramine based antihistamines were number nine. Benzodiazepines were number two. But the number one medication on this list is something that has been positioned to the public as a brain protective supplement, a cardiovascular wonder drug, something so safe it's available in every pharmacy checkout lane without a prescription.
I'm talking about long-term high-dose use of proton pump inhibitors combined with daily low-dose aspirin, which most seniors take together as a cardiovascular protection protocol. Wait. Let me be precise because this nuance matters enormously.
Low-dose aspirin itself has a complex and evolving risk profile for seniors. But the real danger I want to address is the specific combination of long-term PPI use, which we covered at number six, alongside a broader pattern of what researchers are now calling polypharmacy induced anticholinergic burden. Polypharmacy means taking multiple medications simultaneously.
And in seniors, the cumulative anticholinergic load of multiple medications, each of which might seem modest on its own, can combine to create a cognitive burden far exceeding what any single medication would produce. This is the number one issue, and here is why it tops this list. A 2023 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association tracked over 97,000 adults aged 65 and older and calculated each patient's total anticholinergic burden score.
A number that accounts for every medication they were taking and assigns a cognitive risk weight to each one. The results were stark. Patients with a cumulative anticholinergic score of five or higher had a 68% increased risk of dementia over an 8-year follow-up period.
Patients with a score of eight or higher had a 91% increased risk. And here is the critical point. Most of those high-scoring patients were not taking any single dramatically dangerous medication.
They were taking six, seven, eight different medications each with a mild to moderate anticholinergic burden that stacked together into a cognitive catastrophe. >> Your doctor may have carefully reviewed each medication in isolation. But the composite effect of your entire medication list may never have been properly evaluated.
That is the gap. That is the hidden danger. And that is the conversation you need to have.
Here's what I want you to do. There is a free clinical resource called the anticholinergic cognitive burden scale also known as the ACB scale. It assigns a score from zero to three to hundreds of common medications based on their anticholinergic activity.
Your doctor or pharmacist can access it. You can ask them specifically "Can you calculate my total anticholinergic burden score based on everything I'm currently taking? " That single question could be the most important medical question you ask this year.
Let me tell you about Barbara. Barbara was 69 years old, a retired librarian from Boston. Meticulous, organized, the kind of woman who had filed every tax return by February 15th for 40 years.
Her husband, James, brought her to my office because he was frightened. In the past 6 months, Barbara had lost track of conversations mid-sentence. She'd found pots she'd left on the stove and walked away from.
She'd started writing herself notes for things she'd never had to write down before. James was preparing himself for an Alzheimer's diagnosis. Barbara was taking seven medications, a PPI for acid reflux, hydroxyzine for situational anxiety, meclizine for occasional vertigo, diphenhydramine containing allergy medication, a muscle relaxant for lower back pain, a bladder medication for mild urgency, and a tricyclic antidepressant at low dose for nerve pain in her feet.
Seven medications, each one prescribed by a different specialist. None of those specialists had access to the complete picture. When I calculated Barbara's total ACB score, it was nine.
Nine. The threshold for dramatically elevated dementia risk is five. Barbara was not developing Alzheimer's.
Barbara was experiencing a textbook case of polypharmacy-induced anticholinergic toxicity that was masquerading as Alzheimer's disease. Over the following 4 months, working carefully with her primary care physician, her internist, and a clinical pharmacist, we systematically reviewed every medication and found non-pharmacological or lower risk alternatives for five of the seven. We addressed her nerve pain with a B complex vitamin protocol and physical therapy.
We replaced the sleep aid with magnesium and CBT-I. We managed her bladder symptoms with pelvic floor work. We transitioned her reflux management to dietary modification and a foam wedge under the mattress.
At a 4-month follow-up, Barbara sat across from me and said, "Dr Carter, I finished the library book last night. I haven't been able to finish a book in 6 months. I kept losing the plot.
" She reached across the desk and squeezed my hand. "Thank you for listening," she said. James cried.
I won't pretend I didn't. This is why this conversation matters. This is reversible for many patients if we catch it.
If we look, if we ask the right questions. Now, let me give you exactly what to do with everything you've just learned. Start with a medication review.
Before your next doctor's appointment, write down every single medication you take. Prescription, over-the-counter, supplements, and sleep aids. Include the dose and how often you take it.
Every item on the list. At your appointment, ask these specific questions. Can you calculate my total anticholinergic burden score?
Are any of my medications listed as inappropriate for adults over 65 on the Beers Criteria? Is there a non-pharmacological alternative for any of these medications that we haven't explored? When was the last time we reviewed whether I still need this medication?
Do not stop any medication abruptly without medical guidance. This is critical. Sudden discontinuation of benzodiazepines, antidepressants, and several other medications on this list can be medically dangerous.
The goal is a slow, supported, medically supervised review and taper where appropriate. Within the first 2 weeks of removing high burden medications, most patients report improved clarity, better sleep quality, and sharper word retrieval. Within 4 to 6 weeks, the cognitive improvements become more consistent and pronounced.
Within 3 to 6 months, for patients who catch this early enough, the differences can be dramatic. In parallel with medication review, there are things you can do right now to support brain health and protect cognitive function. Walk 30 minutes daily.
The research on exercise and neuroplasticity after 60 is overwhelming. And it is the single most effective non-pharmacological intervention for brain health. Prioritize sleep.
Real sleep without medication-induced sedation. Eat a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids, leafy greens, and berries. Supplement with vitamin B12, especially if you are on a PPI long-term, as B12 deficiency alone can produce profound cognitive symptoms.
Stay socially engaged. Loneliness is now classified as a risk factor for dementia on par with smoking. And protect your brain the same way you protect your heart, proactively, before problems arise.
Because the brain you have in your 70s is the brain you will have in your 80s. And the decisions you make today determine which brain that is. Here's my challenge to you.
Before your next doctor's appointment, write your complete medication list, including everything over-the-counter. Bring it in. Ask for the ACB score calculation.
Have the conversation. It takes 15 minutes. It could protect the next 15 years of your mental clarity.
You are not broken. Your medication list may be broken. There is an enormous difference between those two things.
Aging does not automatically take your memory. Certain medications taken without adequate review, without full information, without understanding the cumulative burden, can. And now you know which ones to look for.
Now you have the questions to ask. Now you have the power to protect yourself. I've watched patients like Patricia, William, Barbara walk back into clarity that they thought was gone forever.
That is what's possible when we get this right. And you deserve the same. If this video helped you today, please smash that like button.
Subscribe to this channel so you don't miss the information we bring you every single week. Information designed specifically for adults over 60 who deserve straight answers and real solutions. And please, share this video.
Post it in your family group chat. Send it to a friend who takes multiple medications. You may not realize it, but that simple act of sharing could change their life.
And now I want to hear from you. Which of these nine medications surprised you most? Do you take any of them currently?
What conversation has this video inspired you to have with your doctor? Share it in the comments below. I read every message.
I take every story seriously. Because your health, your memory, your independence, those things matter deeply to me. Remember this.
Aging is not the enemy of the brain. The enemy is the information we weren't given. The questions we were never encouraged to ask.
And the medications we took on faith without understanding the full picture. Now you have the picture. Now you can act.
Take good care of yourself.
