Then Things Started Slipping

A few weeks ago I shared a little of my story on Facebook.

Joanne M.

3w · 🌎

Me, my husband, and our two grandkids. This is our life now. But this past year, my mind stopped keeping up... See more

Kathy R. and 214 others

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LK

Linda K.Joanne what did Kathy show you?? Please share!

Like · Reply · 3w

BW

Barb W.This is me. Every word. What was it?

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KR

Kathy R.Told you people would want to know ❤️

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So many of you asked what Kathy showed me. So I’m writing the whole thing down here. Start to finish.

First, a little about me. I kept the books for a heating and cooling company in Dayton for 34 years.

Payroll, invoices, every bill that came in. If something was off, even a little, I found it. And I learned one thing doing it: a small mistake you ignore turns into a big one.

Tom still jokes that I’m the family calculator. He’s not wrong.

These days we have our grandkids, Ben and Lucy, a few days a week. Ben tells me every joke he hears at school. Usually twice. Lucy makes me redo her braid until it’s just right.

My daughter likes to say she doesn’t know what she’d do without us. Honestly, those days are the best part of my week.

So when things started slipping about a year ago, I noticed.

Then this started showing up every Sunday night.

Keeping track of the kids’ week used to be my job. She’s doing it to help. I know that. I still sat there in the kitchen and read it twice.

I didn’t say anything at first. Not to Tom, not to anyone.

But I’d spent my whole career catching small mistakes before they turned into big ones. I couldn’t ignore my own.

And I knew where this could go. I took over my mom’s bills near the end. It started with one missed payment. Then another. Then all of it.

I wasn’t going to wait and see if that was me next. Not with Ben and Lucy counting on me.

I Did Everything They Tell You to Do

The first thing I did was bring it up at my checkup.

I wrote it all down beforehand so I wouldn’t forget anything. I know. I see the irony.

My doctor listened. He asked a few questions. He said some of that is pretty normal at our age, and to keep doing what I’m doing. He also suggested vitamin D and a B-complex.

And that’s his job. He’s focused on the basics. My blood pressure, my bloodwork, all of that. Those come first, and I’m glad he’s on top of them.

But I didn’t want the standard advice. I wanted the best option for someone my age.

And I was already doing what you’re supposed to do. I walk most mornings with two friends from down the street. I eat my vegetables. Crossword with my coffee, Wordle before bed. A multivitamin and fish oil every day for years.

So a brain supplement seemed like the obvious next step.

First I bought the one you see on TV. I took it every morning for three months. I felt exactly the same as the day I started.

So I tried one from the big store. Different label, same promises. It upset my stomach and still did nothing.

Now, I’m a bookkeeper. So I did what I always do. I opened my budget spreadsheet.

Over $600 on supplements in six months. And the two brain ones didn’t do a thing.

Those two bottles ended up where things go when you don’t want to look at them anymore. Behind the cough medicine.

I started to wonder if this was just what 71 looks like. Then I called Kathy.

Then Kathy Read the Labels

Kathy and I go back 28 years. We met when our girls were in the same Girl Scout troop.

She was a pharmacist her whole career before she retired. She’s the one I call about anything like this.

So I texted her.

I told her all of it. The names. Losing my place. Tom finishing my sentences. The two bottles that did nothing.

She got quiet for a second. Then she said, “Joanne, that was me a couple of years ago.”

She asked which two I’d bought. I told her, and she said hold on, let me pull them up. She put me on speaker while she looked.

Then she walked me through them, the way she used to with people at the pharmacy counter. She said she checks three things on any brain supplement.

My TV one was mostly one ingredient. The store one listed a few good names, but the amounts were tucked inside a blend.

Kathy said there was almost nothing in either one.

I told her the front of the box made me think they’d help. She said the front is for selling. The back is the part you have to read.

Then she told me something nobody else had.

Everything I was already doing was good for me. The walks, the vegetables, the crossword. Keep all of it.

But as we get older, what our brains need changes. And none of that was giving mine the support it needs now.

“There’s nothing wrong with you,” she said. “You just haven’t been giving your brain what it needs.”

“Don’t give up on this,” she told me. “The right ones can absolutely help. These two just weren’t made right.”

Then she said she’d come by that week. She wanted to show me the one she takes herself.

Then Kathy Showed Me Hers

Kathy came by that Thursday. She brought a bottle of wine for later, and the bottle she takes every morning.

We sat at my kitchen table, and she put it a way I’d never thought about.

She takes fish oil for her heart. A multivitamin for whatever her meals miss. Nobody thinks twice about that.

Then she told me the part most people don’t know. Most brain supplements use the wrong ingredients, or too little of the right ones. And most of what’s out there is either a regular multivitamin with a brain label on it, or it’s made for people half our age.

Then she held up her bottle. She said it covers the three things that matter most at our age.

And it passed all three of her checks. The core ingredients, Longvida® Curcumin, Phosphatidylserine, Bacopa monnieri and Citicoline, are at the amounts studied in people our age. Every one is in its premium form.

Then she tapped one of the capsules. “And I checked,” she said. “There’s no room left in this capsule. It’s full of the good stuff. Nothing in there is just taking up space.”

It’s called Clarity50+. Made specifically for adults over 50. I’d never heard of it. It’s not on Amazon or in stores.

She turned the bottle around so I could read the back myself.

When I got home, I looked it up. A board-certified neurologist reviewed the formula. Here’s what he said:

Dr. Ari Magill, M.D.

ABPN Board-Certified Neurologist

Medical Advisor & Expert

"Clarity50+ is a sensible formulation with research-aligned nutrients to support cognitive performance and long-term brain health for adults 50+."*

That’s what I liked about it. Nobody was promising me a miracle. No “think like you’re 30 again.” Just real support for a brain my age.

After everything the TV one promised, that honesty is what got me.

I ordered it that night. It showed up a few days later, and I took my first two capsules with my morning coffee.

My First Three Months

I’ll be honest. The first couple of weeks, I didn’t notice much. By week three, I was eyeing that shelf behind the cough medicine again.

Then one night on Facebook, I saw a video from a woman named Michelle. She was holding the same bottle sitting on my counter.

She said it’s made for people over 50, and that she can feel a real difference in how sharp her mind is every day.

That was enough for me to keep going. Kathy had told me to give it a full three months anyway.

And little by little, things started coming back.

Tom noticed before I said a word. One night at dinner he looked over and said, “You’re back.” I didn’t have to ask what he meant.

Then my daughter asked if Tom and I could take the kids on Thursdays again. No schedule this time. Just a question, the way she used to ask.

These days, most weeks look like this. And I’m the one keeping track of it again.

A year ago, cooking for that many people would have overwhelmed me. Now I plan the menu days ahead, and I can’t wait for it.

I’m not the one they work around anymore. I’m the one they’re counting on again.

It Wasn’t Just Me

When I shared my story, I figured a few friends would see it. I didn’t expect the messages.

The one that got me was from Diane. We sit near each other at church. I told her about Clarity50+ a couple of months ago, once I started feeling like myself again.

This morning, she sent me this.

I read it twice, the way I used to read my daughter’s Sunday texts. Only this time, for a good reason.

Then I went and read the reviews myself. I’m a bookkeeper. I wanted to see more than one or two.

Different people, different lives. But the same thing kept coming up: it’s made for people our age, and they could feel it.

So if you’re wondering whether it’s worth the money, here’s how I looked at it.

Here’s How I Looked at the Cost

I’m a bookkeeper, so of course I ran the numbers.

I priced out buying these same ingredients on their own, in similar forms and amounts. It came to seven separate bottles.

Close to $200 to buy it all separately.

Clarity50+ puts all nine ingredients into two capsules a day. Full doses, in their premium forms.

And there’s a guarantee.

So I knew the worst case going in. And as a bookkeeper, I like knowing the worst case.

But the money isn’t really the part I think about.

I Wish I’d Called Kathy Sooner

I think about how close I came to just accepting it.

For almost a year, I told myself it was just age. I kept it from Tom. I kept it from my daughter.

And the whole time, I was missing things. Jokes I didn’t follow. Afternoons I said I was too tired.

That’s why I’m sharing all of this. From where I sat, there were really only two paths.

I’m so glad I picked the second one.

It’s Saturday morning as I write this. Ben and Lucy slept over last night. Lucy is at the counter, waiting for her braid.

Ben is telling Tom a joke he’s already told twice. And this time, I’m the one who remembers the punchline.

That’s all I wanted. To be here for this. Really here.

Kathy, if you’re reading this, thank you. ❤️

One more thing. The company that makes Clarity50+ saw my post and asked to share it on their website. I said yes. That’s where you’re reading it now.

So if you want to try it, you can order it right here. Tap the button at the bottom of your screen, or scroll down to order.