08/02/2026
What CES And My Grandmother's Couch Taught Me About Dementia Care
Written by Tauna Young, Founder & CEO of Neurovana
My grandmother taught me to crochet when I was seven years old. That was 45 years ago, and in the time since, crochet has become something close to a second language for me. It's a way of working through hard things with my hands when words weren't enough. I've always called it my therapist. It's the thing I turn to when life gets loud.
When her dementia progressed and she moved in with my uncle, her couch didn't go with her. I couldn't let it disappear, so I crocheted the whole thing, cover to cover, and did a photo shoot with her sitting on it. It felt like the right way to hold onto her, and onto what she did for me.
The couch is a tribute. This post is too.
My grandmother is 101 now. Along with memory loss, she's developed anxiety rooted in things that aren't real. She'll become convinced my mother, her own daughter, has died. (My mother is alive and well). She'll grow distressed over piano music she believes my mother is supposed to return, though she hasn't owned a piano in years. These beliefs feel completely real to her.
You can't reason someone out of a fear like that. It just has to be managed, gently, moment by moment.
A while back, my aunt (her caregiver) tried a Neurovana CES device on my grandmother during one of these stressful moments. What she noticed surprised her: my grandmother became calm.
CES is a small, FDA-cleared device that delivers a very mild current through earlobe clips, nowhere close to something like ECT. Most people feel nothing more than a tingle.
I'll be honest about the research: CES-specific studies on dementia agitation are still early. What exists is encouraging, but it's not a mountain of trials. What is well-established is CES's FDA clearance for anxiety, backed by large, independent studies. And here's why that matters: the brain's stress response doesn't file "dementia-related fear" and "anxiety" into separate folders. It's still the same limbic system, the same fight-or-flight circuitry, doing the work.
That distinction matters in dementia care, where agitation is so often managed with sedatives or antipsychotics, medications with real fall and cognitive risks for older adults. CES isn't a medication. No pill, no drug interactions, no sedation, no more fall risk. My grandmother isn't foggy or sedated by CES. She's just calm.
My grandmother's experience is just one family's story, not a clinical trial. But if your family is navigating this too, I know how much it can mean to hear when something helped somebody else's grandmother.
No adverse event has ever been reported across our device's 21-year history. And we offer a 30 day money back guarantee, so there's no risk in trying.
Learn more at neurovanacalm.com.
