Some people are suggesting that this is the best company advertisement of the year.
Category: Uncategorized
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Caregiving: Understanding the emotional impact of dementia
In part one of a four-part series on caregiving and dementia, Julie Potyraj, community manager for the online master of public health at The George Washington University, looks into the emotional symptoms many dementia patients experience and what caregivers can do to help.
It’s understood that dementia can impair a person’s ability to remember, communicate, think, and reason. But beyond the practical aspects of the disease, dementia has emotional consequences as well. Below are some common behavioral and psychiatric symptoms that can occur in many dementia patients.
Depression or anxiety after diagnosis. A dementia or Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis can trigger intense emotions in many people. The person diagnosed may experience feelings ranging from shock and disbelief to grief and fear. For people with lasting feelings of sadness or anxiety, talk therapy can be helpful, or, in some cases, medication.
Changes in emotional responses. People with dementia may have less control over how they’re feeling and their emotional expressions. They may have volatile mood swings, irritability, or become inappropriately agitated in certain situations. Some people may appear to be distant or disinterested in what’s going on around them.
Anger and agitation. In later stages of the disease, a person may have physical or emotional outbursts, visible emotional distress, or periods of agitation. Feelings of anger can be exacerbated by new places and people, loud noise, or a lot of activity.
Lower self-esteem. People with dementia may feel “out of control” and lose confidence in themselves or their ability to perform basic functions. They may also feel the impact of the social stigma of dementia and perceive a real or imagined difference in the way people treat them. All of this can have a devastating effect on someone’s sense of self-worth.
What Caregivers Can Do
Fortunately, there are things caregivers can do to help lessen the brunt of emotional changes in their loved one with dementia. These include:
- Validating the patient’s worries instead of dismissing them.
- Giving the person adequate time to calm down after an outburst.
- Trying not to take emotional responses personally.
- Employing a healthy sense of humor, when appropriate.
Caregivers are also encouraged to involve their loved one in everyday tasks—for example, asking what they would like for dinner. This can give the patient a sense of control during a time when they feel they have no say in what’s happening around them. Empathy and patience go a long way in helping to preserve the dignity of those struggling with dementia.
Here’s more from Just Care:
- Caring for mom, dad, older adults: Ten key pieces of information you need
- Five steps to get your affairs in order in case of emergency
- Caregiving: Keeping parents healthy: Water, walking, watching out for delirium
- How to prepare for a doctor’s visit
- Living well with dementia: The benefits of early diagnosis
- Safety at home for people with dementia
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Butter may be better for you than you think
Butter may be better for you than you think. According to a June 2016 article in PLOS ONE, a meta-analysis of nine databases reporting on 636,151 people show that consuming butter has little or no association with risk of death, cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Additional research published in the April 2016 BMJ suggests that we may be giving too much value to the benefits of consuming vegetable oils over butter or saturated fats.
The evidence for the PLOS ONE butter study is based on observational studies not randomized trials. Specifically, the researchers found a small link between better consumption and risk of death, no link between butter consumption and cardiovascular disease or stroke, and a negative link between butter consumption and diabetes.
Given their findings, the authors see a need to shift focus from “isolated macronutrients,” such as saturated fats, when recommending healthy diets toward “food-based paradigms.” Put differently, different foods with saturated fats may create different levels of risk of heart disease. Dairy fat from yogurt and even cheese, for example, may decrease the risk of type 2 diabetes, according to a growing body of evidence.
Whether butter, rich in dairy fat, decreases the risk of type 2 diabetes is still unclear. But, understanding whether consuming butter benefits or harms long-term health is important, especially given that we consumed more butter in 2014 than in any year in the last 40 years.
Of note, dairy fats like butter have been found to raise LDL cholesterol levels. The PLOS ONE meta-analysis suggests that dairy fats offer benefits as well, such as improving insulin sensitivity, that may serve as a positive counterbalance to negative effects. In contrast, consuming refined grains, starches and sugars increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
The BMJ researchers looked at five randomized controlled trials in which people consumed vegetable oils instead of saturated fats. They saw no reduction in risk of death from heart disease or otherwise. Lowering cholesterol levels did not improve survival. And, surprisingly, lowering cholesterol levels a lot led to a higher risk of death.
What to make of these new findings? It’s hard to say. We need more evidence. For a healthy diet, there’s still plenty of evidence that we should eat lots of fruits and vegetables. nuts, seafood and olive oil.
Here’s more from Just Care:
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Spying on cancer
What if a new technology could detect aggressive cancer cells, effectively spying on cancer? Researchers think it could improve the chances of treating these cancers.
Some cancers are aggressive and fast-growing, requiring equally aggressive treatment. Most cancer deaths are caused by cancer that’s metastasized, or spread from the original location to enter the bloodstream and pop up in other, cancer friendly locations. Others are what H. Gilbert Welch calls “turtles”: slow moving and maybe not needing painful and debilitating treatment right away.
We are on the cusp of being able to “spy” on cancer cells and actually see how they break off from a tumor and enter the bloodstream. And, that’s great news for people with aggressive cancers. Here is a video released by the NCI (National Cancer Institute) that shows, in live time, breast cancer cells breaking from the tumor and entering the bloodstream.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvyJKrx5Xmw
This article was originally posted on Medshadow.org. To read the rest of this article, visit the Medshadow Foundation.
To read about high-tech goggles that allow people to see cancer cells, click here.
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Where will you live in later life? Your community matters
As we age, it’s typical to think about where we want to live in later life. Few among us want to end up in a nursing home. And, most of us would love to continue to live in our homes. There are different ways to make that work. Many people are lucky enough to be able to depend on family and friends as caregivers. But, lots of older adults do not have that option, and the costs of living independently in the community can be prohibitive, as we become less able to care for ourselves.
While we’re mobile, there’s value in living in a community where we can walk to the grocery store or the park or the movies. Walkable communities benefit people’s mental and physical health. But, there’s also value in having long-term services and supports available when we are less mobile.
To keep costs down and continue to live independently, it’s helpful to live in a community with resources to help meet your needs. The Administration for Community Living (ACL) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that works to ensure access to state and community services for older adults and people with disabilities.
Every state offers a range of special home and community-based services for people in later life through local area agencies on aging, which are part of the U.S. Administration on Aging. Some offer more and some offer less. So, if you are thinking of moving, learn about available services in different communities. Call the local area agency on aging. Community services may include transportation, adult day care, caregiver support, health promotion programs and much more.
Some communities offer behavioral health information, chronic disease self-management education programs, diabetes self-management, fall prevention programs and nutrition services, including home-delivered meals.
No matter where you end up living, it’s important to have friends, family and/or neighbors to talk to and spend time with. There are some innovative housing models to consider, such as elder villages (check out the village to village network) and baugruppen. More on those in another post.
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Vast majority of Americans want to expand Medicare and Social Security or keep spending as is
A new Kaiser Family Foundation survey of Americans reveals that the public views Medicare and Social Security as the two most important federal programs, slightly more important than federal aid to public schools and the military. Eighty-three percent of the public see Social Security as very important, and 77 percent see Medicare as very important.
In fact, 41 percent of people want to increase funding for Medicare (48 percent would keep spending where it is) and 50 percent of people want to increase spending for Social Security (43 percent would keep spending where it is). Check out this video to watch Robert Reich make the case for expanding Medicare.
Overall, seven of ten Republicans and independents and nine of ten Democrats see Medicare as very important. People over 65 value Medicare especially highly, regardless of party affiliation—85 percent of Republicans, 89 percent if independents and 92 percent of Democrats see Medicare as very important. Not surprisingly, people over 65 are more satisfied with their Medicare health insurance than people under 65 with their commercial insurance.
Support for Medicaid, a program for people with low incomes, differs more significantly based on party affiliation. Fewer than half of Republicans (47 percent) see Medicaid as very important, while 62 percent of independents and 78 percent of Democrats feel Medicaid is very important.
Read more here about Medicare coverage and the key differences between traditional Medicare and a private Medicare Advantage plan.
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Unite with doctors to advocate for lower cancer drug prices
Last week, in an article for Mayo Clinic Proceedings, a group of 118 distinguished doctors united to question the pricing of cancer drugs, which is “unsustainable,” and to call for a new pricing method. As this 60 Minutes report reveals, the drug companies set the price of cancer drugs as high as they can. And because of their market power, cancer drug prices have risen an average of $8,500 a year for the last 15 years, a five to ten-fold increase in the price of new cancer drugs over that period.
One in three Americans will have some form of cancer. And, even with insurance, they typically will end up bearing 20 to 30 percent of the cost of their cancer drugs. The insurers have no ability to rein in prices so insurers simply shift more drug costs to their members. People who need a new cancer drug easily could end up with out-of-pocket annual costs of $30,000 just for their cancer medication. Worse still, they might have to forego needed treatment. In 2014, the least expensive new cancer drug approved cost more than $120,000 a year.
American households have an average gross income of $52,000. And half of people over 65 have incomes under $23,500. When out-of-pocket costs for cancer medications are anywhere near $20,000 a year, most people will need to sell assets or take out loans to pay for the drugs; $20,000 represents half of the take-home pay of a typical working family and slightly less than the average income of older adults.
Not surprisingly, as many as one in five cancer patients today are not taking their cancer treatments or taking less than the amount they need. They and their families are suffering and some are needlessly dying. The doctors argue that something has to change.
The doctors offer several possible solutions, including Medicare drug price negotiation, which is the top policy priority for Americans. They also suggest legislation that would prevent pharmaceutical companies from paying generic drug companies to delay putting generic drugs in the market at lower prices and/or that would allow Americans to import drugs from abroad at lower prices. Click here to read their other proposed solutions.
If you agree that we need federal action to stop these high cancer drug prices, email [email protected] or click here, and we will add your name to the campaign list. In the meantime, if you’d like some tips for keeping your drug costs down, click here.
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Alcohol abuse among older adults needs addressing
We need to address alcohol abuse among older adults. New research projects a doubling of the number of older adults who suffer from alcohol abuse. Between 2002 and 2006, there were an estimated 2.8 million adults over 50 with alcohol problems. By 2020, the number is expected to grow to 5.7 million. Another study found increased alcohol consumption specifically around retirement; over the next several years a high number of baby boomers will be retiring.
If you or someone you love needs counseling, Medicare covers alcohol screenings and counseling.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association has a host of materials in English and Spanish on how to help people and families with substance abuse problems. It offers practical tips for the identification, screening and assessment of alcohol abuse. It also offers a host of information on treatment and recovery for older adults who suffer from alcohol abuse.
If you’re interested in learning more about the link between retirement, aging and substance misuse, Google offers this book commissioned by the National Institute on Health, based on the findings from a 10-year study, for free: Retirement and the Hidden Epidemic, by Peter A. Bamberger and Samuel B. Bacharach.
If you’d like to further understand the consequences of alcohol abuse, click here to read Alcohol: Are you feeling its effects?
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February 7, 2015 Edition
- Obama’s proposed 2016 budget is out… and Medicare isn’t getting the love it deserves.
- You’re not the only one whose hearing gets a little worse each year. It happens to the best of us.
- A little acetaminophen can go a long way towards relieving pain. But you might be taking more than you realize.
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Strengthen Social Security by restoring the minimum wage
Fact: If today’s minimum wage were the same as the minimum wage in 1969 (adjusted for inflation), the minimum wage would be $9.39. Instead, it’s $7.35, more than 20 percent lower than it was 45 years ago. Because the minimum wage has not risen with inflation, contributions to the Social Security Trust Fund are a lot less than they would otherwise be. If the minimum wage were indexed to inflation, it would strengthen Social Security.
To learn more, go to Social Security Works.