JustCare

Tag: Drugs and alcohol

  • Five ways to ensure the people you love are safe and healthy 

    Five ways to ensure the people you love are safe and healthy 

    At least once a year, every caregiver should engage the older people they love in what can be difficult conversations. No child looks forward to being a parent to her mom or dad; no one wants to have to speak with a spouse about exercising more, rethinking a medication regimen or considering stopping driving.  But, that’s often what needs to happen. Here are five ways you can help ensure the people you love are safe and healthy.

    1. Make sure they get an annual flu shot.  This should be easy since often the local pharmacy will administer the shot.  The shot minimizes the risk that older adults will develop flu-related health problems, including pneumonia and worsening chronic conditions. [Editor’s note: Also make sure they get their Covid-19 vaccine and booster shots.]
    1. Check out what drugs they are taking.  And, make a list of them, along with the names and phone numbers of their doctors, both for yourself and for their wallets.  If they keep the list on them, and you have a backup copy, it will help ensure their doctors are best prepared to treat them.
    1. Ask them about painkiller prescriptions they take as well as over the counter drugs, like Tylenol.  Too much acetaminophen can be dangerous. Prescription painkillers, such as Percocet or Vicodin, can be even more dangerous, particularly if mixed with alcohol, tranquilizers or other drugs.
    1. Try to nudge them to exercise. A brisk walk can reduce the likelihood of stroke and help prolong their lives. If they are not inclined to move, ask them what might get them out of the house.  Sometimes, a companion can make all the difference.  Anything they can do to move their bodies is great, including in hospital. Sometimes, showing them some easy exercises can work.  You can find simple balance exercises that the National Institutes on Health recommends here. For information about free and low-cost exercise programs in your community, visit the eldercare locator.
    1. Talk to them about driving if they are still driving. Many people can drive all their lives.  But, both mental and physical reflexes can weaken as you age.  The National Institute on Aging offers great advice on when and how you can help someone you love decide to stop driving.

    And, if you need help motivating them to change an unhealthy behavior, here are six tips that could help.

    Of course, there’s more you can do, including making their homes easier and safer to live in: for example, make sure floor surfaces are smooth to reduce the likelihood of tripping, install ramps and  raise toilet seats. More on that in a separate post.

    (This post was originally published on April 10, 2015.)

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • Five things to know about gout

    Five things to know about gout

    Gout can be a painful health condition, often a type of arthritis, which generally involves swelling in the joints and can be extremely painful. About 9.2 million Americans live with gout. With gout, your body produces more uric acid than your kidneys are able to filter out. Fortunately, gout can usually be treated, and you can live a productive life. Here are five things you should know about gout:

    1. Who is likely to get gout?
      • About nine million adults experience gout at some point in their lives. Adults are prone to get gout, particularly men between 40 and 50. Current thinking is that gout runs in families, so whether you get it may spend on your genes. People who are overweight, who drink a lot of alcohol, or eat a lot of purines, such as high-fructose corn syrup, beer and scallops, are also more prone to gout.
      • Older people are also more likely to get gout because their kidneys are not working effectively to remove uric acid in their systems. And some medications, such as diuretics, also can lead to gout.
    2. What causes gout? When you have an excess of uric acid in your system, needle-like crystals of uric acid can build up and end up in your joints or soft tissues. There, they cause gout, an inflammation and swelling, redness, heat, and stiffness in the joints that can be very painful.
    3. What are the symptoms of gout? Often, people get gout first in the big toe, but not always. Sometimes, people get gout in their feet or ankles, knees or wrists, fingers and elbows. And sometimes the uric acid crystals end up in the kidneys and cause kidney stones. You can have an excess of uric acid without experiencing any symptoms, and then there’s generally no cause for concern or treatment. Treatment is needed when there is intense swelling or pain in the joints.
    4. What are the triggers for painful symptoms of gout? Alcohol, drugs and stress are often triggers for a painful attack of gout, which usually begins at night and can last for three to ten days. The pain will typically end on its own, without treatment, but the swelling and pain can return at any time. There is an advanced and disabling stage of gout, in which the joints are permanently affected. With proper treatment, however, most people with gout never experience this stage.
    5. How is gout treated? Gout is commonly treated with Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs), which are taken by mouth, or corticosteroids, which are taken by mouth or by injection. With proper treatment, most people with gout can live pain-free or close to it.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • Free local resources to help older adults

    Free local resources to help older adults

    If you’re looking for free local resources to help older adults, your local Area Agency on Aging is a great place to begin. Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) develop, coordinate and deliver aging services throughout the country. They serve people over 60 at every income level. In fact, they help more than eight million people a year with long-term care choices, transportation options, benefits information and caregiver issues. You can find them in almost every community.

    Most Area Agencies on Aging are also Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRCs). ADRCs provide a hub for information on long-term services and supports to help older adults, their caregivers and families; they work to ensure that older adults are better able to live alone in their homes for as long as possible. They are government agencies that work to meet people’s long-term care needs.

    To contact your local Area Agency on Aging for free local resources for older adults or simply to understand available benefits, call the Eldercare Locator 800.677.1116. The Eldercare Locator is a program of the Administration on Community Living. You can also visit the website at www.eldercare.gov.

    LeadingAge, an association of 6,000 community-based non-profit organizations in the U.S., offers another great resource. It has developed on online tool to help you locate non-profit agencies, agencies that “put people before profits,” that provide services and living facilities for older adults.

    By entering a zip code or city, LeadingAge’s Aging Services Directory will let you know about non-profit resources in the community. You can choose from a list of 18 resources, including nursing, transportation, home-delivered meals and dementia care. You can also learn about retirement communities, assisted living, and subsidized housing.

    And, if you need help navigating Medicare, you should contact your State Health Insurance Assistance Program or SHIP.  For the number of the SHIP in your area, click here. Or, for free help, call the Medicare Rights Center national hotline at 800-333-4114.  For other free and low-cost services for older adults, check out Just Care’s Get Help page.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • Opioids can kill you

    Opioids can kill you

    We all know the pleasures of a good painkiller.  We often don’t know the risks.  If we’re talking opioids, such as Vicodin, OxyContin and Percocet (hydrocodone, morphine, oxycodone and fentanyl in their generic form) those risks are huge. Opioids can kill you.

    According to Consumer Reports, every year 17,000 Americans die from opioid overdoses.  And, another 500,000 Americans end up in the emergency room.

    It’s relatively easy to become addicted to or heavily dependent on opioids. They ease short-term pain. And, doctors are prescribing them more and more.  For sure, it’s unsafe to mix them with alcohol, tranquilizers and other drugs, or to take the drugs for too long.

    A report by Express Scripts reveals that almost six out of ten patients are mixing opioids with muscle relaxants and anti-anxiety medications, a dangerous combination. The most frequent cause of accidental deaths from drug overdose stem from mixing an opioid with a benzodiazepine.

    There are other drugs such as acetaminophen, ibuprofen or naproxen to treat pain that have substantially fewer risks.  For your health, before you take an opioid, it’s important to talk to your doctor about the other drugs you’re taking, including sleeping pills. If possible, you should minimize the use of opioids.  And, of course, you should only take them as prescribed.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • Seven tips for getting a good night’s sleep

    Seven tips for getting a good night’s sleep

    According to the Centers for Disease Control, sleep matters–not getting a good night’s sleep is a public health problem. Insufficient sleep leads to poor health outcomes and greater risk of early death. Yet, one third of adults in the U.S. do not get enough sleep on a regular basis. We need between seven and nine hours a night.
    Here are seven tips for a good night’s sleep from the National Institutes of Health:
    1. Develop a sleep routine: Set a daily bedtime and wake-up time and stick to it. If you have an iphone or ipad, the clock app has a helpful bedtime setting. In addition to tracking your sleep, it turns off all the sounds on the device during bedtime hours.
    2. Exercise daily:  Even 20 to 30 minutes a day of exercise can help you sleep soundly.
    3. Avoid alcohol, cigarettes and caffeine, especially directly before you go to sleep.
    4. Relax before bedtime: Do something quiet and calming–take a bath, listen to classical music, read a book.
    5. Let the sun wake you up. Bright sunlight has been shown to reset your biological clock.
    6. Only go to sleep when you’re ready to fall asleep. It can be anxiety-producing and cause insomnia to lay in bed awake trying to sleep if you don’t feel tired.
    7. See a doctor if you continue to struggle to fall asleep or stay asleep at night.  There are effective cures. Here are five proven interventions for sleeplessness or insomnia.

    Keep in mind that if you are often tired during the day, you could have sleep apnea.

    A recent Rand study also recommends limited use of electronics before sleep. The Rand study finds that people who sleep on average fewer than six hours a night have a 10 percent higher risk of mortality than people who sleep between seven and nine hours a night. And, people who sleep on average between six and seven hours a night have a four percent higher mortality risk.

    If you like this post, you might also like these:

  • How does your state rank on health care?

    How does your state rank on health care?

    The Commonwealth Fund recently issued its 2018 report ranking states on their health systems performance. Hawaii remains in first place. Mississippi ranked in last place. Overall, the picture is not pretty. How does your state rank on health care outcomes?

    The researchers found that life expectancy in the US fell for the second year in a row, in large part as a result of opioid and other substance abuse and suicide. They found a 50 percent increase in deaths from suicide, drugs and alcohol use since 2005. Rates rose in all states, doubling or more in Delaware, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, and West Virginia.

    Deaths from conditions that are treatable also rose in two out of three states between 2014 and 2015. In a handful of states, the rise was more than five percent: 351 in Colorado, 643 in Oklahoma, and 988 in Texas, for example.

    And, the researchers found that most adults do not get mental health treatment. On average, 56 percent of adults with mental illness were not treated for it. In Nevada, two out of three adults were not treated.

    As for the states that did relatively well and those that did poorly: The five highest ranking states were Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Vermont and Utah. The five lowest ranking states were Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Mississippi.

    The authors recommend a move to integrative care, bringing together behavioral health and physical health, with a focus on the social determinants of health. Some states are working to connect residents in need to community social services programs, including good housing and nutrition, health screenings and substance abuse counseling services. In fact, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is contracting with agencies in many states to create Accountable Health Communities, which are supposed to bridge the gap between clinical care and community services.

    Some good news: Medicare covers alcohol screenings and counseling  as well as nutrition counseling.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • Alcohol abuse among older adults needs addressing

    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?

  • Insurers may be ready to support negotiated drug prices

    Insurers may be ready to support negotiated drug prices

    Cancer drug prices keep rising, up from an average of $129 a month in 1975 to an average of over $10,000 a month in 2010. These drugs are increasingly unaffordable, even with insurance, because the insurance companies keep hiking up the copays. In a new twist designed to keep prices sky high and generate greater revenues, the drug companies are attacking health insurers and allying with cancer groups to advocate for lower copays. It could be the drug companies’ undoing; insurers may be ready to support negotiated drug prices.

    You would think the drug companies would be embarrassed by the obscene cancer drug prices they are charging. (Express Scripts says that almost one-third (32 percent) of all health insurer spending on drugs came from one percent of prescriptions for costly specialty drugs.) You would want these drug companies to charge US residents what they charge residents of every other wealthy nation. Instead, they are effectively arguing that everyone with health insurance should pay higher premiums and deductibles.

    If insurance companies were to reduce copays for cancer drugs, there’s no question they would simultaneously increase premiums, deductibles and perhaps copays for other services. More people might be able to afford cancer drugs. But, fewer people would be able to afford insurance premiums, deductibles and other health care services.

    Right now, four states limit drug copays to no more than $150 a month. And, with Pfizer’s lobbying support, many other states are considering similar limits. But, as Karen Ignagni, head of the health insurers’ trade association explains, “it’s a shell game that’s being played on consumers.” Patients, state governments and employers all end up paying higher health care costs as a result of these caps.

    To date, the health insurance industry has not shown any willingness to ally with patients to push for negotiated drug prices. Rather, the drug companies and the health insurers have been allies. Perhaps, the drug companies’ behavior will finally move the insurers to do right by patients, take on the drug companies and argue for drug price negotiation. It’s about time they did. If they do, we would have the drug companies to thank!

  • Tylenol and other painkillers with acetaminophen can be toxic when overused

    Tylenol and other painkillers with acetaminophen can be toxic when overused

    Millions of Americans can and do safely rely on painkillers with acetaminophen on a regular basis.  They also take acetaminophen to lower fever.  According to the NIH, they generally have nothing to worry about so long as they do not exceed the maximum dosage for the drug, 4000 mg a day.

    If you are taking multiple medications, however, make sure that those drugs do not contain acetaminophen.  You could be exceeding the maximum daily dosage and doing harm to your liver.

    It’s also unsafe to take acetaminophen if you’re on warfarin, a blood-thinning drug, sometimes known as Coumadin.

    And the NIH warns that you should not have more than two alcoholic drinks a day when you are taking acetaminophen.

  • Alcohol: Are you feeling its effects?

    Alcohol: Are you feeling its effects?

    According to the National Institute on Health, it is often the case that people feel the effects of alcohol more as they age.  That’s why the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism recommends that people over 65 drink no more than seven drinks a week and no more than three drinks a day. Curious what makes up a drink? Click here.

    Some health problems, such as high blood pressure or mood disorders, can be made worse with alcohol intake. And, alcohol interactions with your medications could jeopardize your health. The NIH strongly recommends that you speak with your doctor if you are drinking alcohol while on medications or in poor health.

    Alcohol can interact with many medications and could potentially cause more health problems. You might want to alter your drinking habits in order to lower your blood pressure, be good to your liver or otherwise feel better. You may have read that red wine in moderation is good for you.  There is some data to suggest this is true and some data to suggest it is not.  Regardless, the key is to drink in moderation.

    Keep in mind that Medicare covers some services to help people with drinking problems.  For more information, take a look at this NIH publication.