_ Widowhood Mourning the Death Of A Spouse By Jane Farrell article Losing a spouse is one of life’s most heartbreaking events. You may react in a number of different ways: sorrow, fear, even anger (that your husband didn’t look after his health, for example). You can also feel guilty that you have survived, while he hasn’t. You may even feel a certain sense of relief, especially if you have been an in–home caregiver or your spouse has been in a nursing home.
_ Pets End-of-Life Pet Care By Jane Farrell article As any pet owner can tell you, companion animals are part of your family. You love them, you take care of them, you play with them. Someday, though, the inevitable will come: your pet will become seriously ill and pass away. Most pets don’t die suddenly; they usually become ill and linger for a while. How can you make your companion’s last days good ones, and when is it time for him or her to go? The experts at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) have some answers.
_ Pets Easter Lilies Are Deadly For Cats By Jane Farrell article Beautiful Easter lilies can be deadly news for your cats, and the FDA is warning pet owners about the dangers. The white, trumpet-shaped Easter lily, a popular gift and home decoration, symbolizes Easter and spring for many people. But you need to be careful about these blooms, including Tiger, Asiatic, Day and Japanese Show lilies.
_ Marriage Angry Spouses And Low Blood Sugar By Jane Farrell article Lower blood-sugar levels may make married people likelier to be angry at their spouse, new research shows. In a 21-day study, researchers found that blood glucose levels, measured each night, predicted how angry people would be toward their spouse at that time. After the study ended, people with the lower blood glucose levels were also shown in a lab experiment to be more willing to subject their spouse to unpleasant noises than those with higher glucose levels.
_ Pets Do Therapy Animals Really Help Patients? By article While many people have an opinion on whether animals can help to improve wellbeing and care for patients in hospitals, does anyone really know whether there are benefits both for the patients and the animals themselves?
_ Grandparenting Watching Grandkids Once a Week Keeps Grandmas Sharp By article Taking care of grandchildren one day a week helps keep grandmothers mentally sharp, according to a study from the Women's Healthy Aging Project in Australia, published online April 8th 2014 in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS). That's good news for women after menopause, when women need to lower their risks of developing Alzheimer's disease and other cognitive disorders.
Marriage Marriage Not as Heart-Healthy at 50+ By article People who are married have lower rates of several cardiovascular diseases compared with those who are single, divorced or widowed, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session in March 2014 in Washington D.C. However, Boomers and Beyond take note: The relationship between marriage and lower odds of vascular diseases is especially pronounced before age 50. For people aged 50 and younger, marriage is associated with 12 percent lower odds of any vascular disease.
Caregiving Adult Day Care A Boon for Caregivers By article Family caregivers show an increase in the beneficial stress hormone DHEA-S on days when they use an adult day care service for their relatives with dementia, according to researchers at Penn State and the University of Texas at Austin. A release from Penn explains that DHEA-S controls the harmful effects of cortisol and is associated with better long-term health.
Marriage 9 Tips for Emotional Intimacy By Jane Farrell article By Paul Dunion When I ask a couple in couples counseling, "So, tell me about the current status of your intimacy,” they inevitably start talking about their sex life. When I proceed to explain I am interested in their emotional intimacy, the male quickly turns his gaze toward his wife and the female typically speaks of the loneliness and isolation she experiences in the marriage. She may not know exactly what, but she does know something is missing in the marriage.
Caregiving Caregiving Challenges: Bathing and Personal Hygiene By article By Diane Blum As Alzheimer’s progresses, poor hygiene can often become more than just an unpleasant issue. It can have medical consequences, such as bacterial infections including UTIs. Gastroenteritis and other health issues can also occur, some quite serious to an immune system weakened as Alzheimer’s progresses.
_ Marriage For Older Couples, HusbandΓÇÖs Health & Happiness Is Crucial By article A husband’s agreeable personality and good health appear crucial to preventing conflict among older couples who have been together a long time, according to a release written by Jann Ingmire about a study done at the University of Chicago and published in March 2014 in the Journal of Marriage and Family. The researchers found that the health and happiness of wives play less of a role in limiting marital conflict, perhaps because of different expectations among women and men in durable relationships.
_ Pets Is Your Cat's Medicine Working? By Jane Farrell article There’s a new clinical design to determine whether medicines designed for cats are actually doing the job. In designing the new method, researchers from North Carolina State worked to overcome the “placebo effect” in a pain-management study of cats. Evaluating the effectiveness of a medicine is difficult when it comes to cats, who may not reveal the pain they are suffering and who also are resistant to taking medication.
Caregiving Peace of Mind for Long-Distance Caregivers By article By Marki Flannery Every Sunday, Donna placed a call from her home in Washington D.C. to her Aunt Catherine, to check up on her. At age 87, Catherine lived alone in her longtime Lower Manhattan apartment and, except for an attack of angina a couple years ago, was in relatively good health. Donna asked, as she usually did, about her aunt's weekend and was heartened to hear she had gotten out with friends. "My neighbor's daughter took us to the Metropolitan Museum," Catherine said, sounding uplifted.
_ Dating Is Your Online Profile Too Revealing? By Jane Farrell article By Judith Bitterli Editor’s Note: Internet dating is serious business. According to the Statistics Brain Research Institute, the internet dating scene generated $1.049 billion in revenue for the year 2012. And online dating sites aren’t the only place where potential mates are checking each other out. AVG Technologies, an online security firm, found in a survey that one in three young baby boomers (45-54) were also using social media such as Facebook and Twitter to research a person they might be interested in.
_ Parenting Helping Grown Kids Can Boost Mental Health By article All the negative press about “boomerang kids” aside, helping your adult children in various ways may actually be an antidote to depression as you age. That’s the finding of a team of researchers at Penn State, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Michigan. The results are published in the February 2014 issue of The Gerontologist.
_ Widowhood Bereavement Ups Heart Attack & Stroke Risk By article We really can die of a broken heart – or at least suffer serious adverse health events. The risk of having a heart attack or stroke increases significantly during the 30 days after a partner's death, according to a study done at St. Georges College in London and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on February 24th 2014.
_ Pets The ASPCA Offers 9 Cold Weather Tips for Pets By Jane Farrell article Here, adapted with permission from an article by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, are guidelines for protect your pets when it’s cold outside:
_ Pets Help for Overweight Cats By Jane Farrell article Obese cats could lose weight if their owners feed them smaller wet meals throughout the day, according to new research from the University of Illinois. But those methods, which work for humans as well, may be hard to implement.