Life in a Sandwich By blog About a third of all AlzheimerΓÇÖs and dementia patient caregivers are living their lives ΓÇ£sandwichedΓÇ¥ between caring for their loved one and raising their own children or grandchildren. With women often having their children later, and with so many young adults moving back into the nest, more families are finding themselves dealing with multi-generational caregiving challenges.
_ Food Allergies & Intolerance EpiPens Not Used Often Enough By Sondra Forsyth article Sudden allergic reactions can be fatal. The most common triggers of such reactions, also known as anaphylaxis, are wasp and bee venoms, legumes (pul, animal proteins, and painkiller. The incidence of anaphylaxis is age-dependent. Although epinephrine administered by injection is a know effective antidote, the treatment is not used often enough – at least not in German=speaking countries -- , according to a study published in the June 2014 issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International.
_ Weight Loss Sticking to a Diet: Compliance vs. Adherence By Sondra Forsyth article By Sondra Forsyth You may have noticed that most health care professionals have stopped using the word ΓÇ£complianceΓÇ¥ when referring to whether or not people stick with medication regimens or apply sunscreen daily or exercise on a regular basis. The word most often used now is ΓÇ£adherence.ΓÇ¥ The rationale is that telling patients to comply smacks of issuing a command, whereas asking them to adhere implies that they are partners in their care and can use free will to do whatΓÇÖs best for their health.
_ Bionic Pancreas Outperforms Insulin Pump By Sondra Forsyth article People with type 1 diabetes ΓÇô a lifelong condition -- who used a bionic pancreas instead of manually monitoring glucose using fingerstick tests and delivering insulin using a pump were more likely to have blood glucose levels consistently within the normal range, with fewer dangerous lows or highs. The full report of the findings, funded by the National Institutes of Health, was published June 15th 2014 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
_ Friendship Friends and Your Health By Jane Farrell article Friendships can have a major impact on your health and well-being, but it's not always easy to build or maintain friendships. Understand the importance of friendships in your life and what you can do to develop and nurture friendships. What are the benefits of friendships? Good friends are good for your health. Friends can help you celebrate good times and provide support during bad times. Friends prevent loneliness and give you a chance to offer needed companionship, too. Friends can also: Increase your sense of belonging and purpose
Pets Keeping Your Pet (and Yourself) Healthy By Jane Farrell article We Americans love our pets ΓÇô and weΓÇÖve got millions of them. According to the Humane Society of the United States, there are 164 million owned pets across the country, in 62 percent of our households. But while pets provide love, comfort and companionship, they may also have health issues, and some of them can affect us. Here, from the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC), are some tips on keeping your pet (and your family) healthy.
Love Insurance: How to Protect Your Most Valuable Asset By blog Most of us spend a considerable amount of money on car insurance to protect us in the event of an accident. We spend even more for health insurance to help pay for expenses should we get sick. We get life insurance to help our families after we are gone. But few of us even consider getting ΓÇ£Love insuranceΓÇ¥ to protect our relationship from small or catastrophic accidents that can befall us.
_ Brain Health Learning a 2nd Language Aids Your Aging Brain By Sondra Forsyth article If you grew up bilingual or learned a second language in high school, youΓÇÖve done your aging brain a favor. However, even if you start mastering a second language as an older adult, you can benefit from the positive effect your new non-native tongue will have on cognition as you age. ThatΓÇÖs the finding of research done at the Centre for Cognitive Aging and Cognitive Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh and published in June 2014 in Annals of Neurology.
_ Relationships & Love Toxic Relationships Raise Your Blood Pressure By Sondra Forsyth article Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have shown what you have probably suspected all along: Unpleasant or demanding interpersonal encounters increase hypertension risk. That unfortunate result is particularly true for women 51 to 64 -- but not men. The study was published in May 2014 in the American Psychological Association's journal Health Psychology.
_ If You're Considering A Cochlear Implant By Jane Farrell article Cochlear implants ΓÇö which bypass damaged or nonworking parts of the inner ear ΓÇö can improve hearing for anyone with hearing loss that canΓÇÖt be adequately managed with conventional hearing aids. Cochlear implants are electronic devices that convert acoustic sounds into electrical pulses that stimulate the auditory nerve directly. The pulses, which are organized like the keys of a piano, are delivered to points along the inner ear. The pulses stimulate the auditory cells that represent the various speech sounds.
Fibromyalgia Awareness By blog May 12th was Fibromyalgia Awareness Day. I marked that day by introducing my new project, 101 Answers About Fibromyalgia. This project is dedicated not only to those who have fibromyalgia, but to those who love people who have fibromyalgia. The goal is to collect at least 101 questions about the condition and gather the answers from different experts around the world. Regular visitors to my blog know that I've written about fibromyalgia before, both here and for other outlets.
_ 10 Facts About Depression By Jane Farrell article By Dr. Prakash Masand May is Mental Health Month, and a time to bring awareness to the many conditions that make up mental illness. One of the most common is depression. Unfortunately, many people have been misled about the facts of depression from what theyΓÇÖve seen on TV or in the movies, or have heard about from their friends and others. What are the real facts about depression? Here are the 10 ten facts that everyone should know about depression: 1. ThereΓÇÖs more to depression than just feeling blue.
Happily Ever After: 7 Secrets from The New Science of Love for Women and Men Over 50 By blog My wife, Carlin, and I have been married now for nearly 35 years and our love life seems to be getting better and better through the years. But it hasn’t always been so. This is the third marriage for each of us and there were times in our marriage that we wondered why we were so miserable and whether we should stay together or call it quits. We became angry, depressed, and overstressed. We had sexual problems and were confused about how to improve things.
Caring for Horses Can Help Dementia Symptoms By Jane Farrell article Spending time with horses eases dementia symptoms for Alzheimer’s patients, according to the first study of its kind. The research, a collaboration between The Ohio State University and an adult daycare center, revealed that patients could groom, feed and walk horses under supervision. That experience improved patients’ mood and made them less likely to resist care or become upset later in the day.
_ Can God Cure Your Break-Up Blues? By article Researcher Kristin Laurin of the Stanford Graduate School of Business has explored how faith in God helps people cope with the threat of romantic rejection. A release from the university notes that “God stands in for other relationships in our lives when times are tough”. The study was published on April 17th in Social Psychological and Personality Science,
Silly Putty the Key to Stem Cell Therapies? By article Could a component of Silly Putty, the childhood classic from the 1950s that your grandkids probably play with today, help embryonic stem cells turn into working spinal cord cells? Yes, say researchers at the University of Michigan in Ann who published their study online at Nature Materials on April 13th 2014.
_ Don't Be Confused By Organ-Donation Myths By Jane Farrell article From the Mayo Clinic Over 100,000 people in the U.S. are waiting for an organ donation. Unfortunately, many may never get the call saying that a suitable donor organ — and a second chance at life — has been found.
How to Love an Angry Man Part 4: Understanding Male Shame, Depression, and Dependency By blog For most of my life I haven’t understood my anger or why it was so often directed at the women in my life. I’ve been married three times. My first marriage lasted 10 years and ended in an acrimonious divorce. My second marriage began with extreme attraction and passion and luckily ended before one of us killed the other. I’m not talking metaphorically here.