How Retina Changes May Indicate Alzheimer’s in Seniors

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive brain disorder that affects seniors' memories, thinking and behavior. Although there is no cure, early intervention can slow the progression somewhat. That is why the research presented at a 2013 Neuroscience Conference is being studied so carefully. It indicates that the thickness of certain retinal cell layers in the eye may help doctors determine the presence and advancement of Alzheimer's in a patient. 

The results of research work conducted jointly by The University of Hong Kong and Georgetown University Medical Center have strongly indicated in research laboratory mice that two key layers of their eyes' retinas had lost thickness. Alzheimer's is known to kill the neurons of the brain. In these animals, it also destroyed many of the neurons (up to 49%) in the retinal ganglion cell layer, which sends visual information to the brain through the optic nerve. 

Why is this important and what does it mean for future treatment? A simple scan of the eye may be able to determine if there is significant loss of neurons in the retina, indicating the presence of Alzheimer's disease. Measuring retinal thickness changes can lead to earlier diagnosis, testing of new medications for Alzheimer's treatment and better, more effective treatments overall. 

There is no known way to prevent Alzheimer's, just as there is no known cure. Seniors can work to lessen their risk of getting the disease by living a healthy lifestyle that supports brain and heart health. Some preventative steps include:

• Engage in regular exercise to improve cardiovascular health.
• Eat a heart-healthy diet. It should include plenty of fruit,   whole grains, nuts, vegetables, fish and olive oil.
• Engage in regular social interactions with other people. Have strong interactions with someone during each week. Do not live an isolated life.
• Participate in challenging mental activities daily. Work jigsaw puzzles, play chess, work on puzzle booklets such as fill-ins, crosswords, mazes, or logic puzzles.
• Challenge yourself to learn something new. Take piano lessons. Take an art class. Take Pilates.

The care givers of an In-home care agency are trained to recognize and watch for the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease so the senior's family can be notified to seek a medical screening and treatment as soon as possible. Home care workers can also assist seniors in mentally stimulating activities to keep their brains alert and active.

Common Myths about Home Care Services

Many families consider home care services to be a blessing to them and to their elderly loved one for whom they hired the service. The caregivers from the agency assist the elderly with the day to day tasks that are difficult for them to perform without assistance and make it possible for them to maintain some independence and dignity.

Still other families worry about having a stranger around their loved one or in their home. That is because there are some commonly held myths about residential care services. Let's take a look at these myths and separate fact from fiction.

                    Myth Number One: 

 Workers from Home Care Don't Really Care about Their Elderly Patients

This is false for several reasons. First of all, agencies screen and interview their employees carefully. They hire people who are interested in and care about the elderly. They train them in geriatric care giving. The agency will work with you to learn the needs of your loved one, then match him or her with the caregiver best suited to meet those needs. The caregiver will take the time to get to know your loved one, establish a rapport and help him or her feel comfortable with the caregiver. If you are dissatisfied for any reason, you can request a different caregiver by contacting the agency.

                      Myth Number Two:

 Only Elderly People Who are Really Sick Need In-Home Care Services

This is false. There are medical home assistance services for the elderly who are ill and medically fragile. There is also the type of elderly care agency that provides assistance with meal preparation, day-to-day activities such as bathing/dressing, does the marketing, and provides transportation for errands and medical appointments.

                      Myth Number Three:

The Elderly Are Often Mistreated by Their Care Givers 

This is generally untrue. Unfortunately, there are always a very few bad people out there. When you originally interview the non-medical home care company that you are interested in, ask how they screen their applicants. Do they require background checks? How do they train their employees? Are they licensed? Are they bonded? Ask how they are supervised. Do your due diligence first.

                      Myth Number Four:

I Won't Have Any Voice in Who Comes into Our Home/Senior's Home.

This is false. A reputable agency always works with you to find the right care giver with the skills and personality to be the best match for your loved one.

                      Myth Number Five:

I Can't Afford Home Agency Services.

This is not necessarily true. The cost depends on how many hours a week your loved one needs services and the level of care provided. It can be more affordable than assisted living or a nursing home.

                      Myth Number Six:

If a Senior Requires Round the Clock Care, Home Based Care Is Not an Option.

This is false. There are several agencies available that are able to build an experienced care giving team to provide your loved one with 24/7 care at home. 

For many families with elderly loved ones, home care is a true godsend. Don't let myths scare you away from a service that has great benefits for seniors and their families. Talk to the agencies and get the facts.

How Home Care Can Help Seniors with Gout

Many of us have heard of gout but may not understand exactly what it is. Gout is arthritis in one of its most painful and severe manifestations. Gout is the result of uric acid crystallizing in the body and being deposited into a person's joints, leading to inflammatory arthritis in these locations.  This arthritis is partnered with swelling, stiffness and tenderness in these joints.

When a person is afflicted with gout, the body part most commonly affected is one's big toe. The other joints typically prone to gout are the ankles, knees, elbows, hands and wrists. Gout becomes more and more painful as the joint swelling makes the skin above it tighten and become extremely sensitive to the touch. The skin reddens and even turns purple. Often a diagnosis of gout is not made until a patient comes to a doctor for something to help manage his or her pain.

Factors Affecting Seniors' Risk for Gout

Gout can last anywhere from three or four days to several weeks. It may even become severe enough to result in deformities in the affected joints. It is important for the elderly and those who work in senior care to know and understand the key factors that impact whether a person is at risk of developing gout or not. These include:

• a family history of gout
• being overweight, which leads to increased uric acid production
• alcohol consumption which interferes with the body's uric acid removal ability
• prescription medications used in the treatment of Parkinson's Disease such as Levodopa and Cyclosporine and drugs with Salicylate (aspirin, diuretics or Niacin
• increased risk from other health conditions like hypertension (high blood pressure), hypothyroidism,  and renal insufficiency,
• psoriasis and certain forms of cancers

Treatment for Gout and In-Home Care Precautions with the Elderly

The main goal of gout treatment is quick pain relief and prevention of any future attacks. Containment of the damage and avoidance of any long-term complications is also paramount. Kidney damage and deforming joint destruction are both potential hazards of severe gout. It is important for elderly patients to take any medicine prescribed and understand the steps they must take to prevent re-occurring attacks.

For those who have gout, home care can play a significant role in treatment. Seniors and their home care givers should use any recommended hot or cold therapy packs on any affected areas as directed and keep the gouty joint elevated as instructed. It is important that the affected person drink a great deal of water (up to ten glasses per day) and take the recommended doses of over the counter pain medication. Alcohol intake should be limited if not eliminated altogether. 

Home Care for Seniors Makes a Difference for the Whole Family

Many families choose to become the caregivers of their aging loved ones when that time comes. Whether choosing to care for one's parent(s), grandparent or other significant loved one, there will be challenges for the caregivers, their own family and the senior as well. The relationships among all involved are being exposed to tremendous differences that can cause discomfort and change those relationships greatly.

Depending on the senior's age, health and ability to attend to her or his own needs, different types of home care may be required. Some seniors need direct care on a daily basis. Others need help with meal preparation, grooming, bathing and general activities of daily living. Still others can no longer drive, but are otherwise capable of caring for themselves. Family members may be caregivers by going to the senior's home on a regular basis and attending to him or her there or by moving the senior into the caregiver's home permanently.

The elderly often grieve the loss of their independence. It is an emotionally difficult period of adjustment to become a dependent in someone else's household after living as an independent adult. It is also hard for the adult child to become the caretaker for the parent, who has always been the caretaker. Needing help with bathing and toileting is awkward for the parent when their adult child is the caregiver helping them. It is also difficult for the adult child. The time the caregiver must devote to the senior is taken from his or her own children, creating even more change in the home.

Senior care from other sources is available to assist and supplement the care provided by family members. In fact, this service is a great help for families making the adjustment of providing care for an elderly loved one. When the family caretaker needs a break, a non-medical home care agency can supply a caregiver to provide assistance in the home so the caretaker has a few hours each week in which to do errands or take some stress-relief breaks.

The family caretaker should interview the care agency to discover all the services they offer. One valuable service to consider would be to let the caregiver come and do the toileting, bathing and grooming sessions each week to remove the awkward and embarrassing episodes from the parent and child relationship altogether. Caregivers can come for a few hours a week or on a full time basis. The assistance of a care agency can ease the stress and contribute to the comfort and ease of the entire family.

How Volunteer Work Can Help Reduce Hypertension in Seniors

Communities, schools, churches, states, our country and the entire world all offer thousands of opportunities for volunteering. Museum docent, provider of Comfort Pet visits to hospital patients, Habitat for Humanity, Meals on Wheels, library volunteer, homeless shelter cook, storyteller at a school, Adopt-a-Highway volunteer, and many other opportunities are available for anyone with time to spare and a desire to help. Many seniors and retirees serve as volunteers because, having retired, they have free time during the day to use for these projects.

Research from Carnegie-Mellon University indicates that today's volunteers are receiving more than warm and satisfied feelings for their efforts. In the Journal of Psychology and Aging published by the American Psychological Association, the results of this study indicated adults who volunteered regularly actually lowered their risk of hypertension.

Specifically, volunteers with at least 200 volunteer hours of service each year lowered their risk of hypertension by as much as 40%. This is a significant finding because high blood pressure (hypertension) is a contributor to cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in the United States. Volunteering as a means of reducing hypertension for the elderly is a safe and non-prescription remedy.

Seniors benefit more from volunteer work than any other group of volunteers for other reasons as well. These include:

• Social Interaction: which is a critical component of maintaining good thinking and memory skills as the brain ages.
• Self-Confidence: which allows the senior to continue to live independently and take care of him or herself.
• Physical Activity: which keeps the joints moving and helps prevent gout, stiffening and weight gain.

Inactivity from boredom and depression may lead to elevated levels of pain in the joints and muscle weakness. Self-confidence and satisfaction from volunteering leads to contentment and happiness that actually helps seniors live longer than elderly people who do not volunteer.

Seniors who receive non-medical home care because they cannot drive and need transportation for errands and medical appointments may still volunteer. They can discuss with their caregiver the opportunities available in their local area, then choose one to which the caregiver can provide the client transportation on volunteer days. In-home care services who work with house-bound seniors can help them discover volunteer opportunities they can handle from home, such as serving on a phone tree, working on-line, working on mailings and making phone calls.

To reduce hypertension risks, develop better heart health, improve memory and provide a service to your community, check out the causes and organizations that interest you the most and work with your care giver to choose the volunteering experience(s) for you.

Seniors Feeling More Confident about Their Looks

In today's world, we're surrounded by "the beautiful people" at every turn: TV shows and endless infomercials telling us how we can "improve" our faces and lose those love handles with the latest and greatest diet, and magazines with every other page featuring a digitally-altered model with a caption telling us why we need to look just like them.  Although we can all have moments of self-doubt, today it's even more understandable than ever for feelings of self-consciousness to surface, considering what's going on in the world around us.  But don't fret.  It doesn't have to be that way; in fact, research shows that the older we get, the better we feel about ourselves.

According to a Gallup survey of 85,000 people, here's what they found out from respondents aged 65 and older:

• 66% responded that they were happy with their appearance
• 64% of males who responded are happy with their looks, while 60% of women have the same feeling

The numbers above are the highest of any age group in this survey: in the 35 to 64 age range, only 54 percent were happy with their looks, and 61 percent in the 18-34 age group.  There are a few reasons why seniors may feel more confident in their appearance:

• Many seniors may be more relaxed in all aspects of their lives---this feeling can also carry over into how they feel about themselves and how they look.  For example, although they still want to look good, the sometimes unseen pressure of keeping up with the latest fashion trends is not the same as when they were younger.
• According to the American Senior Fitness Association, the overall number of seniors who exercise has increased over the years.  Exercise not only builds strength and stamina, but also builds confidence, both inside and out.
• The Gallup organization also surmised that another major reason for confidence expressed by seniors is that as we grow older, the expectations from society changes, leading seniors to feel better about their appearance.

To sum it up, when it comes to our appearance, confidence really does increase with age.  If you are exploring home care options, assisted living placement or in-home care for a loved one, contact us for a selection of options that may be right for you.

Seniors Can Be Athletes or At Least Active Regularly

We all know the adage, "You're only as old as you feel."  For owners of a non-medical home care business, you know how this applies to your clients. Some are active and able to garden and to participate in sports activities. Others are fairly sedentary and inactive.  Fun does not have to stop because one's age reaches a certain number. There are plenty of great examples of seniors still achieving amazing sports goals.

Seniors Who Are Star Athletes

In June, at the age of 91, Harriet Thompson ran the fastest marathon time (90-94 year old group) in U. S. history in her fifteenth running of the San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Marathon.  Illinois Wesleyan University professor D. Paul Miller was the oldest cyclist in the 19-sport competition of the 2013 National Senior Games. He was 96 years old at the time.

Seniors also participate in extreme sports. There is a club named Skydivers Over Sixty that jumps in large and intricate formations for fun and entertainment. Other extreme sports with senior participants include:

• Snowboarding
• Mountain climbing
• Waterskiing
• Parasailing

Activities for Seniors that have Specific Health Benefits

Encouraging seniors to become "athletic" does not require inborn natural talent or joining a professional team. It means trying an activity to see if they might enjoy it.  Many physical activities have the added benefit of increasing blood flow to the brain, which helps improve memory in older people. Senior care givers can start by encouraging their clients who have video games such as the Wii to try some of the bowling games or others with physical movements to get the client up and moving around.

Studies have shown that participation in Martial Arts can decrease falls in seniors. The low-impact exercises increase balance and flexibility (which decrease with age) and learning falling techniques has helped prevent some broken hips. Tai Chi increases muscle agility and increases coordination. It also increases core strength, all of which fight against depression, arthritis and slow blood circulation in older people.

Aerobic exercises have been established to improve the blood's circulation and oxygenation. Current research also indicates it may slow aging, improve memory and provide a higher blood flow to the brain, including the hippocampus, which affects the development of Alzheimer's.  Several gyms, recreation departments and other community resources offer Martial Arts classes especially for older adults and seniors. Research what is available in your community so you can pass this information along to your clients.