An Older Adult Skip ’s Bathing? Maybe there’s a Reason
A common complaint about older people, especially those who have health challenges, is that they “smell” or have other signs that they don’t shower or bathe often enough to stay fresh.
Some of this may be driven by ageist stereotypes, but some of it can be based in truth. If you have a parent or other older adult in your family and you feel that poor hygiene is a realistic issue, the first thing you should do is try to determine why the person isn't keeping up with self-care.
Understand that we aren’t talking about someone who wasn’t smelling too fresh one day when you stopped in. There could be many rea...
Source: Minding Our Elders - August 17, 2022 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
An Older Adult Skips Bathing? Maybe there ’s a Reason
A common complaint about older people, especially those who have health challenges, is that they “smell” or have other signs that they don’t shower or bathe often enough to stay fresh.
Some of this may be driven by ageist stereotypes, but some of it can be based in truth. If you have a parent or other older adult in your family and you feel that poor hygiene is a realistic issue, the first thing you should do is try to determine why the person isn't keeping up with self-care.
Understand that we aren’t talking about someone who wasn’t smelling too fresh one day when you stopped in. There could be many rea...
Source: Minding Our Elders - August 17, 2022 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
The Future of 3D Printing Drugs In Pharmacies Is Closer Than You Think
3D printing drugs is not a fantasy anymore. Unbelievable shapes and any kind of drug can be fabricated with groundbreaking technology. The UK biotech company, FabRx believes it could even appear as a regular technique in hospitals and pharmacies for creating personalised drugs in specific doses within 5-10 years. In February 2022 the company announced they developed a technology allowing them to 3D print tablets in 7-17 seconds, a huge improvement from earlier.
Print out starfish-shaped drugs for your child at home
Somewhere in the 2030s: Annie was called by her daughter’s teacher that she had a high fever...
Source: The Medical Futurist - August 9, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: berci.mesko Tags: 3D Printing Future of Medicine Future of Pharma Healthcare Innovation Personalized medicine GC1 pharmacies 3d printed drugs personalized drugs Source Type: blogs
Weekly Australian Health IT Links – 1 August, 2022.
Here are a few I have come across the last week or so. Note: Each link is followed by a title and a few paragraphs. For the full article click on the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links may require site registration or subscription payment.General Comment-----Quite a lot this week – especially regarding the NBN and Labor trying to regain control of what it is actually for – service provision – and not making a huge profit – in their view. Love the new Minister has ambitions to be maximally photogenic and not a ‘techie’!Otherwise all sorts of fun things!-----https://www.ausd...
Source: Australian Health Information Technology - August 1, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: Dr David G More MB PhD Source Type: blogs
TORdx LUNG Test for Donor Lung Assessment: Interview with Eric Brouwer, Chief Scientific Officer at SQI Diagnostics
SQI Diagnostics, a medtech company based in Canada, is developing the TORdx LUNG Test. The technology is intended to assist clinicians in assessing donor lungs in their suitability for transplantation. At present, clinicians typically assess donor lungs using qualitative variables, such as donor health and lung size. One of the most important factors, lung inflammation, is difficult to assess, and clinicians will often play it safe and reject an organ if there is any doubt about it.
This means that lungs that might actually be suitable for transplantation are often rejected, further compounding the lack of donor organs....
Source: Medgadget - July 18, 2022 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Cardiac Surgery Exclusive Medicine Thoracic Surgery lung transplant sqi diagnostics Source Type: blogs
A Summer Roundup of Caregiver and Elder-Friendly Products, Services, and Technology
Photo image credit Jelly Drops (image of the inventor and his grandma!)
Dear Readers: It’s once again time for what has become a bi-annual look at products and services available to caregivers and/or older adults. I’m better acquainted with some of these products and services than others, and in some cases, I note that. Unless I say otherwise these mentions are not meant as an endorsement. Let’s go…
Clothing
CareZips: Joe & Bella is a new, modern adaptive-apparel brand for older adults. Their newest line is CareZips® by Joe & Bella, a patented easy-dressing pant for adults living with changes due to incontin...
Source: Minding Our Elders - July 10, 2022 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Helping vs. Enabling: How to Strike a Balance While Caregiving
Photo credit William Krause
Most family caregivers want what is best for their loved ones, and they’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen. Unfortunately, discerning what’s best for a senior is often easier said than done. In many cases, a loved one’s own desires (or demands) may actually jeopardize their health, erode their independence, and diminish their quality of life. Caregivers are left to walk this thin line between helping care recipients just enough and enabling bad behaviors that may come back to bite both parties. Care decisions are hard enough as it is, but how do you know when you’re enabling an ...
Source: Minding Our Elders - July 4, 2022 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Caregivers Can Troubleshoot and Empathize Without “Fixing” Everything
Photo credit Andrea Picquadio
Dear Carol: My mom, now 87, voluntarily moved to assisted living three years ago. She said at the time that she loved it. She continues to have chronic pain from rheumatoid arthritis and takes medications for the usual age-related issues. Even though she forgets things more often than she used to, she doesn’t seem to have dementia. Lately, though, she’s started complaining about being “forced” to move to “this place,” saying that she hates it. Of course, she likes some caregivers better than others, but nothing major seems to have changed regarding her care. I visit several t...
Source: Minding Our Elders - July 3, 2022 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Tips on How to Talk to the Doctor About Your Older Parent or Spouse
Photo credit: Rodnae Productions
A frequent problem expressed among family caregivers is that their aging loved ones aren’t honest with their doctors. At home, they may gripe about intense pain, struggle to complete activities of daily living (ADLs) independently, or exhibit memory problems that lead to unfair accusations, but the moment they sit down in a doctor’s office, a change occurs. Like an actor on stage, the patient becomes animated and charming and has no complaints to report to their physician. What gives?
A Caregiver’s Experience With “Showtiming”: My mom was a supreme example. She fell ...
Source: Minding Our Elders - May 27, 2022 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
When One Parent Dies the Other Often Needs a Long-Term Care Plan
Photo credit Vlada Karpovich
Long-term marriages generally evolve into a support system so efficient that even adult children hardly notice changes in their parents. If Dad's hearing is poor, Mom becomes his ears. If Mom's arthritis is bad, Dad becomes her muscle. If one of them has memory loss, the other fills in the gaps so smoothly that it's barely noticeable to onlookers. Then, either Mom or Dad dies. The person remaining suddenly is more frail and needy than anyone would have expected. The surviving spouse is suffering the loss of their life partner, a shock from which they may never completely recover. Also, th...
Source: Minding Our Elders - May 26, 2022 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Underfunding Research Of Female Health Leaves Huge Amounts Of Money On The Table
“Did you know that at least one-third of women have lower back pain before their periods every month, and yet, nobody seems to fully understand why?” – asked a Medical Futurist team member a little while ago. The question led to a discussion about the differences in research, funding and understanding of male-only and female-only health issues, and consequently, to this article.
It is a well-known fact that some diseases or conditions dominantly affect one gender or the other. There are the trivial ones, like prostate cancer or ovarian, cervical, uterine cancers. But there is a long list of diseases and condit...
Source: The Medical Futurist - May 12, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andrea Koncz Tags: TMF Future of Medicine Healthcare Policy Medical Education women female health under-reseached gender gap in healthcare Source Type: blogs
Women, partner violence and pain
As the potential for greater repression of women’s autonomy grows (Afghanistan, United States, Mexico), along with racist and misogynist statements from business leaders (DGL CEO Simon Henry) it’s timely to look at pain in women. We already know that more women than men present with persistent pain (Blyth, n.d.), while women who are seen for their pain are more often misdiagnosed, offered psychiatric medication or psychological intervention only and have their experiences dismissed as “hysterical, fabricated, or nonexistent” (Samulowitz, et al., 2018). My daughter, when attending Emergency Departmen...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - May 8, 2022 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: Chronic pain Professional topics Research Science in practice biopsychosocial gender Health pain management partner violence Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, May 2nd 2022
In this study, we tested the therapeutic potential of VHHASC and a newly generated VHH against murine ASC (VHHmASC) to target ASC specks in vitro and in vivo. We show that pre-incubation of extracellular ASC specks with VHHASC abrogated their inflammatory functions in vitro. Recombinant VHHASC rapidly disassembled pre-formed ASC specks and thus inhibited their ability to seed the nucleation of soluble ASC. Notably, VHHASC required prior cytosolic access to prevent inflammasome activation within cells, but it was effective against extracellular ASC specks released following caspase-1-dependent loss of membrane integrity, an...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 1, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
ASC Specks as a Sizable Contribution to Chronic Inflammation
In this study, we tested the therapeutic potential of VHHASC and a newly generated VHH against murine ASC (VHHmASC) to target ASC specks in vitro and in vivo. We show that pre-incubation of extracellular ASC specks with VHHASC abrogated their inflammatory functions in vitro. Recombinant VHHASC rapidly disassembled pre-formed ASC specks and thus inhibited their ability to seed the nucleation of soluble ASC. Notably, VHHASC required prior cytosolic access to prevent inflammasome activation within cells, but it was effective against extracellular ASC specks released following caspase-1-dependent loss of membrane integrity, an...
Source: Fight Aging! - April 26, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Towards Control of Inflammation as an Important Goal in the Treatment of Aging
Today I'll point out a review article that laments the present state of progress towards the control of inflammation in the human body. While acknowledging that great strides have been made in ways to interfere in inflammatory signaling, benefiting many patients, present tools are crude in comparison to the technologies that will most likely be needed in order to truly control unresolved, chronic inflammation and eliminate its contribution to age-related disease. True control of inflammation would imply the ability to (a) trigger resolution mechanisms with specificity, avoiding impairment of the operation of inflammation w...
Source: Fight Aging! - April 25, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
