Monitor Your Blood Pressure to Avoid Vascular Dementia
If the risk of a stroke or heart attack doesn’t scare you into controlling your blood pressure, surely a heightened risk for vascular dementia should. While Alzheimer’s is thought to be the most common form of dementia, vascular dementia follows closely behind in ranking. The two mixed together are also common, so consider yourself at risk for dementia unless you have a healthy vascular system.
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Source: Minding Our Elders - August 8, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Alzheimer ’s Can Dramatically Change Financial Future
Alzheimer’s organizations, as well as the National Institutes of Health, have provided us with an abundance of statistics highlighting the financial effect of Alzheimer’s disease on the family of someone with the disease. A person who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s can be expected to live with the disease anywhere from six to 20 years. For many of those years, the person with Alzheimer’s will likely require paid outside help, and the cost of that help can be financially devastating.
Read more on HealthCentral about the financial challenge of caring for someone with Alzheimer's:
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Source: Minding Our Elders - August 7, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Dad Crushed When Mom Finds New Love in Care Home
Dear Carol: My mother developed Alzheimer’s about six years ago. Dad was her primary caregiver until his health began to deteriorate. At that time, the family talked Dad into placing Mom into a good, local memory unit where she’s lived for two years. She no longer knows any of her children, or even her husband, but now she’s got a boyfriend in the nursing home. They hold hands and are together as much as possible. Dad knows that Mom’s behavior is caused by the disease, but when he visits Mom and sees them holding hands it breaks his heart. The man’s wife isn’t bothered by the rel...
Source: Minding Our Elders - August 6, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
5 Examples of How Forgiveness Can Improve a Caregiver's Life
Forgiveness, or the lack thereof, can loom large in the life of a caregiver. Forgiving doesn’t mean forgetting. That is rule number one for people to remember when they are working toward crafting better relationships with family members and others whom they care about. Forgiveness can have enormous benefits for the health of the person who does the forgiving. Considering that negative thinking can be disastrous to your own health , you may want to work toward the positive habit of forgiveness. Here are some people that you may need to forgive along with reasons why you should.
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Source: Minding Our Elders - August 5, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
10 Tips for Being a True Friend to a Family Caregiver
If you are just a casual friend to the caregiver, perhaps it's best to remain that way. Still, some of you really care about your caregiving friend and want to help, but you don't know how. The following tips may give your some insight into what you can do to help your friend as he or she takes care of their elderly loved one. (Remember to take this as general advice since every caregiver and every care situation is unique.)
Read more on Agingcare about how to be a good friend to a caregiver:
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Source: Minding Our Elders - August 4, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Are New Beginnings Possible for Caregivers?
You're in a rut. The awareness may begin with a birthday, a seasonal change, an event or a new year. Whatever the reason, the sameness of each day in your life as a caregiver can, at times, seem overwhelming and permanent. Yes, you have adrenaline rushes when your loved one has an emergency. Yes, you have frequent medical updates and experience other changes in your loved one's care. But what about you? What about your need, as a caregiver, to look forward to something fresh in your own life every once in a while?
Read more on Agingcare about ways to get your life back on track:
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Source: Minding Our Elders - August 3, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Till Death Do They Part: Why Many Long-Married Couples Often Die Close Together
My first exposure to this phenomenon happened when my parents were in a nursing home. I visited daily and knew the staff and many of the residents. One elderly man on their floor had later stage Alzheimer's disease. His wife of many decades visited him at least once a day until she was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer. Even during the worst of her treatment, she visited as often as she could. Then, she died.
Read more on Agingcare about long-married couples and why they may die close together:
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“I hold onto your book as a li...
Source: Minding Our Elders - August 2, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Till Death Do They Part: Why Long-Married Couples Often Die Close Together
My first exposure to this phenomenon happened when my parents were in a nursing home. I visited daily and knew the staff and many of the residents. One elderly man on their floor had later stage Alzheimer's disease. His wife of many decades visited him at least once a day until she was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer. Even during the worst of her treatment, she visited as often as she could. Then, she died.
Read more on Agingcare about long-married couples and why they may die close together:
Purchase Minding Our Elders: Caregivers Share Their Personal Stories – paperback or ebook
“I hold onto your book as a li...
Source: Minding Our Elders - August 2, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Care or Cure: Where Should Alzheimer's Funding Go?
When you hear the next plea for increased Alzheimer’s funding – and you’ll hear a lot of it during the upcoming Alzheimer’s Awareness months, both global and national – your first thought will likely be that the money should go into to find a cure. However, people who already have the disease, as well as those who care for them, may disagree. A recent survey showed that these people feel that more financial resources should be dedicated to helping them live life with some quality.
Read more on HealthCentral about the different types of help needed in fighting Alzheimer's:
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Source: Minding Our Elders - August 1, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
People with Dementia Find Renewed Confidence While Playing in Orchestra
Alzheimer’s is a global issue that is on track to bankrupt worldwide health systems if a cure is not found. Therefore, funding for research is paramount, not just for those who have the disease but for future generations, as well. However, large numbers of the people who have Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia at this time are trying to make the point that it is equally important to put imagination, research and funding into how to care for those who already have this incurable disease.
Read more on HealthCentral about how playing in an orchestra has helped people coping with Alzheimer's:
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Source: Minding Our Elders - July 31, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Some Caregivers Are Also Elders: The Challenges of Caring for the Very Old
Dear Carol: I am the last surviving child of my nearly 94-year-old mother who insists on living in her own home. She’s in relatively good health for 94. I don’t have a problem with her in her staying in her home except that she expects me to be there for hours every day and at the drop of a hat at night. She won’t accept hired help. I am in my 70s and widowed. A woman friend of mine and I have dreamed of taking a cruise but I can’t go because of my mother. I never talk with her about this because I don’t want to hurt her, but is this what loving our parents is about? I have some health problems of my own, and som...
Source: Minding Our Elders - July 30, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Ethnic Groups Vary in Susceptibility to Alzheimer's Disease
Studies show that many diseases affect ethnic groups differently, with a larger percentage of some groups than others expected to develop these diseases over time. Recently, the first ever study to expand its research with dementia, particularly Alzheimer's, beyond the Black and Caucasian communities has published data that should make us all pay attention.
Read more on HealthCentral about how ethnic groups can vary in susceptibility to AD:
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Source: Minding Our Elders - July 29, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Don ’t Judge a Book by Its Cover: Aging Bodies Often House Strong Minds
Adult children are right to be aware of their parents’ physical and mental changes since there’s no way to stop the aging process. However, as a columnist on caregiving and a forum moderator, I’m seeing something very scary happening far too often. Ageism is overtaking common sense and respect. The fact that someone is over 65, and perhaps has arthritis and controlled high blood pressure, does not make this person cognitively unstable.
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Source: Minding Our Elders - July 28, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
UK Reporter Chronicles Dementia Awareness Course: Calls It a “Taste of Hell”
The saying that we can’t really understand another person’s experience until we’ve “walked in their shoes,” has always felt right to me. Intelligent people can be educated to the brim and be able to give excellent book advice. However, it frequently takes someone who has endured an experience similar to ours in order to make us feel thoroughly understood. This is where real hands on advice differs from advice in the abstract.
Read more about dementia awareness training on HealthCentral:
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Source: Minding Our Elders - July 27, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Caregiving Rewards Can Outlast Challenges
Caregivers of elderly or disabled loved ones work hard. There’s no getting around the sacrifices of time, energy, private life and often financial wellbeing that caregivers, be it family or professional, often make. However, the rewards that accompany this self-sacrifice can be priceless.
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Global Alzheimer’s Study Now Enrolling
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Source: Minding Our Elders - July 26, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
