Portland Seniors’ Alcohol Abuse

Portland Home Care - Guardian Angel Caregivers in Portland OR gives family members tips on helping yourself be a better family caregiver. If you need help caring for an elder or senior in your family, please call us at (503) 698-2020.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to seniors or senior care experts that drinking too much alcohol is bad for older adults, but studies also show that moderate amounts can have its benefits. It’s crucial to a senior’s health and well-being that home care experts and family caregivers understand both the positive and negatives for alcohol consumption to ensure that the senior receives only the highest level of elder care. Medical professionals cannot always readily detect alcohol abuse in a senior, but those providing home care are in a position to understand a senior’s routines and help encourage positive actions.

Positives
• Health benefits may exist for older adults who consume one alcoholic beverage per day if they are female, or up to two drinks as males
• Heart disease – those 50 and older who drink alcohol in moderation are less likely to have heart attacks or face premature death than those who drink heavily or abstain completely
• Diabetes – alcohol helps improves insulin sensitivity
• Dementia – moderate consumption of wine (not beer) reduces the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia
• Psychosocial Effects – moderate alcohol consumption increases social interactions, health related quality of life and survival
• Nutrition – alcohol with meals can help increase a senior’s appetite and helps them consume the calories and nutrients needed

Negatives
• Blood alcohol levels increase more quickly in older adults
• Excessive consumption of alcohol can cause issues with balance, a decline in short-term memory, worsening of existing health problems and cause negative interactions with medications
• Not easily detected – the medical profession has not yet grown substantially concerned about the effects of alcohol upon senior care.

Portland Caregiving for Elderly Parents

Portland Home Care - Guardian Angel Caregivers in Portland OR gives family members tips on helping yourself be a better family caregiver. If you need help caring for an elder or senior in your family, please call us at (503) 698-2020.

Just a few years ago, workers were likely to need time away from work for parent-teacher conferences, running kids to medical appointments, and staying home to nurse sick children.

Today, workers are more likely to miss work because of the needs of their parents. “Elder care has begun to rival child care as a workplace issue, and companies have started to realize that such support props up not just workers but also the bottom line,” according to the Dallas Morning News.

The National Alliance for Caregiving estimates that one in six American workers cares for an older relative. Caregiving usually adds 18 hours to the 40 hours most workers clock at the office. That means that those workers are working a job-and-a-half. Some companies are now hiring geriatric care managers as resources for employees bewildered by the demands of parents who are no longer capable of living independently. Estimates are that one in five caregivers quits or looks for a less demanding job. And that makes businesses’ responsiveness to employees’ caregiving needs more than a nice thing to do; it makes it an essential thing to do.

Poverty and Our Elderly

Portland Home Care - Guardian Angel Caregivers in Portland OR gives family members tips on helping yourself be a better family caregiver. If you need help caring for an elder or senior in your family, please call us at (503) 698-2020.

At least five million people aged 65 and over remain in poverty, since costs are rising significantly faster than the annual Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA).

Between 2001 and 2008, Medicare Part B premiums will have soared by more than 93 percent while the COLA will have crept up just 19 percent, leaving many seniors on their own to cover all other rising costs. Part B premiums cover doctors’ visits, tests, and outpatient hospital care.

Although the COLA is intended to help seniors keep up with inflation, a recent study by The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) that analyzed eight key expenditures found that people 65 and over have lost 40 percent of their buying power since 2000. Expenses such as home heating oil and gasoline have more than doubled since the beginning of the decade, while food staples such as potatoes and butter have increased by 47 and 39 percent, respectively.

A majority of the 48 million Americans aged 65 and over who receive a Social Security check depend on it for at least 50 percent of their total income, and one in three beneficiaries relies on it for 90 percent or more of their total income.

Source: www.HealthNewsDigest.com

Senior Depression

Portland Home Care - Guardian Angel Caregivers in Portland OR gives family members tips on helping yourself be a better family caregiver. If you need help caring for an elder or senior in your family, please call us at (503) 698-2020.

Depression and Seniors

Depression is a dark cloud that hovers over the heads of many seniors. As they get older, they are forced to deal with many changes in lifestyle, cope with their declining health, and watch while important people in their lives pass away. Recent studies also show that certain medical conditions can onset depression, and depression in itself can cause serious health issues in older adults.

People suffering from heart attacks and heart disease fall into both of the above categories; studies show that depressed people newly- diagnosed with heart disease are twice as likely to have a heart attack or require bypass surgery. Unfortunately, according to a John Hopkins study people who are depressed are more likely to have a heart attack in the next fourteen years, and are four times more likely to die within six months than those who are not depressed.

Depression has links to diabetes and cancer as well. 84% of diabetics have reported depressive episodes, while many were treated for depression six months before their diabetic diagnosis was made. A National Institute of Aging Study has found that the chronically depressed are 88% more likely of developing cancer at some point during their lives.

Depression is a major issue when it comes to the home health of seniors; it truly is a killer that impacts the mortality of older adults and must be treated as seriously as any other chronic disease.

Sources: http://www.mcmanweb.com/perfect_storm.html
http://seniorhealth.about.com/cs/mentalhealth/a/depression_2.htm
http://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/detecting-depression

Decline in Nursing Home Population

Portland Home Care - Guardian Angel Caregivers in Portland OR gives family members tips on helping yourself be a better family caregiver. If you need help caring for an elder or senior in your family, please call us at (503) 698-2020.

Decline in nursing home population defies conventional wisdom. Here’s why.

Over the past 20 years, a significant number of senior citizens, particularly among the “oldest old” – persons 85 and older – have been choosing to stay in their homes rather than move to nursing homes, according to a new study by The Lewin Group.

Several trends contribute to the decline:

• Disability rates among seniors declined between 1984-1999, and the poverty rate declined as well, giving seniors more care choices.
• The average stay in nursing homes declined from 2.9 years in 1985 to 2.4 years in 2004 because of changes in Medicare and other forces.
• Alternatives to nursing homes continue to be developed, such as assisted living and home-based services.
• Long Term Care insurance is increasingly available. Today, 10 percent of persons 65+ own an LTC policy. In the ‘80s, virtually none did.
• States are providing more home and community-based services.

Read the entire report here: www.lewin.com.

Prostrate Cancer in Men Over Fifty

Rates of prostate cancer vary widely across the world. Although the rates vary widely between countries, it is least common in South and East Asia, more common in Europe, and most common in the United States. According to the American Cancer Society, prostate cancer is least common among Asian men and most common among black men, with figures for white men in-between. However, these high rates may be affected by increasing rates of detection.

Prostate cancer develops most frequently in men over fifty. This cancer can occur only in men, as the prostate is exclusively of the male reproductive tract. It is the most common type of cancer in men in the United States, where it is responsible for more male deaths than any other cancer, except lung cancer. In the UK it is also the second most common cause of cancer death after lung cancer. Around 35,000 men in the UK are diagnosed per year; where around 10,000 die of it. However, many men who develop prostate cancer never have symptoms, undergo no therapy, and eventually die of other causes. That is because malignant neoplasms of the prostate are, in most cases, slow-growing, and because most of those affected are over 60. Hence they often die of causes unrelated to the prostate cancer, such as heart/circulatory disease, pneumonia, other unconnected cancers or old age. Many factors, including genetics and diet, have been implicated in the development of prostate cancer. A 2008 study found that finasteride reduces the incidence of prostate cancer rate by 30%.

Overview of Prostrate Cancer