Living Well Blog

‘Health & Wellness’ Posts

How to Best Help Alzheimer’s Caregivers? Teach Them Mindfulness!

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012

Marguerite Manteau-Rao warn us about caregivers’ burn out. She says on the Huffington Post: “…For the 15 million in this country who are caring for a loved one with dementia*, this is what life is like — according to the Alzheimer’s Association 2012 Report:

  • 61 percent of dementia caregivers suffer from high emotional stress
  • 33 percent report symptoms of depression
  • They experience caregiving strain regarding financial issues (56 percent), and family issues (53 percent).
  • 43 percent experience high physical stress
  • 75 percent are concerned about maintaining their health.
  • Dementia caregivers are more likely to have adverse physiological changes such as high levels of stress hormones, reduced immune function, increased hypertension, coronary heart disease.
  • 37 percent rate stress as their greatest difficulty.
  • In the last year of their loved one’s life, 59 percent feel they are on duty 24 hours a day.
  • 72 percent of caregivers express relief after their loved ones die.

Read more

Monitoring Your Health With Mobile Devices

Tuesday, March 13th, 2012

By PETER WAYNER Published: February 22, 2012 in the NY Times
Dr. Eric Topol is only half joking when he says the smartphone is the future of medicine — because most of his patients already seem “surgically connected” to one.

But he says in all seriousness that the smartphone will be a sensor that will help people take better control of their health by tracking it with increasing precision. His book, “The Creative Destruction of Medicine,” lays out his vision for how people will start running common medical tests, skipping office visits and sharing their data with people other than their physicians. Dr. Topol, a cardiologist and director of Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jolla, Calif., is already seeing signs of this as companies find ways to hook medical devices to the computing power of smartphones. Devices to measure blood pressure, monitor blood sugar, hear heartbeats and chart heart activity are already in the hands of patients. Read the NY Times article

Bringing Health Care Home

Monday, December 5th, 2011

Jesse Lefkowitz, NY Times

An article on the New York Time state that “…patients who are treated at home by a doctor and nursing staff who know them intimately and can be available 24/7 are happier and healthier. This kind of care decreases the infections, mistakes and delirium, which, especially among the elderly, are the attendants of hospital care. And it is far more efficient. According to a 2002 study, for the patients treated by the Veterans Affairs’ Home Based Primary Care program, the number of days spent in hospitals and nursing homes was cut by 62 percent and 88 percent, respectively, and total health care costs dropped 24 percent… The fact that this care is possible at home means that the role of hospitals must change. Acutely ill patients who need operating rooms or intensive care will still be brought to hospitals. But they should be quickly discharged to the care of the doctors and nurses who know them best”
Read the article

Dangers of Common Painkillers: There’s mounting evidence that regular use is risky for older people

Monday, October 17th, 2011

A recent article on AARP states that “…Most of us don’t think twice about taking a nonprescription pain reliever to ease a headache or soreness that might follow a game of tennis, but there is growing evidence that commonly used painkillers such as Advil can trigger heart attacks or strokes in some people.” Read the article and read about some drug free alternatives to pain management.

Essential Checklist for Good Dementia Care

Friday, September 30th, 2011

Marguerite Manteau-Rao, LCSW, ATR, Mindful living advocate, Memory care consultant, published on the Huffington Post The Essential Checklist for Good Dementia Care. She shares the work of Jane Verity’s about the 5 universal needs to be an essential framework for good care of people with Dementia. These unmet emotional needs are:

  1. To be needed and useful
  2. To have opportunity to care
  3. To love and be loved
  4. To have self-esteem boosted
  5. To have the power to choose

Read the article

Secrets our Loved Ones hide and How Gero-Technology can help….

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

GrandCare SystemsWhen it comes to care for our loved ones, we worry about falls, their being alone and injured, time response to a crisis and most of the times, our alternative is moving them to an institution. Living Well Assisted Living at Home believes that there are options to give choices to the elders and peace of mind to the family members. Aging.com reported on 10 secrets that our aging parents keeps from us and some ways to deal with and approach them. I couldn’t help but think of all sorts of technology solutions (remote monitoring like GrandCare, Internet technology, etc.) that could assist in dealing with these 10 “secrets” shared in the story. Of course, technology is only one piece to the puzzle. Read More

The Cognistat web seminar

Saturday, June 18th, 2011

Tuesday, June 28, 2011 | 12:00 PM Pacific / 1:00 PM Mountain / 2:00 PM Central / 3:00 PM Eastern

We are entering an era in which an increasing percentage of the US population will be older than retirement age. These older adults will bring a renewed focus to brain and body fitness, including access to quality medical screening and diagnosis.  Cognitive assessment is a critical component of both brain fitness and medical management, and proper assessment tools are essential. A seminar that examines specific needs of an aging population, as well as five major areas of cognition. Available methods of cognitive assessment will be explored, along with the design of one of these methods: the Cognistat Assessment System.

Learn more.