Chances are, you never use your Grandma’s china set although you’ve schlepped it along for multiple moves because the idea of selling it feels wrong. So what do you want your kids to have — that won’t burden them the way the china set does? Here are some ideas to get you started:
Some caring for Alzheimer's patients make "startling" sacrifices
Almost half of the people caring for loved ones with Alzheimer's disease are sacrificing their own financial security to do so, and many are setting aside their own basic needs, a new nationwide survey shows.
According to the Alzheimer's Association's 2016 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures report, many caregivers put off their own medical care, sell their cars to raise money, draw from funds meant for their kids' education, and even cut back on food to support a loved one with Alzheimer's.
On average, the report found they spent more than $5,000 a year of their own money to care for someone with Alzheimer's disease, but amounts varied widely and some spent far more.
Are You Going Broke Caring for a Loved One With Dementia?
If the 15 million Americans who provide unpaid care for relatives and friends with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias received just $12.25-an-hour for their efforts, they’d have racked up more than $221 billion in 2015, according to a report out Wednesday March 30.
That’s nearly half the net value of Walmart and about eight times the total revenue of McDonald’s, according to the 2016 edition of “Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures,” compiled by the Alzheimer’s Association.
Big Financial Costs Are Part Of Alzheimer's Toll On Families
First, Alzheimer's takes a person's memory. Then it takes their family's money.
That's the central finding of a report published Wednesday by the Alzheimer's Association on the financial burden friends and families bear when they care for someone with dementia.
You Can Take These Tax Deductions for Long-Term Senior Care
Know the rules for deducting assisted living expenses.
Tax season is here, and for many seniors and family caregivers of elderly loved ones, it can be a stressful time of year. No one likes to be hit with a big tax bill, and for elderly folks living on a fixed income, keeping costs down is crucial.
For seniors, deductions for certain medical expenses, including some long-term care and assisted living expenses, are among the biggest tax-saving opportunities. And in some cases, family caregivers of older adults can include related expenses in their own tax deductions.
How Western Diet Increases the Risk of Alzheimer's Disease?
Alzheimer's disease is an irreversible, progressive brain disorder which slowly destroys memory and thinking skills. Eventually, the affected individual loses the ability to perform everyday tasks. While experts aren't quite sure what the primary cause of Alzheimer's disease is, they identified numerous factors that heighten the risk of this disease or contribute to its progression. According to the latest study, eating habits belong to this group of factors. Western diet isn't known for its health benefits and is associated with higher risks for different diseases. In this article, we're going to discuss how the Western diet is linked to Alzheimer's.
The Difficult, Delicate Untangling of Our Parents’ Financial Lives
When my in-laws became too incapacitated to handle their own affairs, my wife and I took over. A year and a half later, we’re still trying to figure it all out.
Support for vulnerable caregiving families vital
We read with immense sadness of the incarceration of the 43-year-old mother who had been driven to push her autistic son out of the window, due in part to the relapse of her depressive condition in 2014 ("Jailed for pushing autistic son out of window"; last Saturday).
Often, primary caregivers of children with moderate to severe autism face high levels of emotional, psychological and physical stress on a recurring basis.
Breaking points can be reached when there is spousal tension or family conflict, which further plays on the emotions of a vulnerable and distressed primary caregiver.
Early Onset Alzheimer’s
Alzheimer’s is a disease that many people associate with the elderly. While it is true that many people in their mid-to-late 60’s are often diagnosed, people as young as 30 have been told they have Alzheimer’s. When you’re that young, you and the people around you are probably not watching for the signs of this disease and may not even know what they are. Keep reading to discover the signs of early onset Alzheimer’s and learn how to monitor and track your health with MemTrax.
Light therapy shows promise in activating memories lost due to Alzheimer's
Researchers have successfully activated feelings from lost memories among mice genetically engineered to have early-onset Alzheimer’s disease by using a light stimulation therapy developed in 2012. Although the therapy, called optogenetics, can only be used in mice, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said the therapy could offer promise for people suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s, a condition that affects an estimated 200,000 Americans.
What Science Actually Tells Us Can Affect Our Risk Of Alzheimer's Disease
The biggest risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease are aging and genetic predisposition. That is, all of our risks go up as we get older, and those with certain genetic variants, like APOE e4, are also at heightened risk. But aside from these factors that we can’t control, there are some things that we do in the way of activities and lifestyle, which seem to affect our risk, both for better and for worse. Research has found that different factors are linked to Alzheimer’s, depending on how they influence our neurology, metabolisms, immune systems and cardiovascular systems. The caveat is that while they may not affect whether plaques and tangles accumulate in our brains, they may at least affect the speed with which they do, the age at which they do and our ability to cope with them.
Exercise can cut risk of Alzheimer's, say new studies
Two new studies published Friday in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease have shown the beneficial effects of exercise in the prevention of Alzheimer's disease.
Both studies were conducted by researchers from the UCLA Medical Center and the University of Pittsburgh. Led by Cyrus Raji, the team looked at 876 patients with an average age of 78 who were taking part in the Cardiovascular Health Study, which took place over a 30-year period and across four different research sites in the U.S.