My mother passed away in 2011, but the last Mother's Day we truly spent together was several years before that. Alzheimer's took my mother, Amanda Ros, from us well before her death. She was born in Cuba and married my father, Enrique, at the age of 19. Her 84-year journey was vibrant, but with a degenerative disease like Alzheimer's, the memories of her cherished role as matriarch of our family were stolen from her in her final years.
The Root of Alzheimer's: Could Infection and Inflammation be Part of the Equation?
A number of researchers think that it’s time to re-consider the idea of infection as a root cause of Alzheimer's disease. These scientists point to studies that reveal the presence of a microbe that is eventually activated by a stressor, thus causing inflammation which could possibly trigger the disease. Even though there have been many studies supporting their theory over the years, these scientists don't feel that they are being heard. An editorial in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease compares this lack of acceptance of an alternative to the most popular theory to historic controversies related to other diseases.
Aging in Place
When I asked the other three members of my walking group, all of whom are in their mid to upper 70s, whether they had any concerns about future living arrangements, they each said they had none despite the fact that, like me, they live in multistory private homes without elevators and, in two cases, without bathrooms on every floor.
My Los Angeles son asked recently what I might do if I could no longer live in my house, and I flippantly replied, “I’m coming to live with you.” The advantages: I’d be surrounded by a loving and supportive family, and the warm weather is a benefit for someone like me who becomes increasingly intolerant of the cold with each passing year. The disadvantages: I’d lose a familiar community and a host of friends, and his house, unlike mine, is on a steep hill with no nearby stores; if I could no longer drive, I’d have to be chauffeured everywhere.
Advice for Alzheimer’s Caregivers
Alzheimer’s not only alters the lives of people with the disease but also the lives of those who care for them. The journey can be just as emotionally and physically demanding for caregivers, but that mental and physical stress is often overlooked because the focus is on the patient.
When Geri Taylor, 72, learned she had Alzheimer’s, her husband, Jim, became “uncommunicative for two weeks,” he said. Then they sat together, talked it through and planned out their next steps, they told N. R. Kleinfield of The New York Times in his article “Fraying at the Edges.” The disease, in an unexpected way, strengthened their marriage, Mr. Taylor said.
Family caregivers need responsiveness from policy makers
It’s nine years since I helped my dad with elder care, and I’m sorry to see not much has changed for the working family caregiver. The comprehensive policy, the Family and Medical Leave Act dialogue has picked up a bit, but it has lots of room for growth. It especially needs to address the home and community-based deliveries of care.
It’s a widespread concern for everyone with a parent or aging relative, so as far as I know, that includes every living soul. My family’s caregiving days began in 1998 when our mother developed heart disease, and her health failed. The siblings pitched in to help. It wasn’t easy since each one worked full-time outside the home. The same demands rest on other families today.
What ‘In Sickness and In Health’ Really Looks Like
“For better for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.” These vows are repeated hundreds of times a year, in front of thousands of witnesses, to represent a binding contract between husband and wife. The beauty is when these words ring true — 63 years later.
Frank and Mary Jo Havlak are the focus in a New York Times Op-Doc series by filmmaker Joe Callander. The Havlaks have been married for almost 63 years, but for the last eight, Mary Jo has suffered from Alzheimer’s. Her memory of weddings, graduations and holidays is gone, but this has not deterred Frank from holding on to that commitment he made to her all those years ago.
You know those caregivers who keep it all together? Despite the responsibilities and challenges of caregiving, they still have time to pursue their own interests and they make time for friends, fun, and even fitness. How do they do it?
In talking to working daughters all across the country, I’ve observed that successful, happy caregivers do some things differently than most caregivers.
The Truth About Long Term Care And Why You Must Talk About It
Could you imagine a time that your aging parents were no longer independent? They are probably not going to bring up that question. It might be the conversation no one wants to have. Will you, the adult child take on that task? What we see at AgingParents.com is that when no one talks about it, the sudden costs can overwhelm all but the most financially secure. Parents are unprepared and their adult children become very uncomfortable with the prospect of having to help support their aging loved ones.
Sudden costs happen when a parent falls, or has a stroke and becomes disabled. Anything unexpected can trigger the need for help. Mom or Dad (or both sometimes) can’t manage alone any longer. Then the scrambling begins.
Working It Out at Your Workplace
As a working caregiver, have you found that your personal and professional lives collide? If so, you are certainly not alone! Consider that many of us will work an average 40-hour work week. As a busy caregiver, you could easily add another 20 to 25 hours on top of that tending to an aging senior’s needs and little time remains. As a means to ease that burden, employers could better recognize these challenges and make caregiving respite much easier for their own working staff. Just one idea would be to welcome their staff’s elderly parents into the workplace to receive care and support while sons and daughters are on the job. With the ever-rising number of employees trying vainly to juggle their own career and caregiving responsibilities, this change might well be in order.
Disorientation: Why It's More Devastating Than the Loss of Words Share
We try to parse diagnostic data into finer and finer distinctions, thinking the dissection will result in better care for loved ones with dementia. If only the transition from classification to intervention was that simple.
When I suggested to a friend that some of his father's behaviors could be indicative of dementia, he said, “No it’s not dementia, it’s Alzheimer’s.” He proceeded to go into a long list of diagnostic features distinguishing Alzheimer’s from other forms of dementia and memory problems associated with aging, alcoholism, and chronic sleep deprivation.
5 Signs That Someone You Love May Be A Hoarder
Smith College psychologist Randy Frost, an expert on obsessive-compulsive disorder and a pioneer in the field of compulsive hoarding, estimates there are as many as 4 million hoarders nationwide and many more who fall on the spectrum of “problematic cluttering behavior.” Hoarding is a problem that worsens with age.
Hoarding, Frost said, is associated with a number of things including difficulty processing information, the inability to make decisions when confronted with a large amount of information and a failure to categorize things — meaning you can’t see the commonality of objects and they instead all look unique to you.
8 innovators targeting the elder-care market
The longevity economy, representing all economic activity serving the needs of Americans over 50, is expected to top $13.5 trillion by 2032, according to Oxford Economics. This opportunity isn't lost on savvy entrepreneurs.
Out of a total 290 entrepreneurs who attended the annual Boomer Summit last month in Chicago, 40 percent were entrepreneurs hoping to pitch their products to potential investors and get ideas on how to best appeal to this demographic. That was twice the amount as the previous year, and for the first time, they came from many different countries.