My sister made her end-of-life wishes clear. Then dementia took hold

Before my sister was struck by frontotemporal dementia, her wishes were very clear.

No feeding tube or breathing machine if she became profoundly incapacitated, without the prospect of recovery. No aggressive life-sustaining measures.

And she wanted to stay in her home, all the way through.

But that was then, when the prospect of becoming infirm was abstract. When illness descended, my sister changed. And I found myself wondering whose wishes we should respect. My sister, as she had been? Or my sister, as she was now?

The Three Biggest Mistakes Caregivers Make

In the seven years that my wife and I served as caregivers to her mother, we made many mistakes. Some of those I know were detrimental to my mother-in-law and some to the whole family. For example, we moved her 4 times in that short period: to a retirement community, then to an apartment, then to a long term care facility near us, and then to another facility that provided better care at a lower price that was near my wife’s sister.

Donald Trump's Plan To Support Family Caregivers

Early in the presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton proposed a package of ideas aimed at helping adult children who care for aging parents and other relatives. Yesterday, Donald Trump embraced  a similar idea. Family caregiving, it seems, is going mainstream.

It is striking that both Clinton and Trump are talking about an issue that until now has flown far below the political radar.  Best I can tell, this is the first time any major party candidate for president, let alone both, has proposed ways to help caregivers.

A Salute to America’s Elder Care Workers

Back in April, at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., a motley group of social scientists, researchers, artists and activists convened to discuss the value of the work of our nation’s “maintainers.” They’re the unheralded bunch who don’t get showered with attention as innovators (think Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg) do.

To make his point, Lee Vinsel, a conference organizer and an assistant professor at Stevens, argued that the world needs more Mary Poppins. The famed nanny’s story, Vinsel believes, “asserts that the most important thing in life is an ethics of care, that we can only see the world with clear eyes if we choose to value one another, and that an essential way of doing this is by undertaking underappreciated and undervalued mundane, ordinary labor.”

Why CMS Should Reward Agencies for ‘Family Centered’ Home Health

Recognizing and supporting the role of family caregivers may be a way home health agencies can strengthen the current concerning state of care for older adults in the United States, according to a recent report from The National Academics of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. This should include revising Medicare to provide more reimbursement for involving family caregivers, the report authors assert.

The 297-page report, Families Caring for an Aging America, was compiled over the last two years and released today with support from 15 sponsors by an expert committee from The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

The National Family Caregiver Support Program: Recognizing Family Caregivers as Consumers in Their Own Right

A recent study on the pioneering National Family Caregiver Support Program finds that over the past 15 years, the program has accelerated the development of local services and supports to help caregiving families. This is good news; before the NFCSP became law, only half the states reported providing respite care — one of the most pressing needs of families and friends who take on the caregiving role.  That has begun to change, although greater progress needs to be made.

Preventing Alzheimer’s Disease Is Easier Than You Think

Do you have Insulin Resistance?

If you don’t know, you’re not alone. This is perhaps the single most important question any of us can ask about our physical and mental health—yet most patients, and even many doctors, don’t know how to answer it.

Here in the U.S., insulin resistance has reached epidemic proportions: more than half of us are now insulin resistant. Insulin resistance is a hormonal condition that sets the stage throughout the body for inflammation and overgrowth, disrupts normal cholesterol and fat metabolism, and gradually destroys our ability to process carbohydrates.

Dementia prevention study underway as researchers examine links to brain training, mindfulness

Ben Isbel, from the Sunshine Coast Mind and Neuroscience Thompson Institute at the University of the Sunshine Coast, is overseeing the world-first study.

Mr Isbel said the study assessed whether attention training programs improved cognitive function, such as attention and memory — specifically in healthy, older adults.

"There have been quite a few studies using the kind of technology we are using but realistically, they've all been done on a younger population," he said.

Editor’s Take: Documentary Focuses on Plight of Home Caregivers

Rising minimum wage levels have come to the forefront of American politics this year, with the Fight for $15 per hour taking center stage across numerous industries. Home care workers are one of those industries where on-the-ground activism has led to a big payoff—but only in some areas of the country.

For the vast majority of Americans working minimum and low-wage jobs, not much has changed. It’s a topic I report on often, but I haven’t had the opportunity to see what home care wages really look like, until I recently viewed a documentary focusing on the home care workers’ perspective. As home care workers continue to band together to push for higher wages, a recently released documentary portrays the lives and hardships of caregivers who take care of seniors at home.

A New Angle on Alzheimer’s Disease: The Inflammation Connection

Our understanding of diseases often follows a predictable journey. First, we begin to understand that a group of symptoms occur together. For example, we know that a sore throat can occur with cough and fever. Next, we learn to split hairs, separating disorders that appear similar but have different causes and courses. The sore throat with fever, cough, difficulty swallowing, and white spots on the tonsils is not like the one that doesn’t have these extra features. We often learn about the disease’s course before we know what causes the disease. In the case of the more severe sore throat, its potential for leaving serious heart damage was understood before its cause, strep infection, was made possible by advances in diagnostic techniques. Once a cause is known, researchers may be able to design a specific treatment, but not always. We know the antibiotics that are likely to defeat strep throat, but we still have no cure for the more common viral sore throat.

Love and Burnout: Caregivers, Too, Need Care

AFTER Mark Donham’s wife, Chris, fell under the spell of early-onset Alzheimer’s, he doubled down on his marriage vows. He quit his job as a well-paid sales representative in the printing industry and became his wife’s 24-hour caregiver: dressing her, doing laundry and scheduling social visits with friends. Faith, hope and courage became his new mantra.

As Alzheimer’s slowly progressed and Chris became frailer, their lives narrowed. To explain their painful emotional journey to friends and family, Mr. Donham, who lives in Portland, Ore., began making videos and posting them on YouTube.

Alzheimer's: New drug that halts mental decline is 'best news for dementia in 25 years'

The first drug that can prevent Alzheimer’s disease is finally on the horizon after scientists proved they can clear the sticky plaques from the brain which cause dementia and halt mental decline.

Hailed as the "best news" in dementia research for 25 years, the breakthrough is said to be a potential "game changer" for people with Alzheimer’s.