Elder Care Cafe

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Happy Second Birthday

WOW! as my grandson frequently says. In the busyness of our life this month, I forgot to celebrate Elder Care Cafe’s 2nd birthday. How could I forget such an important milestone after last year’s fabulous party.

Elder Care Cafe officially opened for business on August 3, 2008 and we have come a long way since then. We now have almost 400 posts and are currently upgrading the site as we continue to provide what we hope is valuable information regarding elder care and care giving. [Read more →]

Rheumatoid arthritis is a debilitating and devastating illness, but you can do some things to reduce the pain and fatigue, including developing a proper diet plan. For example, fatty foods can exacerbate the effects of rheumatoid arthritis as can foods that promote weight gain – sugars and breads.

Trial and error might be in order to pinpoint some foods that might be causing flare-ups of rheumatoid arthritis. Then, you can eliminate them as needed. Here are some types of foods to avoid and some to include in a diet that may ease pain, stiffness and tiredness: [Read more →]

Osteoporosis is likely to affect men over 70 and women over 50 and can result in serious and life-changing fractures if not treated. Osteoporosis occurs when calcium and phosphate leave the bones and are reabsorbed in the body, leaving the bones thinner and weaker. Osteoporosis in women is sometimes caused by an estrogen shortage during menopause and in men – a drop in testosterone.

Fragile bones eventually result in a fracture of some type, and when the disease is in the later stages, those fractures can be very serious. Fractures in seniors can lead to extreme pain and loss of mobility as well as negative changes in lifestyle. Even after the fractures heal, pain may remain and the issue then is to try and cope with it as much as possible. [Read more →]

If you’ve recently been diagnosed with osteoarthritis, you may be feeling isolated and frustrated. Osteoarthritis can drastically upturn your lifestyle by making you feel like the disease is running you and that you’ve lost control. There are ways to manage the pain and restrictions that come with this debilitating ailment – and the first step is attitude.

Educating yourself about osteoarthritis and what you can do to maintain a positive attitude and develop a plan to keep it from interfering too much with your lifestyle can greatly reduce the impact that this diagnosis has in your life. Besides talking with your health care provider about medications to control the pain and restrictions, talk to her about a plan for your everyday life. When you take charge of the situation, your attitude and outlook should improve. [Read more →]

The longer we live, the more likely we are to suffer life-changing situations and grief in our lives that might bring on bouts of depression. We’re more vulnerable to changes and sometimes don’t have the energy or the money or any other means to change situations that happen to upend our lives.

Most elderly depression occurs when there is separation or loss. There’s a feeling of helplessness – especially if aging leads to poverty and isolation. Even a bout of bad weather may cause depression if an elderly person feels “stuck.” The elderly are certainly more vulnerable than the rest of the population and as physical and environmental changes lead to isolation, depression may occur. [Read more →]

Attacks of gout occur when uric acid accumulates in the joints. Gout is a type of arthritis that is extremely painful and may affect one or more joints. Joints affected are usually in the lower extremities such as the big toes, ankles or knees and the onset of pain is sudden and excruciating. Some attacks of gout may be accompanied by a fever and the affected joint may turn red and feel hot to the touch.

The length of a gout attack may last a short amount of time (a day or two), but as time goes by and attacks are more frequent, they may last for longer periods of time. If you have one gout attack, chances are good that others will follow – and eventually, you might develop chronic gouty arthritis, which means that you may lose some motion in the affected joint(s). [Read more →]

Although summer is winding down, there are still plenty of daylight hours left especially in the southern states. Many people, particularly aging seniors, are not aware how easy it is to get skin cancer. My mother spent a lot of time outdoors all her life, and in her later years developed skin cancer on her face. She had about a Nichol-size circle taken off her cheek near her nose and mouth when she was in her sixties that proved to be cancerous. Fortunately, they were able to remove all the cancer.

Your skin type is the best barometer of whether or not you may be susceptible to skin cancer. People who are light-skinned are more likely to get sunburned and run the risk of developing skin cancer, specifically melanoma. But, tanning also causes skin damage and can increase your risks of the disease. [Read more →]

Mealtimes can sometimes be one of the most difficult aspects of caring for someone who has Alzheimer’s or dementia. Among the many challenges the disease can cause are the loss of interest in food, having a poor appetite or the lack of desire to eat, forgetting to eat, or that they have already eaten. One of the most difficult aspect to handle as a caregiver of a loved one is when they forget how to eat.

We all know how important proper nutrition is to our body and our mind. We need to do all we can to help our loved one continue to eat the right foods on a fairly consistent basis. Here are a few tips to help ensure your loved one continues to follow a healthy living plan and to make their mealtimes a little easier. [Read more →]

Trying to manage the care of your aging parents can be difficult in the best of circumstances. When you live many miles away, it becomes much more problematic to keep an eye on how they are doing. At some point in time, you will probably decide you need to see for yourself just what your parent(s) needs in the way of physical and emotional care. Hopefully, these suggestions will give you an idea on how to proceed. [Read more →]

In today’s society, many adult children live quite a number of miles from their aging parents. When you live miles away from a parent who has a debilitating disease such as dementia or Alzheimer’s, the ability to care for your parent becomes much more complicated. You may have concerns about their nutrition, safety, and overall health that cannot be addressed unless you have someone who lives near them that can report back to you. [Read more →]

We discussed in part one of this article how planning a structured day can help give substance and meaning to the life of someone who is struggling with Alzheimer’s or dementia. In part two we discussed how to approach each day. If your loved one awakes in the morning with little or no structure they may just drift throughout the day until it is time to go to bed.

This article will help you more specifically plan your day.

When you have a plan in place, you can spend less time and energy trying to figure out what to do from one moment to the next. Having a loose outline each day, or even by the week, can help you build in creativity as well as structure. Then you can fill in the blanks each evening or morning with more detail, or even set aside a time once a week to look over your plans for the next week. [Read more →]

We discussed in Part 1 of this series how having a structured day can help give substance and meaning to the life of someone who is struggling with Alzheimer’s or any other form of dementia. If they awake in the morning with little or no structure they may just drift throughout the day until it is time to go to bed.

By planning their day with some sort of structure including scheduled activities, the caregiver or family member can assure a much more normal existence for their loved one. Care must be taken as to how you approach the activities so that you can bring meaning, purpose, joy, and hope into their life.

How you approach the day-to-day activities can bring much need stability to your loved one’s life. Here are a few ideas that will help you plan your approach each day. [Read more →]

For those who are struggling with Alzheimer’s or dementia, having a somewhat structured day can help give substance and meaning to their life. If they awoke in the morning and there was no or very little structure throughout the day, they would drift like an unmoored boat until time to go to bed.

Planning and providing activities from daily grooming to tasks and hobbies, thus having a well-planned day, can give purpose and meaning to his or her life. Having something to do throughout the day also helps the day go by faster for both the Alzheimer’s patient and his or her caregiver.

There are several key areas to focus on when planning activities for the day. Here are a number of thoughts to keep in mind as you plan their daily activities. [Read more →]

One of the devastating results of Alzheimer’s disease or related types of dementia is that it gradually diminishes a person’s ability to communicate. If you suspect that you or your loved one might be showing signs of Alzheimer’s or dementia see your doctor right away. The sooner the disease is diagnosed, the sooner you and your family can plan for care and treatment.

People with any form of dementia have more difficulty expressing thoughts and emotions than what is considered normal. They also have more trouble understanding others. We have some tips to help you and your loved one better understand each other when dementia is present. [Read more →]

According to a report released earlier this year, the answer is no. The report also disputed the notion that high priced supplements or exotic herbs can also prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. In fact, no one has yet found a way to prevent the disease or slow mild cognitive decline.

The high cost of hope

Unfortunately, there are many people who believe the hype that there are products already on the market that will prevent their loved one or themselves from losing their memory due to dementia-related illnesses including Alzheimer’s. Herbal products such as Ginkgo Bilbao are popular as are vitamins, consuming large amounts of coffee, eating certain kinds of food or taking any number and kind of pill. According to an independent panel assembled for the National Institutes of Health State-of-Science Conference, those measures do not work. [Read more →]