Tai chi chih, a Westernized offshoot of tai chi, has been proven to help insomnia sufferers. A recent
Reuters article claims that practicing light exercise 20 - 30 minutes a day can improve your sleeping habits:
"Nearly two-thirds of people who learned the slow, gentle tai chi chih moves experienced significant improvements in sleep quality, compared to about one-th…
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Added by Hayley on July 9, 2008 at 12:40pm —
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I have a hard time sleeping. Some nights it takes me hours to get to sleep; other nights I fall asleep almost instantly only to wake up in the early morning. If I'm lucky (which I am very often not), I can have two or three hours of unbroken sleep in a night. Otherwise, I wake up constantly and am often awake for extended periods of time.
The sleeping pill market is thriving these days, thanks to the increased media focus on Ambien, the slew of over-the-counter diphenhydramine-based tablets (Si…
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Added by Hayley on July 9, 2008 at 10:23am —
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In my quest to find more information on Alzheimer's caregiving, I've come across a great deal of information on the Sandwich Generation—those adult caregivers who are "sandwiched" between their children and aging parents. I was recently reading a
BlogHer post by Nordette entitled
Life as a Sandwich Generation Mom. In her post, she discusses how the appearance of a black snake disrupted her day…
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Added by Hayley on June 26, 2008 at 3:55pm —
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The
Alzheimer's Notes blog has posted an interesting
video to a Virtual Dementia Tour. Through this, you can "experience" Alzheimer's. It's a promotional video for a kit from the
Second Wind Dreams website designed to help medical professionals and caregivers to better empathize with their patients. According to t…
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Added by Hayley on June 26, 2008 at 11:56am —
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Kris Bakowski of the blog
Creating Memories has written a
recent entry on the issues involved in claiming Social Security benefits. Living with early onset Alzheimer's, she says that she must rely on her husband and son to help her with both day-to-day things and bigger tasks. She writes:
"I get confused dealing with them and the insurance company that…
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Added by Hayley on June 24, 2008 at 9:30pm —
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In the event that caregiving becomes too much for a family to handle, the
Alzheimer's Caregiver Resource also has
tips for finding Alzheimer's help. Their guide provides information on how to find potential in-home aides/assistants, draw up the details of the job position and screen applicants for the job.
Among other tips, they list a number o…
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Added by Hayley on June 24, 2008 at 8:42pm —
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Managing legal and financial aspects are perhaps the most important parts of Alzheimer's planning. They ensure that a safety net is created, as well as allowing for all medical, legal and financial wishes to be fulfilled as the disease advances.
WebMD has a great
guide for financial and legal planning with tips on necessary documents, legal jargon and ways to assemble and manage assets.
The…
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Added by Hayley on June 24, 2008 at 10:53am —
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Caregiving can be an overwhelming task. The best measure against becoming too overwhelmed is to have some means of outside support. If
Alzheimer's Association support groups are not available in your area, it would be a great idea to create one of your own. The
Alzheimer's Caregiver Resource has a guide on…
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Added by Hayley on June 19, 2008 at 2:00pm —
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Early-onset Alzheimer's disease strikes only 5% - 10% of all Alzheimer's patients, yet its effects can be considered more disruptive and devastating than the more common late-onset dementia. This rare form afflicts people under the age of 65 and can be a particular problem as patients are often the midst of their careers, raising their families, or even taking care of elderly parents.
The Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, has a guide e…
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Added by Hayley on June 19, 2008 at 10:34am —
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The Family Caregiver Alliance's Alzheimer's Disease Fact Sheet has all of the most basic information that caregivers might need about Alzheimer's disease, including facts and symptoms for all three stages of Alzheimer's disease. There is also a subsection specifically aimed towards the caregiver. It includes a number of tips for caregivers in each stage o…
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Added by Hayley on June 17, 2008 at 4:46pm —
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The National Resource Center on Supportive Housing or Home Modification at USC's Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center has a great deal of information for caregivers of Alzheimer's patients. In their eight-part
resource guide, they focus mainly on the role of the environment and its effect on behavior. They offer guidelines and basic medical information for car…
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Added by Hayley on June 17, 2008 at 12:33pm —
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I'm a new intern at WEGO Health, and I thought I'd say hello! I'm a Boston–based undergraduate student only six months shy of graduation.
I'm new to this community but not new to healthcare. I worked in a nursing home/rehabilitation facility in New York for two years. Throughout my time there, I came in contact with a number of residents with a wide range of health problems. The most common issues were that of mobility and mental deterioration.
I saw a number of residents in various stages of…
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Added by Hayley on June 5, 2008 at 3:30pm —
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