Hands to Help Seniors

The Alzheimer's Association is hosting "Age Related Memory: A brief discussion about natural changes occurring in the brain while growing older and wiser" as part of its "Memory Café" series.  This will take place at the Monterey Public Library on Tuesday, May 12 from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m.  Speaker Nan Heflin is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with over 25 years of experience working with older adults and the families and friends who take care of them.  To get more information or RSVP for this free workshop, call 1-800-272-3900.

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Millions of people have difficulty falling asleep and staying sleep.  However, Richard Share, Ph.D., the founder of Sleep Easily LLC believes there are ways that people can sleep better without the use of pills.  Sleep disturbances have found to be correlated with an increase in motor vehicle crashes, fatigue-related errors, heart attacks, diabetes, pain, stress, anxiety, depression, irritability and weight gain.  Researchers have found that being awake after 18 hours is the equivalent cognitive impairment as drinking two beers.  After 24 hours of being awake, you are so cognitively impaired that it’s equivalent to being under the influence of the legal alcohol limit in all 50 states.  An independent study of a learn-at-home non-medication method which was tested by firefighters, airline pilots and police officers found an 81.6% improvement in sleep from participants.  This is simply training the mind to relax so that you can get a good night’s rest.

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Losing a spouse is one of the most difficult things that a person can go through.  It's hard to pick up the pieces and try to start living a normal life again, but it's critical to rely on friends and get new hobbies if you have too much time on your hands.  It was nice to read that a local Carmel woman did so by visiting the Papillon Center for Loss & Transition in Monterey.  After meeting with others that were grieving, she decided to open her home to others and teach them to cook healthy foods for themselves.  "In bereavement, how do you eat something besides cereal and junk food at night," Joy Smith, director of Papillon, told the Carmel Pine Code.  "This conversation happens frequently and somebody suggested we need a class—Cooking for One." she said.  For more information on the classes, contact The Papillon Center.

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It’s not easy taking care of a family member as they grow older.  I cared for my grandmother for years and to watch her struggle through the many stages of Alzheimer’s disease was heart wrenching.  There’s also the terrible logistics which come with being a caregiver.  How to get your family member out and about enough while still keeping your job, finding time to make a healthy dinner, run errands, etc.  I was glad to read that four members of Congress (Senators Kelly Ayotte (R –N.H.) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Representatives Diane Black (R-TN) and Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.) have banded together to fight for the rights of family caregivers.  Together, this bipartisan group has formed the Assisting Caregivers Today (ACT) caucus on Capitol Hill.  They will have their work cut out for them.  As baby boomers grow older, there are predicted to be just four people available to care for every family member 80 years or older by the year 2030, down from seven in 2010.

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A new Silicon Valley Company called Color with some high-profile financial backers plans to offer genetic screening for breast cancer and ovarian cancer using a simple saliva test that will be so cheap most women would likely get it.  The issue of who should be tested has been controversial, and historically has been done for women who already have cancer or for those with a family history of breast or ovarian cancers.  Insurers have generally not paid for the testing, discouraging many women from doing it.  Dr. Gil of Color said that his company’s test would be inexpensive enough so that women would be able to pay for it out of pocket, and not have to deal with insurance companies.  The company will also start a program to provide free testing to women who can’t afford the test.

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