General Condition Help

Dementia is derived from Latin and literally translates into “mind gone,” (de means “gone” while mens refers to “mind”). The most common cause of dementia, accounting for at least 60% of all dementia cases, is Alzheimer’s disease.

Estimates of the number of Americans with Alzheimer’s disease often vary, but the U.S. National Institutes of Health puts the range between 2.5 million and 4.5 million. One thing is certain — the number of Alzheimer’s disease cases will rise significantly as the baby boomers swell the numbers of the over 65s. It is projected that 10 million baby boomers will develop Alzheimer's disease.

You might think that helping an older adult get to the hospital is as simple as dropping them off at "Admitting" and allowing the hospital staff to take care of the rest. Think again. Older patients desperately need your help because hospital risks are at an all-time high; even a short stay can be fraught with medical errors, medication mistakes, falls, infectious diseases and a host of other life threatening events for elderly in the hospital.

If your mother or father is in the hospital, you're probably wondering what you can do to make their stay a little easier. Hospitals are built for the staff, not for the patient, and they are notorious for being sterile, cold and uncomfortable, especially for the seniors in the hospital. Not to mention the bad food.

For eleven years I pleaded with my elderly father to allow a caregiver to help him with my ailing mother, but after 55 years of loving each other he adamantly insisted on taking care of her himself. Every caregiver I hired to help him sighed in exasperation, "Jacqueline, I just can't work with your father–his temper is impossible to handle.

The hospital is the last place someone may think of when it comes to keeping active. Yet it is one of the most important places to make sure your parents keep moving

If you have an aging parent who has been diagnosed with macular degeneration, you may have already witnessed the fright your parent is experiencing at the thought of possibly becoming blind. Someone with macular degeneration may become angry or depressed when faced with the potential loss of independence, but there are many things that can be done to allow that person to live at home and maintain a great deal of independence.

If you are an adult child caring for an aging parent, you may have to manage your parent's chronic illness. One of the most debilitating illnesses is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, or COPD. COPD is a disease of the lungs. In COPD, the lung tissue becomes damaged, making breathing more difficult. The airways to and from the lungs become obstructed. COPD is a major cause of the death in the United States, and most cases of COPD are related to smoking, being exposed to second-hand smoke, or being exposed to toxic chemicals that damage the lungs.

When someone you love has a stroke, regaining independence as quickly as possible is usually one of the main goals. When it is your aging parent suffering, you long to be able to help him or her regain that independence as quickly as possible. One of the most important forms of independence our aging parents have is their ability to drive. Luckily, most people recover from stroke well enough to be able to drive again. You can assist by making sure your aging parent completes extensive stroke rehabilitation. There are assessments that will help alleviate your concerns about whether or not your aging parent should be driving after a stroke.

One of the most heartbreaking illnesses we ever have to watch our aging parents suffer through is congestive heart failure, or CHF. CHF is a condition in which the heart can't pump enough blood to the body's other organs.  According to the American Heart Association, most people with mild and moderate congestive heart failure can be treated. Proper medical supervision can prevent them from becoming invalids. One of the major comforts you can provide your aging parent is the ability to live at home with CHF, rather than be placed in an assisted living facility. While your parent may have to rely on home health care, living at home will allow him or her to be as comfortable and independent as possible.

If you had chicken pox when you were a child, there is about a 10 to 20 percent chance that you will develop shingles and that chance increases with age. The medical term for shingles is herpes zoster, and it is caused by the same virus that causes chicken pox. The first time you get infected with the virus, it causes chicken pox, but the virus can then enter the root of one of your nerves and wait there to be reactivated. When the herpes zoster virus "wakes up" after many years, the result is shingles.