Eldercare, Aging and Long Term Care

Infected with Insanity: Could Microbes Cause Mental Illness?: Scientific American

Link: Infected with Insanity: Could Microbes Cause Mental Illness?: Scientific American.

Bugs and the Brain Mental illnesses once thought to be the result of neurological or psychological defects may be caused by viral or microbial infections. The strongest evidence links schizophrenia to prenatal influenza infection; pregnant women who become ill with the flu are more likely to give birth to children who will develop schizophrenia. The body’s immune reaction, rather than the infections themselves, may be to blame for the resulting brain damage and psychiatric symptoms. Understanding the relation between infections and psychiatric disorders may someday allow us to prevent mental illness using drugs or vaccines.

About Aphasia

What is aphasia?
Aphasia is a loss of the ability to produce and/or comprehend language, due to injury to brain areas specialized for these functions. It is not a result of deficits in sensory, intellect, or psychiatric functioning. It is also not muscle weakness or a cognitive disorder.

Depending on the area and extent of the damage, someone suffering from aphasia may be able to speak but not write, or vice versa, or display any of a wide variety of other deficiencies in language comprehension and production, such as being able to sing but not speak. Aphasia may co-occur with speech disorders such as dysarthria (poor articulation) or apraxia of speech (impaired ability to coordinate the sequential, articulatory movements necessary to generate speech sounds), which also result from brain damage.

Link: About Aphasia.

Alzheimer's rates expected to climb among minority elderly ... American Medical News

As research findings coalesce around a collection of risk factors for Alzheimer's disease, it is becoming obvious that poor and minority populations -- the ones most likely to harbor risk factors such as hypertension and diabetes --also are more likely than whites to encounter this brain disorder.

Link: AMNews: April 28, 2008. Alzheimer's rates expected to climb among minority elderly ... American Medical News.

Study links incontinence drugs with memory problems

Commonly used incontinence drugs may cause memory problems in some older people, a study has found. "Our message is to be careful when using these medicines," said U.S. Navy neurologist Dr. Jack Tsao, who led the study. "It may be better to use diapers and be able to think clearly than the other way around."
Link: Study links incontinence drugs with memory problems.

Hearing Aids - Hearing Loss - Mike Waufle - Medicine and Health - Tara Parker-Pope - New York Times

But now scientists have come up with a different kind of hearing aid. While the device, called the Lyric, is being used in only 500 patients, it appears to have overcome many of the problems associated with traditional hearing aids — without the expense and uncertainty of surgery and anesthesia.

Link: Hearing Aids - Hearing Loss - Mike Waufle - Medicine and Health - Tara Parker-Pope - New York Times.

CJR: The Forgotten Health Issue

This week at a symposium sponsored by Harvard’s Shorenstein Center, former Harvard president Lawrence Summers told a group of New York journalists and members of the financial community that “the aging of the country and the preparation for the aging of the country is as critical an issue as it has ever been.”

I asked Weiner why so little interest. “Most real solutions to long-term care require spending more money, which has not been a popular notion over the last fifteen years or so,” he said. “There are no magic bullets.” He added that most people who’ve had to cope with long-term care see it as a personal issue rather than a policy or political issue. Wiener says that he has argued for years that when the parents of the baby boom generation started to need long-term care, it would become a political issue. That hasn’t yet happened.

Link: CJR: The Forgotten Health Issue.

Health | Study: Boomers to Flood Medical System | Seattle Times Newspaper

Millions of baby boomers are about to enter a health care system for seniors that not only isn't ready for them, but may even discourage them from getting quality care.

Link: Health | Study: Boomers to Flood Medical System | Seattle Times Newspaper.

Medicare Interactive - What preventive care services does Medicare cover?

Link: Medicare Interactive - What preventive care services does Medicare cover?.

Even though it is commonly said that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, Medicare has not traditionally covered preventive care. However, coverage for many preventive care services has been added in the past few years. Doctors may not realize that Medicare now covers these services, so it is important to ask your doctor about them.

Medicare | Caring.com

Link: Medicare | Caring.com.

What is Medicare? Medicare consists of four categories: Part A covers hospitalization, some skilled nursing facility and home health care, and hospice. Part B covers doctors' services and outpatient care such as X-rays, laboratory work, some home health care, physical and occupational therapy, and some preventive screening. Then there's Part C, also known as Medicare Advantage, which is Medicare received through a private managed care system such as an HMO (health maintenance organization) or PPO (preferred provider organization). If your parents enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan, they receive all the benefits of Medicare Parts A and B, as well as some additional coverage provided by the private plan. As with other managed care, however, Medicare Advantage plans limit where and how their members may receive care. Finally, there's Medicare Part D, which consists of private insurance plans that partially cover prescription drug costs.

Link: Medicare | Caring.com.

Medicaid | Caring.com

Many people confuse Medicaid with Medicare, because Congress introduced them both in 1965 and they have similar-sounding names. Actually, they have completely different eligibility requirements and benefits, and they serve different purposes.

Link: Medicaid | Caring.com.