Eldercare, Aging and Long Term Care

Four Drugs Cause Most Hospitalizations in Older Adults - NYTimes.com

Just four medications or medication groups — used alone or together — were responsible for two-thirds of emergency hospitalizations among older Americans, according to the report. At the top of the list was warfarin, also known as Coumadin, a blood thinner. It accounted for 33 percent of emergency hospital visits. Insulin injections were next on the list, accounting for 14 percent of emergency visits.

via well.blogs.nytimes.com

Really? The Claim: Chewing Gum Can Prevent Ear Infections - NYTimes.com

In a meta-analysis published in the Cochrane database, a University of Toronto team analyzed several studies of 3,100 healthy children at day-care centers.

They found that children chewing xylitol gum were 25 percent less likely to develop acute ear infections. Because the children chewed the gum up to five times a day, it’s not clear whether smaller amounts would have the same effect.

via well.blogs.nytimes.com

For Some, Psychiatric Trouble May Start in Thyroid

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/health/for-some-psychiatric-troubles-may-begin-with-the-thyroid.html

In patients with depression, anxiety and other psychiatric problems, doctors often find abnormal blood levels of thyroid hormone. Treating the problem, they have found, can lead to improvements in mood, memory and cognition.

Now researchers are exploring a somewhat controversial link between minor, or subclinical, thyroid problems and some patients’ psychiatric difficulties. After reviewing the literature on subclinical hypothyroidism and mood, Dr. Russell Joffe, a psychiatrist at the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, and colleagues recently concluded that treating the condition, which affects about 2 percent of Americans, could alleviate some patients’ psychiatric symptoms and might even prevent future cognitive decline.

Patients with psychiatric symptoms, Dr. Joffe said, “tell us that given thyroid hormones, they get better.”

The thyroid, a bow-tie-shaped gland that wraps around the trachea, produces two hormones: thyroxine, or T4, and triiodothyronine, known as T3. These hormones play a role in a surprising range of physical processes, from regulation of body temperature and heartbeat to cognitive functioning.

Q&A - Authors on Aging Boomers and Housing Options - NYTimes.com

The 72 million American baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, are turning 65 at the rate of roughly 10,000 a day, and many are considering not just how to age (with or without annuities? soy sauce? crow’s feet?), but also where. Wid Chapman, an architect, and Jeffrey P. Rosenfeld, a gerontologist who specializes in the relationship between aging and the built environment, collected 33 examples of residences that have been recently designed to bridge the distance between one’s vital and declining years.

via www.nytimes.com

Lessons learned from analyzing fall prevention programs - McKnight's Long Term Care News

There are recent exciting studies that imply that a deficiency of vitamin D so often found in nursing home populations contributes to lower extremity weakness and falls, a relatively easy thing to fix. The understanding that sometimes bones break and then people fall has also helped explain previously inexplicable events and injuries, and reinforces the necessity to help make bones stronger through appropriate medical and therapy interventions.

Finally, with the majority of nursing home patients in the United States having some element of dementia, this constantly changing overlay of incapacity cannot be ignored. This simply reinforces what the literature suggests: those interventions that are made and subsequently followed up on seem to show the most lasting results.

Our most recent review of the last 10 years of reports of fall intervention programs indicate that 9% to 12% of falls can be prevented, even taking into account all of the simultaneous and parallel initiatives in strategies and technology that are brought to bear on this serious and important problem. Clearly, the geriatric syndrome of falls and their sequelae has gotten the attention of patients and their families, providers and litigators.

Gravity never takes a day off and our population of frail elderly continues to increase and represent bodies at risk for injuries. For anyone who has ever seen the simple tragic and seemingly instantaneous act of an older person falling with injuries, doing our best to lessen their risk is worthy of all the effort that it most certainly requires.

via www.mcknights.com

Bonded by Disability, a Couple Keeps a Promise Till Death - NYTimes.com

At age 7, Edwin Morales met Noemi Rivera. Three decades later, sitting in a Szechuan restaurant on the Upper West Side, he slipped a ring on her finger. Both families opposed a marriage, and nature itself seemed lined up against them. They used wheelchairs because of cerebral palsy and needed help taking care of themselves. Still, Mr. Morales said, “We made a promise we weren’t going to leave each other again.”

via www.nytimes.com

Mothers and Sleep Medication - NYTimes.com

Mother’s little helper of the new millennium may in fact be the sleeping pill — a prescription not likely to inspire a jaunty pop song anytime soon. Nearly 3 in 10 American women fess up to using some kind of sleep aid at least a few nights a week, according to “Women and Sleep,” a 2007 study by the National Sleep Foundation, a nonprofit research group.

via www.nytimes.com