News from Victorian Home Care

Victorian Home Care Newsletter
September 2009

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In This Issue

Get Older. Be Happy.

Lift Weights and Stay Healthy

The Cane as Guide Dog

80 is the New 60

The White House Declares War on Alzheimer's

Because 5.3 million Americans and their families confront this disease every day, an Office of the National Alzheimer's Project has been added to the White House. The office will coordinate all research, clinical care and services for the prevention and cure of Alzheimer's disease, the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.

The intent in establishing this office in the White House is to accelerate the development of cutting edge medical treatments to fight Alzheimer's and improve patient care.

Get more information here.

Long Term Care Calculator

Select a state and city to get long-term care costs calculated at the link below. The calculator is designed to help estimate the cost of long-term care in specific areas to help in retirement planning.

Try out the calculator here.

What's Good for the Heart is Good for the Brain

A new study has found that having borderline to moderately high cholesterol at midlife could significantly increase a person's risk of developing dementia later in life.

For middle-aged people with moderately high cholesterol (200-239 mg/dl), the risk of developing vascular dementia--the second-most common form of dementia after Alzheimer's--increases by 52 percent. This new study adds to a growing body of evidence linking cholesterol to Alzheimer's.

Read more here.

Greetings!

Getting older doesn't necessarily mean feeling "old". Recent studies are reporting that "old age" may merely be a perception and that emotional health often actually improves with age! Couple this with some interesting new technology and a positive report on the fight against Alzheimer's disease for some reading we feel sure you'll find informative and beneficial. Presented in a spirit of sharing and community, keeping up with the latest advances and information in the field of senior care is something Victorian Home Care takes to heart. We hope you enjoy the following articles.

Thank you,
The Team at Victorian Home Care

Emotional Happiness Improves With Age

Citing a 23-year longitudinal study looking at three groups of people, each at different stages in their lives, researchers who spoke at the 117th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association reported that except for people with dementia-related diseases, emotional health generally improves with age. Since the fastest-growing segment of the population is people over age 85, and that population is considered the most at risk for dementia or frailty, this is great news.

Research has also shown that older adults exert greater emotional control than younger adults, meaning older adults are more likely to actively avoid or limit negative, stressful situations than do younger adults. However, older adults who are dealing with chronic stressors, such as caregiving, report high rates of physical symptoms and emotional distress. Other key reports from the study:

It acknowledged the importance of social relationships on longevity.
It noted that age-related declines in the ability to understand spoken language are often the result of a decline in hearing, rather than a decline in brain function.
It reinforced the findings that even relatively small increases in education pay off in the quality and length of life.

Read more here.

Strong Muscles Reduce Hospital Visits

Exercise programs designed to increase muscle density in the elderly could help reduce rates of disability and hospitalization, new research published in the July 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society suggests. The findings actually suggest that exercises that improve physical function could help keep more vulnerable seniors out of the hospital.
People most likely to be hospitalized were those who scored lowest on measures of physical function, such as walking speed, ability to stand up from a chair repeatedly, grip strength and leg strength.

Get more information here.

A Directional "Smart Cane" in the Works

Determining direction and traveling freely from place to place are the biggest challenges for the more than 1 million people in the United States who are visually impaired, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. A group of engineering students have designed a "Smart Cane" device that detects obstacles and provides navigation cues by using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, the same technology that some major retailers use to tag merchandise to prevent theft.

The Smart Cane has an ultrasonic sensor mounted on it and a messenger-style bag that is worn across the shoulder. A miniature navigational system inside the bag and the Smart Cane work together to detect RFID tags located on mini flags sticking out of the ground.

The goal is to develop and implement a fully functional system at Central Michigan University.

Read more here.

To learn more about engineering and technology programs at CMU, visit http://www.et.cmich.edu/.

Old Age in the Eye of the Beholder

Not unexpectedly, younger people tend to have the perception that getting older happens at a younger age than seniors tend to believe. Some other recent findings in a national survey completed by the Pew Research Center to gauge Americans' views on aging:

People over the age of 50 tended to answer the survey that they felt as if they were 10 years younger; one third of people 65 to 74 said they felt 10-19 years younger, and one sixth of people over 75 felt 20 years younger.
On average, people believed that old age begins around 68, but surprisingly few people over 65 agreed - they believed old age began at 75. Interestingly, people under 30 typically said 60 marks the time when old age starts.