Sorted by date Results 1488 - 1512 of 2084
Alaska Health Fair, Inc. offers free health screenings and education, low cost blood tests and more. These tests can help you learn about your health and detect potential problems early, when treatment or changes in personal habits can be most effective. So take time out of your busy week and join AHF when they bring an event to your local area. A complete and comprehensive chemistry/hematology test is available for only $45; with 27 different panels for conditions ranging from diabetes, kidney and liver function, to anemia and tissue health,...
New nasal spray to improve sleep The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is giving the green light to the first treatment for frequent urination at night due to overproduction of urine. The FDA has approved Noctiva (desmopressin acetate) nasal spray for adults who awaken at least two times per night to urinate due to a condition known as nocturnal polyuria (overproduction of urine during the night). “It is important to know that Noctiva is not approved for all causes of night-time u...
The Kenai Peninsula Family Caregiver Support Program will hold the following peer support meetings in April. This month’s focus is on the Senior Companion program, with coordinator Heather Daniels sharing about volunteers age 55 and older who make a difference by providing assistance and friendship to seniors, helping them remain in their homes. April 4, Caregiver support meeting at Sterling Senior Center, 1 p.m. April 11, Caregiver support meeting at Soldotna Senior Center, 1 p.m. April 18, Caregiver support meeting at Kenai Senior Center,1 p...
Haines seniors and those with disabilities prepared meals in adaptive cooking classes in the model kitchen of Veterans Village in March, and will complete the free sessions in April. The classes are being sponsored by Southeast Alaska Independent Living (SAIL) and Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC). Haines Care-A-Van provided rides. Food safety, meal planning, and new recipes were among discussions. Margaret Sebens, SAIL advocate, demonstrated adaptive utensils and the model...
New research from the Employment Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) updates previous estimates of how much money Medicare beneficiaries are projected to need to cover health expenses in retirement, including premiums for Medicare Parts B and D, premiums for Medigap Plan F, and out-of-pocket spending for outpatient prescription drugs. The analysis shows that retiree health savings targets increased from 2014 to 2016, but that 2016 savings targets continue to be lower than they were in 2012 almost across the board. Specifically: • In 2016, a 65-ye...
Vermont is all about maple syrup and that's just fine with me. Here in the springtime, smoke fills the air from sugarhouses busily boiling the sap from sugar maple trees in vats over wood-fired boilers. But much has changed in this cottage industry as maple-syrup-making hit the 21st century, and nowhere have the leaps in technology been so evident as on the Smith Maple Crest Farm in Shrewsbury, Vermont, where maple trees seven generations old twist toward the sky. Jeff and Mary Smith continue...
April is National Volunteer Appreciation Month, and at Alaska Regional Hospital, we are celebrating our amazing Auxiliary who serve our community. These incredible volunteers give generously of their time and talents to hospital patients, family members, employees and guests. They donated almost 6,000 volunteer hours during 2016. Volunteers serve in crucial roles at Alaska Regional. In almost every department, an Auxiliary member is providing a friendly face and helping hand. They are often the...
In the fall of 2015, Martin Shkreli, the founder and former chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals, ignited a firestorm when his company raised the price of a little-known drug to treat toxoplasmosis to $750 a tablet from $13.50. Earlier that year, Valeant Pharmaceuticals bought the rights to a pair of life-saving heart drugs, Nitopress and Isuprel. The same day as the purchase, the company jacked up their list prices by 525 percent and 212 percent respectively. Last year, Mylan, supplier of roughly 95 percent of the nation’s EpiPens, an e...
Editor’s note: This press statement was received on Feb. 13, 2017. AARP has launched a comprehensive campaign to protect Medicare in the face of proposals by some in Congress that would hurt hardworking Alaskans who have paid into the program their entire working lives. Over the next few weeks, AARP staff and volunteers will meet with members of Congress to underscore the importance of Medicare to Alaska’s beneficiaries and the workers who currently pay in to the program. Congressional proposals to change Medicare into a voucher system wou...
In the sixth grade, my daughter was working on a school project and began asking a series of questions about family economics: “How much is our house payment? What does it cost to heat the house? What do we spend on groceries?” Our family records are in QuickBooks so I offered to run a report for her. She studied it carefully and said, “This doesn’t make sense, there’s more money going out than coming in! How does that work?” I asked her, “Well, what would you cut?” After looking over the report again she replied, “Cut all my brother’s stuff!...
Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of articles from the Diverse Elders Coalition, looking at different segments of the senior population. The importance of friends and family to our health is well understood by American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN). Though the specific traditions of tribes, pueblos, nations and bands can differ quite a bit between one another, we as AI/AN share our respect for, inclusion of, and focus on elders as a common link between our communities. In today’s culture, many elders are separated from their co...
Dave called to his wife Barb as he was leaving the house, "I'm headed up to church for my exercise class!" Barb was quick to respond, "Don't you mean the gym?" "No, our new parish nurse Mary is leading us in some Tai Chi, she says it will help my balance. I asked her to explain this new medicine for my blood pressure when we are done. I bet she could even help you figure out those Medicare forms you've been so frustrated with." What does a registered nurse do in the setting of a faith...
Type 2 diabetes is one of the most common and costly chronic diseases in the United States. Type 2 diabetes is a disease that occurs when your blood glucose (or blood sugar) is abnormally high. Diabetes is often referred to as “a touch of sugar” or “the sugar,” however having diabetes is far from sweet. Diabetes is a serious condition that can have a major impact on overall health and quality of life. Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, non-traumatic lower-limb amputations, and new cases of blindness among adults. Diabetes is also...
The 16th Annual Full Lives Conference for Direct Service Professionals takes place March 22 and 23 at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage. The event features national and Alaskan experts presenting on key issues that affect direct service professionals and the people they support, including but not limited to: developmental disabilities, behavioral health/mental illness, chronic alcoholism and other substance abuse, traumatic brain injuries, FASD and Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related dementia. Attendees choose sessions based on their p...
Alaska Health Fair, Inc. offers free health screenings and education, low cost blood tests and more. These tests can help you learn about your health and detect potential problems early, when treatment or changes in personal habits can be most effective. So take time out of your busy week and join Alaska Health Fair when they bring an event to your local area. A complete and comprehensive chemistry/hematology test is available for only $45; with 27 different panels for conditions ranging from diabetes, kidney and liver function, to anemia and...
Lasers may help lead to new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease Scientists are now firing up their lasers to try to better combat Alzheimer’s disease and other illnesses involving the memory. A new method uses near infrared light to shed light on memory loss conditions. Researchers at Hiroshima University have developed a new laser activated technique for bridging missing links in memory flow. The Japanese researchers report that laser technology may help open up the mysterious world of neu...
As an older veteran, the last thing on your mind might be a home refinancing plan. You may have paid off your house and are basking in the lifelong dream of finally having no mortgage payment. Spending money on house payments are for the younger folks, right. Well, I want you to consider some salient points for pulling some cash out of the old homestead. First, interest rates are at an all-time low. With a little shopping, you should be able to find a VA lender offering rates on a 30-year fixed...
The Kenai Peninsula Family Caregiver Support Program will hold the following peer support meetings in March. This month’s focus is caregiver training, featuring part two of a training DVD presentation with Teepa Snow. The DVD is titled “It’s All In Your Approach.” Training covers how a person with dementia perceives his/her environment and how to properly adapt one’s own behavior to increase communication and the care partner’s quality of life. March 7, Caregiver support meeting at Sterling Senior Center, 1 p.m. March 14, Caregiver support mee...
The Alaska Commission on Aging Legislative Advocacy Committee has identified these three advocacy priorities for this legislative session: Preserve the senior safety net. This priority will focus on protecting funding and appropriate policies to the greatest extent possible in order to maintain existing core services for seniors. Specifically, this priority addresses (1) long-term support services (senior grant-funded services, Medicaid and Medicaid optional services, telemedicine/telehealth,...
As we age, the more we need reliable health care, and an important part of the aging process is access to quality emergency and trauma care. As Republicans are looking to keep their promise to voters to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it’s important for lawmakers in Washington to understand how to repeal without continuing the damaging cuts to Medicare that were part of the ACA. In 2010, as we all remember, there was a fierce debate around health care reform - what it would look like and how it would be paid for. And sadly, as I warned d...
As Long Term Care Ombudsmen for Alaska, our mission is to meet with residents of assisted living homes and nursing facilities to see if they have any issues they need assistance in resolving. An important part of this process is to make sure residents and their families know there is a Long Term Care Ombudsman to help them if they need it. Established by the Older Americans Act, the Long Term Care Ombudsman program is federally and state mandated to provide independent oversight and advocacy services to residents in Alaska’s nursing f...
Naw Gay Lay is a 77-year-old Karen refugee from Myanmar (Burma). The Karen people are an ethnic and religious minority group that has been persecuted throughout much of Burma's history. As a young woman, Naw Gay Lay worked in a rice field and began raising her family in a rural village in central Burma. When she reached her mid-30s, the whole village had to flee from Burmese military insurgents. She lost her husband in this brutal civil conflict and was forced to live in the jungle with her six...
“And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.” – Ezekiel 47:12 In an awakening world, there’s a surge of desire – a longing to return to Mother Nature for healing and medicine. Herbal medicine is widely accepted as we grasp its worth for preventing and treating disease, and to create whole hea...
The Alaska Training Cooperative is offering a one-day course, “Basic Concepts of Care Coordination,” designed for new care coordinators who are not yet certified. The course will be taught in Anchorage on Wednesday, Feb. 22 at the UAA Center for Human Development, 2702 Gambell Street, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Cost is $35. The one-day course is formatted to be interactive and provide attendees the opportunity to participate in discussions and activities. Topics to be covered include: Ethics, How to Serve Someone with a Disability, Advocacy, and...
The Kenai Peninsula Family Caregiver Support Program will hold the following peer support meetings in February. This month’s focus is caregiver training, featuring part one of a training DVD presentation with Teepa Snow. The DVD is titled “It’s All In Your Approach.” Feb. 7, Caregiver support meeting at Sterling Senior Center, 1 p.m. Feb. 14, Caregiver support meeting at Soldotna Senior Center, 1 p.m. Feb. 15, Caregiver support meeting at Anchor Point Senior Center, hosted by Paula Koch, 3 p.m. Feb. 21, Caregiver support meeting at Kenai S...
