Sorted by date Results 1538 - 1562 of 2084
I hope you are getting this before November 8, the date you must vote in order to exercise your privilege and duty as a citizen to choose a new president to govern our country for the next four or eight years. And I hope you have chosen wisely, especially seniors, who will be dependent on Social Security and Medicare for the rest of your lives. If all things were right in this world, we would not be depending on profit making insurance and pharmaceutical companies but we would all be safely...
Alaska Health Fair, Inc., closes out their Fall 2016 series of health fairs around the state this month, featuring 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. 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, thyroid, pr...
One of the worst scenarios for families caring for someone living with Alzheimer’s disease is a loved one wandering or getting lost. It causes immediate panic and concern, and unfortunately happens all too often. In fact, nearly 50 percent of some of these family members have experienced a loved one with Alzheimer’s wandering or getting lost, according to a new survey conducted by Home Instead, Inc., franchisor of the Home Instead Senior Care network. Of those, nearly one in five called the police for assistance. To help families keep the...
Annoyance, inconvenience, or worse? Hearing loss happens so slowly and so subtly that we may think that all we need to do is adjust to it over the years. We’ll learn to live with it. So we’ll turn up the volume on the TV and radio. In conversations, we’ll be sure to focus so that we hear what people have to say. For others, we could be secretly relieved that we won’t get their every word. All kidding aside, it no longer makes sense to learn to live with it. Hearing loss doesn’t slow down as we get older. For those of us who are 65 years old...
Anchorage area hospice organizations are teaming up to offer a grief workshop, “Navigating the Holidays,” Nov. 10 at First Congregational Church, on 2610 E. Northern Lights Blvd., just east of Lake Otis Pkwy., 7 to 9 p.m. Coping with grief during the holidays can be especially challenging. Relatives, friends, social gatherings, spiritual and family traditions, shopping, decorating—all can be overwhelming. Planning can help. This workshop, organized by Hospice of Anchorage and Providence Hospice, will offer suggestions for handling the holid...
Grab some ginger ale A new study is suggesting that oral perceptions of coldness and carbonation may help to reduce thirst. Because thirst and its cessation contribute to how much fluid a person drinks, the current findings could help guide sensory approaches to increase fluid intake in populations at risk for dehydration, such as older adults. Hopefully, this study will help lead to improved beverage choices for older adults. Drinking fluids helps protect against dehydration, which occurs when...
The Kenai Peninsula Family Caregiver Support Program will hold the following peer support meetings in October. This month’s focus is on hospice and palliative care, with presenters from Hospice of the Central Peninsula. Nov. 1, Caregiver support meeting at Sterling Senior Center, 1 p.m. Nov. 8, Caregiver support meeting at Soldotna Senior Center, 1 p.m. Nov. 15, Caregiver support meeting at Kenai Senior Center, 1 p.m. Nov. 16, Caregiver support meeting at Anchor Point Senior Center, hosted by Paula Koch, 3 p.m. Nov. 29, Caregiver support meetin...
With more budget cuts from the state forcing the loss of numerous staff positions, the state’s Pioneer Homes assisted living facilities have begun to further limit the number of residents the homes are able to receive. Vickie Wilson, director of the Alaska Pioneer Homes, believes that reducing the number of new residents will allow the remaining staff to give the quality and level of care the homes are known for. “We won’t risk safety or quality by admitting too many people, and I’ve told many people that,” said Wilson. “Our level of care is...
In Alaska, nearly one in four adults has experienced a disability. People with disabilities experience more health disparities than people without disabilities, and these disparities are similar to those reported by other minority groups. This is particularly true for the 18,000 Alaskans with intellectual disabilities. This crisis becomes more critical as Alaskans with intellectual disabilities begin experiencing the health-related challenges of an aging population. Research has shown that individuals with intellectual disabilities are living l...
Editor’s note: This press release was received Sept. 14, 2016. The need for family caregivers in the U.S. is rapidly increasing, yet demographic shifts are causing the pool of potential family caregivers to decrease, according to “Families Caring for an Aging America,” a new report from The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Currently, nearly 18 million people in this country provide some form of care for loved ones age 65 or older. The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) — the nation’s largest interdisc...
Older Persons Action Group, Inc., earned honors for its monthly, statewide publication “Senior Voice” in the 25th annual National Mature Media Awards Program. The program, presented by the Mature Market Resource Center, a national clearinghouse for the senior market, recognizes the nation’s finest marketing, communications, educational materials and programs designed and produced for older adults. Senior Voice received a Merit award in the Local/State media division, Newsletter/Newspaper category. And Senior Voice writer Mackenzie Stewa...
Feeling squeezed by adult kids living with you? Or, maybe you’re okay with it. One thing is certain, you’re not the only ones in your situation. Living with Mom and Dad is now the most common living arrangement for young adults, according to the not-for-profit Pew Research Center. Remember when you were in high school and couldn’t wait to get out on your own? Maybe you planned to go to college and live in a dorm or get some roommates and have your own space? These days, the number of young people (age 18 to 34) who live with their paren...
Soap makers now have to get their junk out because plain soap works just as well and without risk. Manufacturers were ordered by the FDA to pull out 19 different chemicals from their body wash, hand soap, dish soap and other soaps. Hallelujah, these chemicals are pesticides which go down the drain and into our ecosystem. We kind of got all bug-phobic when soap makers started adding antibacterials like triclosan and fluorosan into soap. Fluorosan has a fluorinated and brominated backbone, and fluorine and bromine compounds are known to...
Alaska Health Fair, Inc., continues their fall series of health fairs around the state this month, featuring 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. 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, thyroid,...
The open enrollment period for 2017 Medicare prescription drug plans is Oct. 15-Dec. 7. Plans change and people’s needs change, so it’s a good idea to review your options every year. A new plan may just save you money. You can read about them before Oct. 15 to be ready. To get more information, visit www.medicare.gov/part-d and click the button at left “Find health and drug plans”, or go to www.medicare.alaska.gov. As always, the staff at Alaska’s Medicare Information Office and their statewide volunteer network are primed to help you. June...
The Medicare Information Office has new materials in other languages. Contact office staff if you’d like rack card size brochures in English, Tagalog or Korean, or you can print out a flier on Extra Help, a prescription financial assistance program, off the office’s website. From medicare.alaska.gov, go to the ‘Publications & other resources’ link on the left side of the page, http://dhss.alaska.gov/dsds/Pages/medicare/medipublications.aspx....
Virtually reality may help prevent falls Researchers have found that combining virtual reality and treadmill training may be an ideal way to help prevent falls in older adults. The researchers report in the journal The Lancet that this type of intervention, which combines the physical and cognitive aspects of walking, could potentially be used in gyms, rehabilitation centers or nursing homes to improve safe walking and prevent falls in older adults. They said it may also help adults with...
You have decided you need a change of scenery and want to explore our wonderful country. You pull out the Rand McNally (I am aware I have just dated myself) and pick a section of the country on your bucket list. Then, reality strikes. You have VA medical appointments, meds about to run out and a lab test scheduled. Your next logical step would be to wait until all of those little situations are sorted before leaving. I have a news flash: There will always be some little appointment, event or...
The Kenai Peninsula Family Caregiver Support Program will hold the following peer support meetings in October. This month’s focus is “Managing Stress,” with a viewing of “Humor Your Stress,” presented by Loretta Roche, faculty member of Mind/Body Medical Institute in Boston,” and discussion of how to reduce stress during the holidays. Oct. 4, Caregiver support meeting at Sterling Senior Center, 1 p.m. Oct. 11, Caregiver support meeting at Soldotna Senior Center, 1 p.m. Oct. 18, Alaska Day holiday: Caregiver support meeting at Kenai Senior Cent...
All right, I gripe about the legislature as much as the next guy. On the other hand, I am also happy to give credit where credit is due. And this last session, the legislature passed a bill which is really helpful. Actually it passed two bills I like. The smaller one involves revisions to the statutory form power of attorney. It’s nothing dramatic, but there were several oddities in the old format which grated on me. But now, no more will people have to figure out, from the instructions, that i...
The dust has finally settled from legislative session, with important budget items and pieces of legislation passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Walker of interest to seniors and other public members. Some positive news on funding Good news for senior programs! Restored funding was approved in the amount of $5.1 million for the Alaska Senior Benefits program, administered by the Division of Public Assistance, in the Governor’s signed operating budget. Payment assistance for the two lower income tiers in the monthly a...
Rep. Diane Black, a Tennessee Republican congresswoman, and Earl Blumenauer, a Democratic congressman from Oregon, don’t agree on very much about health care. Both sit on the powerful House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee and both tend to vote on the opposite side of most health care issues. Black, a nurse by training, has called President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act an “abject failure,” which she argues was “built on a grand deception.” Black’s dislike of liberal health care policies is well known. She’s best known on Capitol Hill...
Shakespeare chronicled the seven ages of man from infancy to old age in “As You Like It.” Anyone with adult children knows the Bard of Avon left out a critical stage – the stage when you zip your lip around your adult child, fearful of your words pushing them away. You don’t have to be a poet or a researcher to understand that parents and adult children experience tension long after the child’s emancipation. Here are a few caveats from a University of Michigan Institute for Social Research study, which examined adult children over age 22 wh...
What’s the point of progress? It’s to improve our quality of life. This is a push-me, pull-you process, balancing the frustration of the inevitable glitches of new technology as compared with the comfort of the familiar. Sometimes the time is ripe for a new way of looking at things, and other times we find there are excellent old-fashioned solutions to be revisited. This yin and yang of new and old progress applies to two intriguing ideas I came across recently in the parallel laboratories of the university and the household. In the past few...
Do you prefer flavored water to slake your thirst? Many folks are repulsed by water – your temple’s most important nutrient. Today, grocery store shelves moan and groan from the weight of a constellation of flavor-enhanced water and juices. They might help us stay hydrated, but convenience has its cost. Water is more than hydrogen and oxygen; it’s the source of all life. Without fresh, clean, hydrating water and nutritious fresh fruit, we’d perish. Please, read labels. Avoid artificial colors, chemicals, flavors and preservatives because...
