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Alaska Health Fair, Inc. will start holding fall health fairs later this month. We will also continue to offer blood draws by appointment in our office, but are planning to hold the majority of our events at community and worksite venues. Most fall events will require pre-registration online for a blood test appointment time slot. We will have exhibitors and screeners when space and safety permits. Our staff have returned to local offices and are available should you have questions about the fall season. Staying informed about Alaska Health...
A “migrenade” is my term for substances that go off like a grenade in your brain, and trigger a migraine. It’s a made-up term that works well and is immediately understood. All the pain-causing cytokines in your body should be considered migrenades, because they are responsible for the pain and inflammation associated with headaches. One of them is NF Kappa B which is discussed below. But first of all, I suggest you minimize or eliminate these most powerful migrenades if you ever want to feel better: - Artificial sweeteners and dyes - Any c...
Detecting cancer long before symptoms There may now be a way to find cancer before symptoms ever occur. A new blood test, which can detect more than 50 types of cancer, has been found to be accurate enough to be rolled out as a multi-cancer screening test among people at higher risk of the disease, including patients age 50 years or older. In a paper published in the journal Annals of Oncology, researchers report that the test accurately detected cancer, often before any symptoms arose, while ha...
The Kenai Peninsula Family Caregiver Support Program has moved into a new office located at 35477 Kenai Spur Highway, Suite 205 (located in the 4D Professional Building). You can call them at 907-262-1280 or email dkebschull@soldotnaseniors.comdkebschull@soldotnaseniors.com. Caregiver support group meetings will be held at the following locations and times in August. Please join to share your experiences as a caregiver or to support someone who is a caregiver. Aug. 12, Sterling Senior Center, 1 to 3 p.m. The theme will be “Getting to Know E...
Hospice of Anchorage understands that being a caregiver is an important job. You shoulder many responsibilities caring for a friend or relative who is seriously ill. This summer, we are celebrating the caregivers in our community with our Care for the Carer campaign. Each month we are giving out 100 Care for the Carer boxes, each filled with caregiving resources, an assortment of coupons, and various self-care items. Each month's packages are different, so we encourage caregivers to treat...
The Blood Bank of Alaska (BBA), located at 1215 Airport Heights Drive in Anchorage, is just a stone’s throw from the Anchorage Senior Activity Center. Did you know that as a senior over 70 years old, you may still give blood? All you need is a written doctor’s acknowledgement that you are well and able to do so. Given the continuing need for all blood types, especially O-positive, O-negative, and A-positive, we welcome Alaska seniors to give blood, including seniors from rural parts of the state. The need for blood and blood products in our...
AARP Alaska, Older Persons Action Group and the Anchorage Senior Activity Center resume the “Age Smart – Let’s Talk” forums this month on Aug. 10, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Events are currently held virtually on the internet, using Zoom. This month’s topic focuses on the impact of music on brain health. Music is all around us. Learn how it can benefit us by decreasing depression, lowering blood pressure, reducing chronic pain, elevating mood and much more, with presenter Ann Farris, Education Specialist at Alzheimer’s Resource of Alaska. The...
Five ways to apply for Social Security benefits online Social Security continues to make it easier for you to access our programs and benefits. Our website offers a convenient way to apply for benefits online. You can apply online for: Retirement or Spouse’s Benefits. You must be at least 61 years and 9 months in age and want your benefits to start in no more than four months. Apply at www.ssa.gov/retireonline. Disability Benefits. You can use our online application, available at www.ssa.gov/disabilityonline, to apply for disability benefits i...
I usually start thinking about my next column at least a month ahead of time. But then sometimes events derail my plans, and I have to write about something else. The 2018 earthquake, the recent pandemic, and more than a few surprise elections, judicial decisions, or Congressional acts have caused me to re-rack everything and start over. This time, my plans were hijacked by Britney Spears. For the benefit of those of my readers who have been living in a cave for the last 20 years – because o...
ANALYSIS As the nation emerges from the coronavirus pandemic, telemedicine has transformed how millions of Americans, particularly seniors, see their doctors. Now the Biden administration and Congress must decide whether video and audio appointments with doctors should continue as a routine part of health care and should get federal reimbursement. Telemedicine, also called telehealth, has been the most significant health care shift caused by the pandemic. Before coronavirus, lawmakers had tightly restricted the kind of video and audio visits...
I’ve had a front-row seat to the growing senior care crisis in Alaska, and I am worried. I’m worried about our seniors not getting the care they need, and I’m worried about professional caregivers leaving this field or Alaska to find better jobs elsewhere. I’ve proudly served as a professional home care provider to help Alaskans age at home safely for almost a decade. Caregiving is a valuable and rewarding job. Over the years, severe cuts to Medicaid services and care hours undermined the ability of professional caregivers to provide the car...
Question: My granddaughter’s good friend is a young woman she used to work with. They spend a lot of time together and have come to visit me. It is apparent they are a couple. I’m not sure how to interact with them. Answer: This is a great question; while a grandparent may not be one of the first people a grandchild shares personal information with, how delightful she feels comfortable visiting you. It sounds like you two have a special relationship. Responding appropriately and uniquely to the...
Getting vaccinated helps protects others who don’t Older adults who get vaccinated against COVID-19 may also be protecting their unvaccinated family members. Researchers at the Helsinki Graduate School of Economics have found that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines protect both vaccinated individuals and their unvaccinated adult household members against SARS-CoV-2 infections. The study used Finnish administrative datasets to examine the link between mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines and infection risk among vaccinated individuals a...
For older people, going to a gym on a regular basis helps to build strength and stamina by exercising the body in systematic, increasingly exerting ways. This effort pays off with a reduced chance of falls, better coordination and balance, improved sleep, stronger muscles and a more positive self-image. As we age, our brains need consistent exercise, too. Aging brings with it a host of “senior moments,” when we begin to second guess ourselves, becoming more easily distracted, forgetful, and less able to concentrate for long periods of tim...
Alaska Health Fair, Inc. takes an extended break twice a year – after each active and heavy duty health fair season. We do this to provide our few paid staff, plus our dedicated and cherished volunteers a longer period to take their own vacations. These breaks have become even more important as we’ve worked almost non-stop through COVID. Though we are not offering blood draw dates in July, we are busy closing out the spring season and looking forward to the upcoming fall season. Our summer break is now in full swing, so you may have dif...
Every Medicare beneficiary has the right to appeal a denial of coverage for services or items made by Medicare. However, there are some things you should know. First, you need to understand why Medicare denied coverage in the first place. Then you need to build your case for the appeal and begin the process. You need to understand that there are multiple levels of appeals you can go through if your first decision is denied and each of these has their own timeline associated. Why was your item or service denied coverage by Medicare? Make sure...
Hospice is not a place. And hospice care is not just about those who are dying. Hospice is a comprehensive, compassionate kind of care that focuses on living – hospice is about living as fully as possible, surrounded by family and friends, up until the end of life. Palliative care brings this special philosophy of care to people earlier in the course of a serious illness. Did you know that Hospice of Anchorage is a Volunteer Hospice? Did you know there are three Medicare hospice providers serving Anchorage and the surrounding areas as well? W...
Smart toilet may be able to analyze stool For the first time, researchers are suggesting that an artificial intelligence tool can be used for long-term tracking and management of chronic gastrointestinal ailments. Scientists at Duke University have added an artificial intelligence tool to the standard toilet to help analyze patients’ stool and give gastroenterologists the information they need to provide appropriate treatment, according to a new study. This novel technology could assist in m...
The Kenai Peninsula Family Caregiver Support Program has moved into a new office located at 35477 Kenai Spur Highway, Suite 205 (located in the 4D Professional Building). You can call them at 907-262-1280 or email dkebschull@soldotnaseniors.comdkebschull@soldotnaseniors.com. Caregiver support group meetings will be held at the following locations and times in July. Please join to share your experiences as a caregiver or to support someone who is a caregiver. July 8, Sterling Senior Center, 1 to 3 p.m. A training titled, “Can Alzheimer’s be Sto...
Aging surely has its challenges and one is keeping up your physical health as your body slowly deteriorates. Add an injury or major operation and the road to recovery may be too hard to meet – especially for those who spent a lifetime in competitive sports because they can no longer function at the high level they once could. Some seniors have found a low impact activity that allows them to bounce around a court and smash the heck out of a perforated ball with a ping pong paddle. That's p...
The COVID-19 pandemic solidified our dependence on the internet. Throughout the Lower 48, high speed internet access is a given. In Alaska’s rural – and at times, urban – communities, high speed internet access can be hard to come by. According to the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) Broadband Deployment Report, 85% of Alaskans have internet access at 25 megabits per second (mbs) or higher, the minimum speed standard outlined by the FCC. This breaks down further when considering rural communities, where 63.7% have access to internet wit...
During the pandemic, many organizations in Alaska reduced the direct services they provided, but that was not true for Southeast Senior Services (SESS). SESS worked to meet the changing needs of seniors and caregivers during this difficult time. Typically, in a non-pandemic year SESS, which is a division of Catholic Community Service, works with local, state and national partners to offer home and community-based services such as nutritious meals, door-to-door transportation, adult day services, case management, senior and caregiver counseling,...
President Joe Biden has laid out a long list of policy priorities - some more politically plausible than others. But what he left out of his sweeping infrastructure and family relief proposals – drug pricing reform, among other things – is as important as what he included. Biden, who served in the U.S. Senate for 36 years and as vice president for eight more, understood the politics of coronavirus and was able to successfully shepherd his pandemic relief bill through Congress, with only Democrat...
There are many examples of the long-established right for public institutions such as schools, employers, governments and businesses to protect the health of others by requiring individuals to provide proof of vaccination or of a past infection, or seek a medical or religious exception. So why has COVID-19 vaccination become a lightning rod for controversy over “vaccine passports” and claims of violations of medical privacy or individual rights? Medical historian Dr. Howard Markel has written two popular books on the history of infectious dis...
In the United States, more than 40% of adults have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, however, most approved COVID-19 vaccines require two doses to provide a level of adequate protection. Delaying a second dose of the vaccine could put people at risk for any of the new variants and "are dangerously vulnerable to infection with variants that weaken the effects of antibodies," according to recent statements by Dr. Anthony Faucci, chief epidemiologist. of the White House. Another...
