Gender-wise absorbent briefs differ in more ways than 1

If your loved one with dementia is incontinent, you may be interested in this
Kimberly-Clark to introduce new product for $1.2 billion market
By Bill Glauber of the Journal Sentinel

Neenah - On a conference room table inside the sprawling campus of Kimberly-Clark Corp., Greg Fries lays out the past, present and future of adult absorbent underwear.

There's a 1980s version of the Depend brand of incontinence products, an all-white, padded item that looks to the untrained eye like a giant diaper. There's a 1990s version, what amounts to unisex underwear, no-nonsense and no-frills.

And, coming to store shelves by early spring, there is what the company calls "its first line of gender-specific adult absorbent underwear."

That would be Depend protective underwear for men and women. There's a pink waistband for women and a blue one for men. Moreover, the leg opening for men is narrower than it is for women.

"One of the key insights we got was.......read the whole story

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New York Times Examines Role of Children as Caregivers

Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report

Coverage & Access | New York Times Examines Role of Children as Caregivers
[Feb 24, 2009]
The New York Times on Monday examined the increased number of U.S. children "providing care for sick parents or grandparents," and how schools, social service agencies and health care providers often are "unaware of those responsibilities because family members may be too embarrassed, or stoic." According to a 2005 survey, about 3% of households with children ages eight to 18 include children who serve as caregivers.

"Experts say they expect the numbers to.......read the whole report

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Alzheimer's advocacy information

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Our Alzheimer’s Association Early-Stage Summit is a free event for people with early-stage dementia to share insights about what they’re going through, particularly their diagnosis experience. It's held on the first day of the Forum from 12:30-3 p.m.

Stopped in her tracks
Kris Bakowksi was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at 46, right in the middle of a very full life. She now makes an effort to speak out about the disease and raise awareness. Learn more about people like Kris by attending this year’s
Public Policy Forum.

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please contact: E-mail Address: publicpolicyforum@alz.org
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Alzheimer’s- Me on Medicaid?

payingforalzheimerscare
Brian Willie

I often have families come to me and proclaim that they would never need to go on Medicaid. “Isn’t Medicaid for poor families or families with limited resources?” Consider this: A spouse has $200,000 in savings, a home worth $300,000, a car and some personal property. The husband has had Alzheimer’s Disease for 6 years now, and unfortunately, it has steadily progressed to the point where his wife must place him in a skilled nursing facility. That facility charges $5,000 per month. The wife believes that she has too many assets to qualify for Medicaid, and so continues to pay privately, month after month, year after year.

You can guess what happens can’t you?.....read the whole post

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Exercise Boosts Mental Performance in Adults with Memory Problems

Natural News
by: David Gutierrez, staff writer
(NaturalNews) Adults who are having trouble remembering things may be able to boost their mental performance with only moderate physical activity, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"Regular exercise is one of the best ways to reduce your risk of dementia and can help slow progression of the condition," said Susanne Sorensen of the Alzheimer's Society. "This study demonstrates that exercise improves cognition in people with mild cognitive impairment, and that there is a lasting effect even after the exercise intervention stops."

Researchers conducted the study on 138 adults over the age of 50 who were suffering from mild memory problems but did not have dementia. One portion of the group was assigned to take part in a 50-minute exercise session three times per week, while the rest was not assigned to any exercise.

The exercise sessions consisted of moderate physical activity like walking.

After 24 weeks....read the whle article

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How do I get my parents to agree to move into assisted living

Sharon K. Brothers, MSW
A friend cornered me at a social event last Saturday night.

"How do I get my parents to agree to move into assisted living?" he asked.

My first thought was, "Do you seriously expect me to answer that question on my way to get another glass of wine, at a party?!" but then, because I am so passionate about helping our parents the best way we can, I stopped to talk more about this.

It's a question about 1 out of every 5 of my friends seem to be having these days.

What do we do with Mom?

How do we help Dad?

How do we make sure they're OK, and maybe happy, too?

These are the questions we are all facing in our lives.

There are no "one-size-fits-all" answers out there. But there are some themes to guide us.

Quality of life. For me, this is the BIG ONE. I don't really care where my parents choose to live. I don't care whether they get help or not. I DO care if they are happy. If they are lonely, bored, depressed, or seem to have lost interest in life, they need a change. It won't be enough for you to promise to visit more often - they need a bigger change than that.

Safety. This is the other BIG ONE. When my parents lived way out in the country - on the farm where they had lived forever, with their dogs, cows, goats, gardens, (wells and septic tanks, too), they were "happy." But driving to the stores for simple groceries meant curving, country roads and at least 20-30 minutes. Driving to the doctors' office, an increasingly more frequent outing, meant journeys of 45 minutes to an hour and a half, minimum, each way. The wood stove, the well, the garden, the hike from their house to the bottom of the hill to the barn - these things had lost their romance and now just looked like a great place to get injured. With driving being less of a good solution for either of them, how could they safely manage?

For both my parents and my in-laws, the solution was a senior living community. For my parents, it was a matter of safety. They chose a community, still out in the country, of cottages. It has a central "village" of services they can easily walk to, and a van if they need it for longer outings.

For my in-laws who already lived in town it was a matter of happiness. Socially outgoing people, they had lost nearly all of their life-long friends and companions. Staring at each other and watching golf on TV was getting old; the quality of life was quickly slipping away.

I won't say it was easy in either case. It didn't happen quickly. But we all agree today: it was a good thing. It was the right thing to do.

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Laser Destroys Alzheimer's Protein

Alzheimer's and Dementia Weekly
Researchers have found that a technique used to visualize amyloid fibers in the laboratory might have the potential to destroy them in the clinic. The technique involves zapping the fluorescently-tagged fibers with a laser, which can inhibit their growth and degrade them. This study, appearing in this week's JBC, may offer a non-drug alternative to treat amyloid-based disorders like Alzheimer, Parkinson, and Huntington diseases.

Yuji Goto and colleagues had been studying amyloids, dense tangles of protein, to better understand how they form. In an effort to view amyloid formation under a microscope in real-time, they added an amyloid specific dye called thioflavin T (ThT) to the tangles and then hit it with a laser beam to induce fluorescence. Surprisingly, they found that under the right conditions, the laser could actually...read the whole article

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Alzheimer's disease could be tackled by treating patients' livers

Alzheimer's disease could be tackled by treating the liver of sufferers, so they can dispose of a toxic protein linked to the illness.
Telegraph.co.UK
By Lucy Cockcroft


Scientists believe that helping the liver to clear amyloid-beta protein from the blood could provide a new way of combating the devastating effects of Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia.

Alzheimer's, which causes progressive loss of memory and mental faculties, affects almost 417,000 people in Britain, including fantasy author Terry Pratchett who is campaigning for more research into the disease.

A key characteristic of the disease is the accumulation of neuron-damaging amyloid-beta (A-beta) in the brain.

New research shows that levels of the protein in the brain are affected by their levels in the peripheral blood stream.

Scientists in the US and Hong Kong manipulated the livers of laboratory rats to increase blood levels of amyloid-beta. One of the liver's primary jobs is to remove toxic substances from the blood stream.

The researchers found that raising A-beta blood levels slowed down the speed at which molecules of the protein were swept from the rats' brains.

The findings, reported in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, support the theory that freely circulating amyloid-beta concentrations outside the brain can regulate clearance rates inside the central nervous system.

Dr David Cook, from the University of Washington School of Medicine said: "We knew from previous work that the liver plays an important role in removing A-beta from the blood. So, we thought if we temporarily prevented liver-mediated clearance it might be possible to set or 'clamp' peripheral A-beta levels long enough to find out whether A-beta in the blood stream affects A-beta clearance from the brain.

"We were a bit surprised to see how effective this strategy was. Peripheral A-beta clearance immediately halted almost completely. For several years it has been suggested that the circulatory system can act like an A-beta sink. The data clearly show that the liver is the primary drain."

Co-author Dr Sum Lee, from the University of Hong Kong, said: "The liver influences virtually everything that happens in the body, so it is not far-fetched to imagine that in the future it may be possible to find ways to help the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients with their livers."

Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, said: "This new study shows us just how complex Alzheimer's disease is, suggesting.........read the whole article

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Alzheimer’s- Me on Medicaid?

payingforalzheimerscare
BRIAN WILLIE
I often have families come to me and proclaim that they would never need to go on Medicaid. “Isn’t Medicaid for poor families or families with limited resources?” Consider this: A spouse has $200,000 in savings, a home worth $300,000, a car and some personal property. The husband has had Alzheimer’s Disease for 6 years now, and unfortunately, it has steadily progressed to the point where his wife must place him in a skilled nursing facility. That facility charges $5,000 per month. The wife believes that she has too many assets to qualify for Medicaid, and so continues to pay privately, month after month, year after year.

You can guess what happens can’t you? Only 3 years into his stay, their savings is now gone. Four years later, the wife who has had a stroke and has burned through what Medicare will pay, needs to be in a 24 hour skilled nursing facility. How will she pay? Unless she has very high income (which most people at her age don’t), she will be required to use Medicaid paid nursing care. Let’s assume further that the couple has a 45 year old daughter with special needs who cannot care for herself. Had they considered Medicaid as.....click here to read the whole post

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Alzheimer’s Disease and Hospice Care

payingforalzheimerscare
Brian Willie
There comes a time when there is little more you can do for your loved one with Alzheimer’s. The sad reality is that as some point, they will reach the final stages of the disease. Many families want their loved one to simply die in peace. Larry Beresford, author of The Hospice Handbook, wrote that:

“Hospice is care for the dying. Its primary purpose is to work with the terminally-ill and their families, to help them make the mst of the the time that’s left, and to make their dying more comfortable, less frightening, and in every way more bearable. ”

Hospice care takes on many different forms, but primarily it is a service that provides pain management, comfort care, and even.......
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Alzheimer’s and Being Thankful

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Brian Willie
I was reminded that we all have a lot to be thankful for. Great family and friends are at the top of the list. You don’t really know what you’ve got or how good you have it until you come close to losing something dear to you. This is a picture of my 8 month old labrador Lacy on the day my wife, daughter and I brought her home from the breeder......read the whole article

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Alzheimer’s and Adult Day Care

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Brian Willie
A major component of your loved one’s ability to remain at home as long as possible is interaction with others. Mind stimulating activities and frequent contact with other people facing similar circumstances is key. Adult day care is a great way to make sure your loved one receives this level of interaction, and can give you as a caregiver a much needed break.

It can also be a very cost-effective option when you compare it with the cost of nursing home care, assisted living facilities etc. Adult day care facilities can be for profit or run by non-profits and are set up to improve your loved one’s quality of life. There are more than 3,500 adult day care facilities in the United States. Many have registered nurses on-site. On average it costs anywhere from $40-60 per day and some facilities allow payment by the hour or half day.

This is a great option for families who want thier loved one with Alzheimer’s.....
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Top Valentine Gifts For Those With Dementia

Healthnews-stat.com

Valentine’s Day is the perfect chance to give gifts that are not only enjoyable but also beneficial to a person with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia. These valentine presents keep on giving long after Valentine's Day is gone

Over 5.1 million Americans are living with dementia. Is one of them someone you know or work with? Get him/her or anyone with Alzheimer's disease a Valentine's Day gift that will keep on giving long after the holiday is gone.

First on the list of gifts is a book by Susan Berg called Adorable Photographs of Our Baby -- Meaningful, Mind-Stimulating Activities and More for the Memory Challenged, Their Loved Ones and Involved Professionals, This book features baby photographs that seniors with dementia love. This book shares a plethora of ideas and resources for you.

Another gift dementia persons will fancy is a......read the whole story

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Alzheimer’s and Geriatric Care Managers

payingforalzheimerscare
Brian Willie

A Geriatric Care Manager can be a very useful professional that your family can hire to help with long-term care arrangements. So what is a Geriatric Care Manager (GCM)?

These are licensed or certified professionals, often with a master’s degree in gerontology, nursing, counseling or social work. They can help your family develop a care plan for your loved one with Alzheimer’s and then monitor compliance with that plan.

In your journey through this disease, it will quickly become apparent to you that.... read the whole post

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Alzheimer’s, Levels of Care

payingforalzheimerscare
Brian Willie
You may be aware, but there are levels of care or a “continuum of care” you will be faced with as your loved one’s Alzheimer’s progresses. When your family member is still able to substantially care for themselves, they may live first in an indpendent living facility. Many times health services are provided and some have emergency systems built in.

However it is also very common for a family member to live with the person with Alzheimer’s. In many cases this is the adult child who is providing care as an in-home caregiver. It’s often necessary to supplement this care with at-home health care. This can be a great way to balance your life as a family caregiver but still bring in additional help. As we have discussed, it can be quite expensive and it may be difficult for many families to pay this cost over time.

Next comes assisted living facilities.....read the whole post

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Alzheimer’s Disease, Power of Attorney

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Brian Willie

I often tell my clients that at the first sign of any form of dementia (and hopefully much sooner), they must put in place a properly drafted power of attorney. It is critical that a trusted family member or friend is given the authority to help make decisions on behalf of the person with Alzheimer’s. As the disease develops, there will be good days and bad days where your loved one may or may not have the capacity to sign legal documents. Often an attorney will run through a series of questions with your loved one to determine capacity, or may rely on a doctor’s findings.

Power of attorney documents are important because.....click here to read the whole post

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Brand New Product For Those With Dementia

As I’m sure you know, many people who suffer from severe dementia and Alzheimer’s also deal with incontinence. For that reason, I thought your readers might be interested in the following information.

Reuters
By Jessica Wohl

(Reuters) - Kimberly-Clark Corp (KMB.N) is overhauling its Depend line to offer disposable underwear tailored to men and women as it prepares for an influx of aging Americans who need incontinence products.

Depend has been around for nearly 25 years, but this is the first time it is offering separate versions of absorbent underwear for men and women.

The products, which look more like traditional cotton underwear than an adult diaper, will be available in North American stores in March and appear in Europe later in 2009.

While Depend is a smaller business than other Kimberly-Clark products such as Huggies diapers or Kleenex tissues, it expects an aging population will help boost sales.

Baby Boomers, the generation of Americans born between 1946 and 1964, are heading toward retirement with the oldest set to turn 65 in 2011. Many of them are already caring for parents who may use incontinence products......Read the whole story

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Alzheimer’s Disease, VA Aid and Attendance Example

payingforalzheimerscareBrian Willie

In general, you can use a variety of methods to have assets under an acceptable level for VA qualification. Use of a trust is just one method commonly used. For VA qualification you have to look at two things: 1) Income-your income must be under what they call the Maximum Annual Pension Rate. So if for example, your husband is in need of “Regular Aid and Attendance,” then you are potentially entitled to the Maximum Annual Pension Rate of $1,842 per month (the maximum in the category of Aid and Attendance-note there are 2 other categories.)

But in order to qualify, your income must be less than $1,842 per month. However, it’s important to remember that the VA allows you to subtract all Unreimbursed Medical Expenses from your gross income. Typically, a family facing Alzheimer’s has very high expenses and can easily qualify on the income side once they subtract Unreimbursed Medical Expenses. 2) Assets-Assets for a married couple must be about $80,000 or less not including a home. That’s where planning and use of trusts and other documents can come into play.

It’s very important to note that......click here for the whole story

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