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Everyone is aware of the assault that your stomach takes from antibiotics. You might think cramps and diarrhea are bad enough, but at least those are transient problems. Brand new animal research suggests these drugs trigger Type 1 diabetes, especially when toddlers take them. Keep in mind that back in 2015, a Denmark study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism correlated the use of antibiotics to type 2 diabetes in adults. From all of this, and other research, I think it’s safe to conclude that antibiotic usage increa...
Using the nose to treat damaged knees Researchers are now reporting they have successfully harvested cartilage cells from patients’ own noses to produce cartilage transplants for treating bum knees in 10 adults. All the patients had cartilage that was damaged by injury. Two years after reconstruction, most recipients reported improvements in pain, knee function and quality of life. They also developed repair tissue in their knees that was similar in composition to native cartilage. R...
The Kenai Peninsula Family Caregiver Support Program will hold the following peer support meetings in December. This month’s focus is “How to Measure Vital Signs.”. Dec. 1, Caregiver support meeting at Sterling Senior Center, 1 p.m. Dec. 8, Caregiver support meeting at Soldotna Senior Center, 1 p.m. Dec. 15, Caregiver support meeting at Kenai Senior Center, 1 p.m. Dec. 15, Caregiver support meeting at Anchor Point Senior Center, hosted by Paula Koch, 3 p.m. Dec. 29, Caregiver support meeting at Soldotna Senior Center, 1 p.m. Support meeti...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Alaska Health Fair, Inc., kicks off 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,...
September Morn, please stay for a while longer, for when you are gone it will be time for an introduction to snowflakes and a lonesome, cold winter. But for readers lucky enough to have a working fireplace, it will be nice to cozy up to it again. Please remember to get registered to vote, and I can’t stress enough the importance of voting this year. The next president will be selecting one or maybe two Supreme Court justices. Social Security Disability benefits Social Security pays disability b...
If someone is enrolled in a health plan (this can be a Marketplace plan through the Affordable Care Act, a private health insurance plan or an employer plan), when they become eligible for Medicare at 65 the plan they were in can seamlessly enroll them into one of their Medicare Advantage plans, if they have one. (A Medicare Advantage plan is one policy that covers Medicare Hospital Coverage A, Outpatient Medical Coverage B and Prescription Coverage D and sometimes vision or dental). Some people have health plans that have approval to...
Walking away from dementia Grab your walking shoes. Studies are continuing to show that the more physical exercise you get, the greater your chances of preventing dementia. Using the landmark Framingham Heart Study to assess how physical activity affects the size of the brain and one’s risk for developing dementia, UCLA researchers have found an association between low physical activity and a higher risk for dementia in older adults. The new findings suggest that regular physical activity could...
The Kenai Peninsula Family Caregiver Support Program will hold the following peer support meetings in September. This month’s focus is “Substance Use, Misuse and Abuse Among Older Adults,” in support of National Recovery Month. Sept. 6, Caregiver support meeting at Sterling Senior Center, 1 p.m. Sept. 13, Caregiver support meeting at Soldotna Senior Center, 1 p.m. Sept. 20, Caregiver support meeting at Kenai Senior Center, 1 p.m. Sept. 27, Caregiver support meeting at Soldotna Senior Center, 1 p.m. Support meetings allow you to share your...
Did you know that your medication can damage skin? Most of you don’t even think about that as a side effect. Photosensitivity is a fairly common skin reaction that is sparked by taking medicines which interact with ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun or tanning beds. It happened to me once and luckily the red burning rash and tingling only affected my hands. It took only two hours of sun exposure on a shady trail while hiking in California. Still, it rendered me out of writing commission for a few days. The big problem is that p...
