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The Annual Enrollment Period for Medicare is October 15 through December 7, 2014. This is the ideal time to evaluate your Medicare Prescription Drug plan costs and coverage*. You can switch into a different plan that may work better for you in 2015 during this timeframe. The Alaska Medicare Information Office is ready, willing and able to assist Medicare beneficiaries with this confusing process. If you or someone you know needs our help, please gather up your red, white and blue MEDICARE card and be prepared to provide us with the names and...
Higher dose flu vaccine may benefit older adults For older adults, it may be better to go with the high dose when it comes to the flu vaccine this year. A new study has found that the high dose influenza vaccine is 24 percent more effective than the standard dose vaccine in protecting adults 65 and older against influenza illness and its complications. The Fluzone high dose vaccine is an inactivated influenza vaccine that contains four times the amount of antigen in the standard dose Fluzone...
The Kenai Peninsula Family Caregiver Support Program will hold the following peer support meetings in October. This month’s theme is “Dental Hygiene Awareness Month”. Oct. 7, Caregiver support meeting at Sterling Senior Center, 1 p.m. Oct. 14, Caregiver support meeting at Soldotna Senior Center, 1 p.m. Oct. 16, Caregiver support meeting at Kenai Peninsula Family Caregiver Support Program in the Blazy Mall, 5 p.m. Oct. 21, Caregiver support meeting at Kenai Senior Center, 1 p.m. Oct. 28, Caregiver support meeting at Soldotna Senior Center, 1 p.m...
There are 1,001 great reasons for you to be exercising, especially if you are over 50. I’ll bet you can even tell me what at least 10 of those reasons are. Even if you don’t consider yourself a health nut, just about every newspaper, magazine, news program and talk show touts the benefits of exercise. So, I won’t beat you up with more reasons why you should be exercising. I will talk to you about why you’re not exercising and give you a quick “How to” guide to get started. Let’s start with a list. I call this list, “The top 10 reasons people...
Alaska Health Fairs, Inc. continues its fall series of health fair 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. The test results give you and your health care provider important information about your physical condition and vital organ functions. A complete and comprehensive chemistry/hematology test is available for only $45 and...
The geese have headed south and the Alaska summer is now just a memory. There is one more thing you should do before the snow comes — get a flu vaccine. While there is no way to ensure that you will not catch the flu, there are several things you can do to reduce your risk. Practicing these “habits of healthy people” and encouraging those around you to do likewise will go a long way in reducing the spread of flu. • Wash your hands often with soap and water. Some people find that singing through the entire ABCs while they wash is a good way to...
Doctors often prescribe statins for people with high cholesterol to lower their total cholesterol and reduce their risk of a heart attack or stroke. The dangers of statins often seem to be brushed aside. Most people taking statins will take them for the rest of their lives unless they reach normal cholesterol levels through diet, exercise, weight loss and nutritional supplements. This can make statin side effects more difficult to manage. For some people, statin side effects can make any benefit of taking a statin hardly worth it. Now,...
Alaska Health Fairs, Inc. kicks off its fall series of health fair 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. The test results give you and your health care provider important information about your physical condition and vital organ functions. A complete and comprehensive chemistry/hematology test is available for only $45 and...
You may be able to take fewer medicines and pay less for the ones you do take by simply asking questions. Many people figure they are prescribed a medication for a good reason, and don’t ask why. But sometimes there’s another option — some conditions can be controlled through diet and exercise, for example. You can hear from a real, live Alaskan who whittled his prescriptions down substantially by asking what they were all for at MedEd.Alaska.gov (Success Stories video #2). Questions for your pr...
I hope you said happy birthday to Social Security, which had its 79th birthday on Aug. 14. In a 1938 article, the director of the Bureau of Old-Age Insurance described the challenges faced by the Social Security program in registering workers and posting wages to get the program started. On the heels of the 49th anniversary of the signing of Medicare and Medicaid into law, CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) projected that the average premium for basic Part D Medicare Prescription...
Medicare provides vital health insurance for 50 million seniors and people with disabilities. But even when you have Medicare, health care is not free. People with Medicare pay premiums and have other costs that they pay out of pocket, like deductibles and co-insurance. For lower-income people, these costs can be overwhelming. There are several programs that help low-income people with Medicare pay their health care costs – but many Medicare beneficiaries don’t know about these programs. Let’s see if we can shed some light on them. Why might...
Stroke rates decreasing in older adults A new analysis has found that there has been a 40 percent decrease in the incidence of stroke in adults over the age of 65. The decline is much greater than researchers had expected and the decline occurred in both ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes. In addition, deaths due to strokes are also steadily declining in older adults. Stroke is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, with approximately 795,000 strokes occurring each year. In the...
The Kenai Peninsula Family Caregiver Support Program will hold the following peer support meetings in September. This month’s theme is “Healthy Aging Awareness Month”. Sept. 2, Caregiver support meeting at Sterling Senior Center, 1 p.m. Sept. 9, Caregiver support meeting at Soldotna Senior Center, 1 p.m. Sept. 16, Caregiver support meeting at Kenai Senior Center, 1 p.m. Sept. 30, Caregiver support meeting at Soldotna Senior Center, 1 p.m. Enjoy “Teatime with Judy”. Please join and share your experiences as a caregiver, or support someone w...
If your goal is to maintain good health, hightail it down to your local farmers market and try a selection from nature’s medicine chest. Rarely does a week go by without new research showing that the vitamins and minerals and many bioactive compounds in foods provide real medicine for what ails you. Despite Alaska’s relatively short growing season and cool climate, I am constantly astonished by the variety of high nutrient vegetables and fruits that grow locally. Here are a few Alaska “powerhouse” vegetables and fruits you may want to stock u...
The Third Annual Alaskan Plants as Food and Medicine Symposium will take place in the Anchorage area August 7-9. The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium sponsors the event and says they strive for a statewide reach and encourage participation from a diverse range of community roles – traditional healers, medical providers, public health educators and researchers, instructors, culture/language bearers, elders and youth, tribal leaders, traditional hunter/gatherers, policy makers and lands m...
So who would you consider the most important member of your health care team? Your primary care doctor? Your specialist? Your pharmacist? In a crucial way, you are the most important member of your health care team. No one but you knows how many medications you take, or what side effects you’re experiencing. Many of us expect our doctors to be the experts in charge of our health care. They are experts, but on medicine, not on each of their individual patients’ lives. More than one provider may...
The Medicare Information Office is pleased to announce that the first volunteer has completed the Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) Foundations Training and the Group Presentation Training. Ms. Sharon White-Wheeler has recently completed both preparatory trainings. This puts the SMP on track to begin offering the Medicare Minutes program starting this fall. The Medicare Minutes program is intended to help the Senior Medicare Patrol reach people under the age of 65 with Medicare with good information...
Registration is open for Alaska’s first-ever “VegFest,” a day-long event Sept. 6 in Anchorage focusing on vegetarian and vegan lifestyle choices. Activities include keynote presentations by three internationally known authors, cooking demonstrations and an organic lunch provided by Organic Oasis (included with cost of registration). Organizers say similar events are popular in other parts of the country. “As people become more health conscious, as awareness grows of the meat industry’s addition to greenhouse gases, and as the plight of farm a...
Brain implants may help restore memory loss Treatments for Alzheimer’s disease are severely lacking. Despite more than three decades of intense research and clinical trials, the only approved agents simply slow the progression of the disease. No agents have been able to reverse the damage caused by the disease. Now, researchers are taking a completely different approach. They are developing an implantable neural device to restore memory. Brain experts at the Lawrence Livermore National L...
The Kenai Peninsula Family Caregiver Support Program will hold the following peer support meetings in August. This month’s topic is “Immunizations for Older Adults.” Aug. 5, Caregiver support meeting at Sterling Senior Center, 1 p.m. Aug. 12, Caregiver support meeting at Soldotna Senior Center, 1 p.m. Aug. 19, Caregiver support meeting at Kenai Senior Center, 1 p.m. Aug. 26, Caregiver support meeting at Soldotna Senior Center, 1 p.m. Please join and share your experiences as a caregiver, or support someone who is a caregiver. If you are helpi...
Hepatitis C is a disease that is caused by a virus that affects the liver. Even though the disease often doesn’t produce symptoms, it can seriously damage the liver and can be fatal. An estimated 3.2 million Americans have Hepatitis C. Older people are more likely to have been exposed to Hepatitis C, but many older Americans are not aware that they need to be tested for it. A December 2013 report found that Hepatitis C infections are concentrated in the Baby Boomers generation. In one major study of people with the virus, 75 percent of the p...
Alaska's food-growing season is kicking into high gear and Alaska farmers grow some of the best produce in the country, so now's the time to pick up your sheet of coupons for locally-grown fruits and vegetables. The coupons come from the Senior Farmer's Market Nutrition Program and can be used at local farmer's markets around the state. Each coupon sheet contains five $5 coupons for a total of $25 per sheet. The program issues the coupon sheets to senior centers and other agencies, which pass...
Two-thirds of Alaska adults who currently smoke say they want to quit. The state Department of Health and Social Services is now offering additional support to help them. Alaska’s Tobacco Quit Line has enhanced the free tools it offers to provide even greater support to help tobacco users successfully quit for good. Alaska’s Tobacco Quit Line now offers Text2Quit and Web Coach. Text2Quit allows those who are quitting to work with a quit coach via their mobile phone. Text2Quit features a series of interactive text messages — including tips...
If you are new to Medicare, you need to know that Medicare almost always only pays 80 percent of the cost of most medical procedures. In order to be completely covered, you should buy a Medicare supplemental policy, also known as Medigap. These generally cost $100 to $150 per month, but they are very necessary. There are about 10 different plans and they vary from state to state. In my experience, the most popular plan for most people in Alaska is plan F. This plan offers payment for the...
Every day, people confront situations that involve life-changing decisions about their health. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 9 out of 10 adults have difficulty using the health information that is routinely available in health care facilities, retail outlets, media and communities. This challenging situation will be the focus of daylong seminar at Providence Medical Center in Anchorage on Aug. 6. “Bridging Literacy and Communication Differences for Better Health Outcomes,” will feature nationally-recognized...
