Keeping track of seniors with Alzheimer’s

The e-mail alert shouted its message: “Missing Person with Alzheimer’s. PLEASE HELP.” It was sent to Alzheimer’s Assn. chapters and to law enforcement officials within hours after an Orange County woman disappeared while on a short trip to visit a friend…

That story has a happy ending, but many confused seniors who become lost are never found again. The Alzheimer’s Assn. estimates that 60% of individuals with Alzheimer’s will wander at least once during the progression of the disease. Up to 70% of these individuals wander more than once, and up to several times. One study reported that nearly half of those not found within 24 hours die — usually from dehydration, exposure or injury.

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Visit www.berkenseniorcare.com for caregiving assistance available in the area.

Senior years really are golden: Happiness increases after age 50, Gallup poll finds

Aging may seem like a pain, but a new study suggests that getting old is no reason to despair.

The study, based on a Gallup poll from 2008, finds that most people feel increasingly happy starting around age 50.

In general, life satisfaction is high at age 18 but sinks until about 50. Then, it starts to climb again, increasing so steadily that most people feel better about their lives at 85 than they did at 18.

“It’s a very encouraging fact that we can expect to be happier in our early 80s than we were in our 20s,” Andrew J. Oswald, who teaches psychology at Warwick Business School in England, told The New York Times.  “And it’s not being driven by things that happen in life.  It’s something very deep and quite human that seems to be driving this.”

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If you are in need of care for an aging loved one in the Dallas TX area, visit www.berkenseniorcare.com.

A growing body of evidence links exercise and mental acuity

I do some of my best writing on the run. I mean literally. When the words won’t come, when the syntax doesn’t feel right, when I just can’t figure out what angle to take on a column, I’ll often go for a good, hard run.

And usually it works. With the sweat pouring and lungs working overtime, the mental fog lifts. I make connections I hadn’t seen earlier. How to be clear becomes, well, a little more clear.

If you work out routinely, I bet you’ve had the same experience. Three researchers I interviewed for this story say they have achieved it regularly, on a treadmill, on outdoor runs and on a bicycle, respectively. A couple of studies seem to confirm it.

The tantalizing question for those of us in middle age and beyond (I am 52) is whether this short-term cognitive benefit can be replicated over the long haul. Can exercise help keep our minds sharp? And if so, can it help delay or prevent the truly terrifying mental deterioration of dementia, most commonly seen as Alzheimer’s disease?

Researchers studying both animals and humans increasingly say the answer is yes.

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Visit www.berkenseniorcare.com for caregiving assistance in the Dallas TX area.

Learn how to prevent a stroke during Stroke Awareness Month.  Visit us at www.berkenseniorcare.com for help with an aging loved one in the area.

Your Health: Strokes can be prevented

Don’t have a stroke.

It’s excellent advice, given that stroke is the nation’s third-leading killer and a major cause of serious, long-term disability in adults. And it’s advice you can act on today, even as scientists continue to study the reasons why nearly 800,000 in the USA have “brain attacks” each year.

Read more from www.usatoday.com….

How do you know when in-home care is required for your parent?

Carol Bradley Bursack

Most of us want to take care of our own families, so arriving at a decision to hire a stranger to come into the home to help with the care of a loved one can be difficult. Still, once people find a good home care agency and regular caregivers to help care for a loved one, they often wish they’d taken action earlier.

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Visit www.berkenseniorcare.com for help with an aging loved one in the Dallas TX area.