Home Instead Senior Care Houston & Bay Area Companionship help stimulate senior memory. Please call us for help when caring for a loved on living with memory loss - 281-484-0200.

Home Instead Senior Care office in Houston & Bay Area, Clear Lake, Friendswood, Pasadena, Webster, Pearland, Baytown helps families care for aging seniors. One of our senior clients asked us the following question:

Q.  I’m an 80-year-old who still loves to socialize here in Houston, but find myself forgetting names and other details, like appointments, which can be quite embarrassing.  What can I do to improve my memory?

Many seniors discover that their memory starts to fade as they get older.  While memory impairment is associated with aging, there are ways to keep the mind strong as well as to improve the memory.  

The experts that we talked with say the first step is to get a physical to make sure that no illnesses or conditions, such as hearing or vision loss, thyroid dysfunction or medications, are contributing to your memory loss.  When you get a clean bill of health, try to stay both mentally and physically active by stimulating the mind with activities like reading.  Also, avoid bad health habits such as smoking and excess alcohol consumption.    

In addition, the Johns Hopkins Health After 50 Memory Resource Center (copyright Medletter Associates) offers tips that we will share with you tomorrow. Please visit us again. Home Instead Senior Care in the Houston & Bay area.

Mortality Decreases When Smoking Stops

By Jean-Marc Mira from the Home Instead Senior Care Houston & Bay Area Texas, Clear Lake, Friendswood, Pasadena, Baytown, Webster, Pearland.

Q. My 75-year-old mother started smoking five years ago as a reaction to the stress of caring for my dad, who has since died of early on-set Alzheimer’s disease.  When I try to talk to her about quitting, she says she’s too old and it doesn’t matter anymore; she’ll die soon anyway.  Is there any way I can convince her?

In fact, a study released recently should provide you with plenty of ammunition for your case.  A study of thousands of women smokers, reported in the May 7 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, revealed that when they stopped smoking their risk of death from any disease began to decline.

Within five years of quitting, research reveals that women will significantly reduce their risk of dying from coronary heart disease and will reduce their risk of death from smoking related cancers by 20 percent.  The researchers found a significant 13 percent reduction in the risk of all-cause mortality within the first five years of quitting smoking compared with continuing to smoke, and the excess risk decreased to the level of a never smoker 20 years after quitting, with some causes taking more or less time.

A more rapid decline in risk after quitting smoking compared with continuing to smoke was observed in the first five years for vascular diseases compared with other causes, according to Harvard School of Public Health research.

So you can see there’s plenty of evidence that you mother could positively impact her health immediately by giving up cigarettes. Why not have her check into a smoking cessation program in her community.  Also, now that your dad has passed away, is your mom getting the human contact she needs?  Isolation now could be a problem that might lead her to lean more heavily on habits such as cigarette smoking.  Are there hobbies that she enjoyed before your dad’s illness?

If your mom needs companionship, why not ask her to consider a CAREGiver from Home Instead Senior Care Houston & Bay Area, Texas. CAREGivers are screened, trained, bonded and insured, and many are seniors like your mom who could share some of her interests, help around the house and accompany her to activities that she enjoys.

For more information about Home Instead Senior Care Houston & Bay Area, contact Jean-Marc Mira at 281-484-0200.  For more information about the study, log on to http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/24479/36146/725242.html?d=dmtContent

Everyone needs a break. Call Home Instead Senior Care Houston & Bay Area for your break. Our phone number is 281-484-0200. If you are a caregiver, you may need a break from caregiving tasks. If you have
dementia, you may want a break from the daily routine and have the opportunity to meet others who share some of the same challenges. Respite care can help, by providing a new environment or time to relax. It can
be for a few hours or several days or weeks depending on your particular needs and interests.

Respite care provides you a temporary break from your daily caregiving responsibilities. Using respite services can support and strengthen your ability to continue taking care of your loved one with Alzheimer’s in the home.

Types of respite care services:

• Respite care services are offered through community organizations, agencies or residential care facilities.
• The most common respite care services are in-home care and adult day centers.

In-home care services offer a range of options:

• Companion services provide the individual with dementia company and help supervise activities.
• Personal care or home health aide services assist with bathing, dressing, toileting and exercising.
• Homemaker or maid services help with laundry, shopping, and preparing meals.
• Skilled care services help with medication and other medical services.

Home Instead Senior Care Houston & Bay Area - 281-484-0200.

Caring for an elder living with dementia is hard on the family. Alzheimer’s Care is more demanding. Home Instead Senior Care Houston and Bay Area can help. Call us at 281-484-0200.

Home Instead Senior Care specializes in Alzheimer’s Care at home. It helps if you can determine what time of the day your loved one functions best. Once you know, then schedule the most difficult tasks; bathing or doctor’s appointments making sure they are scheduled during this time period.

• Establish Routines. Develop a daily schedule and keep to it.
• Be flexible and adapt daily routines as you see fit.
• Be flexible on your standards - llow your loved one to do as much as possible with the least amount of confusion and assistance. If your loved one insists on wearing the same shirt or blouse each day - buy a few identical pieces making laundry an non-issue.
• Bathing may not be necessary - instead give  a sponge bath. 
• Create a safety in the home - Alzheimer’s impairs good judgment and increases the risk of falls or injury.
• Safety proof the home environment.
• Avoid throw rugs and extension cords where the person walks.
• Install handrails on stairs and bathrooms near tubs and toilets.
• Use bathroom equipment, such as a shower bench, raised toilet seat and a hand-held shower.
• Lock cabinets that store medicines- including over the counter products.
• Keep matches secure.
• Make sure smoke detectors are operational.
• Maintain a fire extinguisher.
• Hide hats and coats from loved ones who may wander.
• Lower the bed to reduce the risk of falling and injury during the night.
• Use nightlights throughout the home, especially for someone who is restless or wanders at night.

Alzheimer’s Care can be more demanding. Home Instead Senior Care Houston and Bay area can help. Call us at 281-484-0200.

It may be too hot this time of the year… but when fall comes - a good activity to do with your aging family member is walk! This is a great activity for seniors to interact with their grandchildren and stay healthy at the same time.  You can challenge a grandchild to a week of walking.  By each wearing a pedometer, a senior and grandchild can count their steps each day for a week. 

Encourage your senior to continue to use the pedometer throughout the year, striving for a 10 % percent increase in step totals, and aiming for 10,000 steps a day. This also is an activity that Home Instead Senior CAREGivers do with our senior clients.
 
Walking Tips for Seniors

As the fall approaches, get prepared to spend more time outdoors! The colors are beautiful. And, your family member’s senses and memories can come alive during a stroll through a nearby park.

Talk to you mom or dad as you stroll through the park pointing out the colors, sounds, smells and feel of the leaves.  Let her reminisce about what she remembers and liked to do while growing up . . . in her youth . . . and middle years. Stories will stimulate her sweet memories.  

Before you go out on your first walking journey, prepare her feet.. the natural shock absorbers (or “fat padding”) deteriorate. So does bone density, particularly in women. These factors make seniors prone to stress fractures. So, when walking, keep in mind that softer ground produces less shock than harder surfaces and is more “foot friendly”. Try walking on grass or dirt paths which are flat, even and well-manicured.

During the fall months, be on the alert when cold weather becomes an issue. The cold air causes numbness, limiting your loved one’s ability to detect trauma or wounds to the feet. It also makes surfaces harder, resulting in more shock to the feet and ankles with every step. If it’s too cold outside, take your mom or dad to the local mall, an indoor track or an exercise facility.

Home Instead Senior Care Houston and Bay Area, helping your loved ones stay home longer. Choose to stay home over Assisted Living or a Nursing Home. They will be happier. Call us at 281-484-0200.

Caring for an aging relative with Alzheimer’s is tough. But caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s while working full-time, is very challenging. In addtion to respecting the time of your employer, you feel the stress of being productive.. getting your work done on time. But when you have an aging relative living at home, especially one that is struggling with dementia, takes your concentration away from work and onto the loved one at home alone. Are they safe? Have they eaten? Did they remember to take the medication layed out on the kitchen counter?

These are some of the questions we hear families grappling with everyday when working full-time and caring for an aging relative. Here’s a story of an adult grandchild working in Houston while her grandmother is at home in Clear Lake.

“Because my grandmother is home alone during the day while I work, I come home over my lunch hour as often as I can to check on her. Grandmother has been with me for four years, but still thinks she is visiting. In the beginning, she was quite independent and resisted any kind of help, saying she could do everything on her own. One day I discovered that she had gone into the back yard, locked the door behind her and spent the afternoon sitting in the sun. The temperature reached 100 degrees that day, and Grandmother had not eaten or drank anything all day. This made me realize that for her safety and wellbeing, she shouldn’t be alone anymore.”

Home Instead Senior Care Houston & Bay area can help you too if this story is familiar. We’ve also heard stories from family members locking their elder in the bedroom or home so that if they forget where they are - they don’t wander out of the house in total confusion. While this seems appaling to many, it’s a coping mechanism that families have learned to accept.

Locking you elder in the house is not your only choice - Call Home Instead Senior Care Houston & Bay area -281-484-0200.

Home Instead Senior & Elder Care for Houston & Bay Area - 281-484-0200.

It’s important for families to hear that “you are not alone” when caring for someone living with Alzheimer’s disease. We know it’s tough in many ways, especially watching them lose every sense of who they are or use to be.

What’s also tough is watching your loved ones live with the fear and frustration of Alzheimer’s disease. Your loved ones may get lost in their own neighborhood or they may not remember your face. And then there’s the frustration of not being able to perform simple, familiar tasks.

And your loved one living with the disease is not the only person whose life is upside down and filled with fear and frustration. As a family caregiver for an aging relative or friend with Alzheimer’s disease, you also experience the consequences of the disease. Home Instead Senior Care Houston & Bay area wants you to know that you’re not alone. 80% of people with Alzheimer’s are cared for by a family caregiver.

For example, our former first lady Nancy Reagan cared for her late husband, Ronald Reagan. But most of you, family caregivers, aren’t famous. You are people with your own family responsibilities. 

Come back tomorrow when we give you a local story that illustrates this situation.

Home Instead Senior & Elder Care for Houston & Bay Area - 281-484-0200.

Houston & Bay area Elder Home Care, Personal Care, Homemaker, Transportation - Home Instead - Call us if you have questions about caring for a loved one - 281-484-0200.

Families who have a loved one living with dementia knows that mealtimes can be a challenge. In fact, as we age, the senses lessen. Older adults, in Houston, even those who are healthy, can lose their appetites when the senses of taste and smell weaken.

Eating is a habit that we don’t think about when the brain is healthy and active. But a person with Alzheimer’s has lost this basic habit. It’s difficult for them because eating requires decisions. Those would include such things as what foods to eat, and how to use utensils. Alzheimer’s also contributes to natural changes in appetite and eating. In addition to decisions around eating; there is cutting, unwrapping, reheating and seasoning to taste at mealtimes which makes eating more difficult and confusing for your older adult with Alzheimer’s or related dementia.

Other issues cause mealtime problems for you loved one living with Alzheimer’s disease. Following are some common concerns and our recommendations:

• Check their dentures - ill fitting ones cause pinching and problems with chewing. Make sure they fit properly.
• Stomach problems, diabetes and especially depression can decrease appetite. Constipation also contributes to a lack of appetite. Liquid or powdered nutritional supplements may be needed to treat poor appetites.
• Be aware of the foods that interfere with their prescribed medications. Talk with their physician about meal preparation that are appropriate with prescribed medications.
• You may have to forget about manners at the table. They may spill or drop utensils and dishware. It’s easier for you, if you use plastic dinnerware. Use large cloth napkins that covers their lap and chest. It reduces stains on clothing.
• Be watchful of their overeating or they may try eating non food items. 
• Swallowing may become difficult as dementia progresses - swallowing requires a voluntary and involuntary reflex. It’s a good idea to learn the Heimlich maneuver to assist in the removal of food that lodges in the throat.
• Don’t serve hard candies, hotdogs, whole grapes or cherries with pits to your loved one.

Home Instead Senior Care Houston Bay area helps keep seniors’ minds active and alert. Please call us if you need help for your aging relative - 281-484-0200.

Home Instead Senior Care Houston Bay area helps keep seniors’ minds active and alert. Please call us if you need us to care for your aging relative - 281-484-0200.

Home Instead’s CAREGivers play an important role in ’senior mind’ games and activities that they enjoy. If you’d like to learn more, please contact us.

Here is our list of keeping seniors’ minds active. Please give us your favorites by adding them in the comment section below. 

• Video action—Interactive video games have become popular for family members of all ages.  Games such as Nintendo’s Brain Age, and the new Wii home video-game system, are particularly good for seniors
• Computer savvy not needed. Even seniors who are intimidated by the computer can play online and other computer games, such as Solitaire or bridge
• Organize game night with your family. Board or card games offer a great avenue for mind stimulation. 
• Encourage your aging relative to get friends together to join in fun
• Many seniors were avid musicians in earlier years and some may still have pianos or other instruments; ask them to play you and the family a tune or challenge them to learn an instrument
• Crosswords, large piece jigsaw, and Sudoku puzzles are great pastimes for seniors
• The Houston Bay communities have concerts, lectures and other similar pursuits
• Seniors maintain their interest in politics and current events, if you are looking for gift suggestions, give a subscription to a newspaper or popular news magazine for an older adult
• Remember: when it’s just the two of you, there are more things you can do than watch television

Hasbro Inc., the largest U.S. game company, has introduced three fast versions of classic board games this year: Monopoly Express, Scrabble Express and Sorry Express.  They don’t take long to play and you’ll be happy to see your senior enjoying these activities.

Call us today!  Home Instead Senior Care Houston Bay  - 281-484-0200.

Home Instead Senior Care Houston Bay area - serving seniors with quality home care in the Houston Bay area. Call us if you need help caring for a loved one at 281-484-0200.

A nervous system with problems signal stroke - researchers at the University of Florence in Italy found that subtle nervous system problems may signal an increased risk of stroke and death in otherwise healthy older people. The warning signs can include reduced reflexes, unstable posture, resting tremors and differences in hand strength, they said. Standard neurological examinations of older adults are good predictors of future brain health and quality of life, and they should become part of doctors’ routine check-ups of older adults, researchers say.

“The Italian study confirms that looking at subtle neurological abnormalities in healthy older adults gives the doctor an insight into factors that contribute to impairment of functional cognition which lead to disability and poor quality of life,” said Dr. Malaz Boustani, an investigator at the Indiana University Center for Aging Research and co-author of an editorial in Archives of Internal Medicine, which published the study results.

On the flip-side of the brain.. news by Healthday.. baby boomers, take comfort: A new study among older would-be jugglers suggests the aging mind doesn’t lose the ability to learn new skills. The finding is based on an analysis of brain scans taken while people aged 50 and up learned the art of juggling. Although they typically picked up the skill less readily than young people did, older folks who did succeed as jugglers displayed brain changes similar to those seen in much younger brains.

“This study demonstrates that we’re not just completely shriveling up as we age,” noted Paul Sanberg, a professor of neurosurgery and director of the University of South Florida Center for Aging and Brain Repair in Tampa. “Old brains can continue to be plastic and make changes. And clearly, the learning of new tasks clearly is not exclusively in the realm of young people.”

To gauge the ease with which the aging brain can learn new tricks, a team led by Janina Boyke, from the department of systems neuroscience at the University of Hamburg, attempted to teach 69 healthy German men and women between the ages of 50 and 67 to juggle. In this case, juggling involved keeping three balls in motion for a minimum of 60 seconds.

Call us when juggling care for your senior loved one at 281-484-0200. Home Instead Senior Care Houston Bay area.