Home Care After Hip Surgery Aids Survival

Providing home care to elderly people after they've had hip surgery improves their chances of survival, finds a new study.

Canadian researchers looked at 11,326 men and women age 65 and older in Quebec who had partial hip surgery between 1997 and 2004. Those who received home care after leaving the hospital were 43 percent less likely to die within three months after their surgery than those who didn't receive home care.

But the study, published Aug. 16 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, found that home care was given to less than 16 percent of the elderly patients who were discharged home after partial hip surgery.

Patients who received home care were younger; more likely to have been treated in teaching hospitals or lower volume hospitals; and more likely to have stayed more than seven days in the hospital. They were also more likely to have acute kidney failure and a heart rhythm condition called atrial fibrillation.

The study also found that men were more likely than women to die, and patients hospitalized longer had higher survival rates.

"This indicates perhaps that receiving this care may depend on availability, rather than need of the service," -- Dr. Elham Rahme, Epidemiology, Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center.

With the exception of atrial fibrillation and acute kidney failure, co-existing health conditions didn't seem to influence the chances of receiving home care, the researchers said in a news release from the publisher. The finding has significant public health implications and requires further investigation, the authors said.

Source: MSN Health

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Home Care Assistance offers the highest quality 24/7 live-in home care in the Region of Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills, and Milton), Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon) and Hamilton.

Harvard: Fewer Calories, More Exercise Delays Aging

Findings from Harvard researchers link more exercise and restricted calorie intake to delayed mental and physical deterioration because exercising and watching what you eat rejuvenates the connections between the nerves and muscles that they control.

Researcher Joshua Sanes, a professor of molecular and cellular biology and Director of the Center for Brain Science at Harvard University, used mice with genetically engineered nerve cells to study these effects. The study showed that aging is caused by the deterioration of the connection of nerves that control muscles, called neuromuscular junctions. These links are very similar to the connection that neurons form in the brain to pass information. Sanes says that in a healthy neuromuscular synapse, nerve endings and their receptors fit together perfectly in order to achieve maximum efficiency in transmission from the brain to the muscle to cause movement. However, as people age, these synapses deteriorate and shrink. When the nerves shrink, the receptors are not covered completely, thus resulting in the interference of transmission from nerves to muscles, which can cause wasting and death of muscle fibers. The wasting of muscle, called sarcopenia, is a huge problem in aging populations.

When these mice were put on an exercise program, they partially reversed the damage to their synapses. With restricted-calorie diets, they avoided the deterioration of their synapses as well

Courtesy of Home Care Blog

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Home Care Assistance offers the highest quality 24/7 live-in home care in the Region of Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills, and Milton), Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon) and Hamilton.

Eli Lilly Drug Failure Causes Questions in Alzheimer's Research

As reported in The New York Times, the drug being tested by Eli Lilly for Alzheimer’s has been put on hold. The drug was found not to work, but that was not the real reason for its failure. Researchers found that the drug made the patients’ symptoms of memory loss worsen and their ability to care for themselves decrease.

“Failures certainly don’t build energy and enthusiasm. The market is still there, but failures do take their toll.” -- Eli Lilly researcher.

The findings from this study put into question the hypothesis that researchers have been following for why Alzheimer’s begins. The hypothesis deals with the protein beta amyloid, which accumulates in the brain and can cause this disease. The hypothesis stated that if these proteins were reduced, the disease may be slowed, stopped or prevented. The drug that Eli Lilly was testing did in fact lower levels of the protein beta amyloid. However, the result was not what they expected.

Researchers are now saying that the Lilly result shows that their hypotheses are too simplistic. Other recent studies have found that PET scans of the brain and tests of cerebrospinal fluid can detect people who are at risk for the disease. However, those tests are now only a benefit to companies that are testing new therapies. No good comes from diagnosing people early if there is nothing they can do to prevent what is inevitable. Some researchers are still hopeful and will continue to follow the amyloid hypothesis, however, companies are trying out new approaches.

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Home Care Assistance offers the highest quality 24/7 live-in home care in the Region of Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills, and Milton), Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon) and Hamilton.

September is National Cholesterol Awareness Month!

Since September is National Cholesterol Awareness Month I thought that it would be a good opportunity to talk about ways in which we can all work on lowering our cholesterol. Drugs that are taken for lower low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) cholesterol are the most widely prescribed drugs in the entire world. Bet you didn’t know that. I read an interesting article the other day on CNN.com that talked about The National Cholesterol Education Program and what they recommend to lower cholesterol through exercise and diet. Basically lifestyle changes you can make to lower your cholesterol so you do not need to turn to prescription drugs.

Diet is a key factor. Lowering the amount of saturated fat as a percentage of total calories is the first step toward decreasing your cholesterol, as saturated fat goes hand-in-hand with higher cholesterol. Another suggestion is to eat more plant-based foods and whole grains as well as limit red meat, full- fat dairy products, baked goods and fried foods. All of these dietary changes can help reduce saturated fats. The intake of soluble fiber is another thing they stress. Foods with high amounts of soluble fiber include oats, beans, fruits and vegetables. Soluble fibers are effective because they trap cholesterol in the digestive tract so that it passes through your body instead of into your blood stream. Adding stanols and sterols such as vegetable oils, nuts and seeds also help decrease cholesterol levels because they compete with cholesterol for absorption into the body’s system.

Living a therapeutic lifestyle that incorporates daily exercise is also very important. Women and men with belly fat are more likely to have high cholesterol and need to lose as much as 10 percent of one’s body weight to significantly improve health.

If you make the above lifestyle changes, The National Cholesterol Education Program claims you can avoid the negative side effects that come from cholesterol reducing prescription drugs.

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Home Care Assistance offers the highest quality 24/7 live-in home care in the Region of Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills, and Milton), Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon) and Hamilton.

Five Essential Nutrients For Your Body

Studies show that 77% of men do not intake enough magnesium and that many of them were deficient in potassium, iodine and vitamin D and B12. Pills aside, many of us are not incorporating enough of the right nutrients in our bodies. Here are five essential nutriets to include in your diets.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is well known to strengthen bones but it also prevents inflammation in arteries reducing the risk of a heart attack or stroke. Humans get vitamin D naturally from the sun but those who live in areas with long winters are prone to being deficient. Foods that have vitamin D include many fishes like tuna and salmon and milk-based products.

Magnesium

Without enough magnesium, every cell in your body has to struggle to generate energy. -- Dana King, M.D., Medical University of South Carolina

Magnesium is involved in over 300 bodily processes and deficiencies have found to increase the risk of heart disease. Magnesium-rich foods include halibut and navy beans but look specifically for magnesium citrate, which is the form that is most easily absorbed by the body.

Vitamin B12

Vitamin B12 is all about the brain. A British study found that older people with the lowest levels of vitamin B12 lost brain volume at a faster rate over five years that those with high levels. Vitamin B12 is found boudn to protein in meats like lamb and fish like salmon. However, the most common source of B12 is from fortified cereals.

Potassium

Potassium helps your cells use the sugar glucose for energy. This process is perhaps the most significant in the body as it cannot function without energy. It also helps to lower blood pressure which is important because of Western society's sodium-rich diet. Vegetables are great sources of potassium. Bananas boast 400 mg of potassium however do not even come close to the 1,600 mg of potassium found in one potato.

Iodine

Iodine is used by the thyroid gland to produce hormones that control how your body burns calories. For the many out there looking for solutions to their weight-loss problems iodine may solve the source of the problem all alone. Most people get their iodine from iodinized salt however, as mentioned previously with potassium, our sodium-rich diets arleady do much harm in raising blood pressures. Fortunately iodine is also already common consumed through milk and eggs.

Courtesy of Men's Health

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Home Care Assistance offers the highest quality 24/7 live-in home care in the Region of Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills, and Milton), Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon) and Hamilton.